Artoon

in: Handbook, Development

Former type	Subsidiary of AQ Interactive
Industry	Video game industry
Fate	Absorbed into AQ Interactive (parent company)
Founded	27 August 1999
Defunct	2010
Headquaters	Yokohama, Konagawa, Japan Naha, Okinawa, Japan (secondary)
Founder	Naoto Oshima

Artoon (株式会社アートゥーン Kabushiki-Gaisha Ātūn) was a video game developer established in 1999. The team was primarily affiliated in the United States with Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 projects, although they had also worked with Hudson Soft and Nintendo on other platforms.

​Key Artoon personnel include Yoji Ishii, Manabu Kusunoki, Hidetoshi Takeshita, Yutaka Sugano, Masamichi Harada, Takuya Matsumoto and Naoto Ohshima. When the company formed, it drew personnel and talent from several of Sega's development teams, particularly those which worked on Sonic the Hedgehog (created by Ōshima), and Panzer Dragoon. The developer had approximately 85 employees. The company's focus was to create original game content for various consoles.

​Artoon became defunct when the parent company, AQ Interactive, filed for bankruptcy. Artoon, along with feelplus and Cavia, were all absorbed into parent company AQ Interactive.

Origin of Company Name

ARTOON is coined from the English word CARTOON. Although CARTOON usually refers to comics and animation, the enjoyment, brightness and spirit of the word is brought to the area of ART and in the form of video games.

Games Developed

Game Boy Advance

• Pinobee: Wings of Adventure (2001)
• Pinobee and Phoebee (2002)
• Ghost Trap (2002)
• The King of Fighters EX: Neo-Blood (2003)
• Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (2004)

Nintendo DS

• Yoshi's Island DS (2006)
• Away: Shuffle Dungeon (2008)
• The World of Golden Eggs: Nori Nori Rhythm-kei (2009)

PlayStation

• Pinobee (2003)

PlayStation 2

• Ghost Vibration (2002)
• Swords of Yi (Cancelled)
• Swords of Destiny (2005)

PlayStation 3

• Vampire Rain: Altered Species (2008)

PlayStation Portable

• Echoshift (2010)​

Xbox

• Blinx: The Time Sweeper (2002)
• Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space (2004)

Xbox 360

• Blue Dragon (2006)
• Vampire Rain (2007)

Wii

• The World of Golden Eggs: Nori Nori Rhythm-kei (2008)
• Club Penguin: Game Day! (2010)
• FlingSmash (2010)

Gallery

Further Reading

Official Japanese Website (Archived 13 Oct 2004, 31 Jul 2008)
Official English Website (Archived 12 Jun 2008)
Artoon And Feelplus Also Absorbed Into AQ Interactive | siliconera (13 Aug 2010)

​Last updated 31 May 2019

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