Wolf Team (Japan)

Logo descriptions by SnowflakesOmega

Background: Wolf Team was a subsidiary of Telenet Japan which branched out in 1987. Earlier before, Wolf Team was a secondary name for Telenet used on their Sharp X1 games in 1986. The company then began distributing their RPGs on computers such as the MSX2, Sharp X68000 and later the NEC PC-98 and FM Towns. Soon after, during the beginning of the 90s, the company began porting their games and making originals for video game consoles such as the Genesis, Super Nintendo and Sega CD. The company then began to stop making games around 1995, ocassionally returning into the business a few times, such as the PS1 game Cybernetic Empire, made along with Telenet. The company gained notoriety for making the first Tales game along with Namco, Tales of Phantasia (it wasn't until the PS1 port was released), as well as the rest of the Tales games. Wolf Team then was absorbed by Namco in 2002, renaming it as Namco Tales Studio. Nothing new from Wolf Team/Namco Tales Studio was heard since 2006 after Namco made it's merger with Bandai on that year.

1st (known) Logo

(1987)

Nickname: "8-Bit Japanese Flower Logo", "Boring Flower"

Logo: On a black background, a red/orange flower with eight orange circles having Japanese characters flashes in off-center. The words "WOLF TEAM", with a black/cyan gradient, then rise up in front of the logo. "SINCE 1987" then appears below.

Variant: If you run the disk version of Yaksa, a loading bar appears below the logo containing the text "READING NOW". This also makes it last longer than the cassette version.

FX/SFX: The flower flashing in, the rising of the text. It's pretty cheesy, but after all, MSX2 games were improving on animation capabilities.

Music/Sounds: A repeating 2-note square wave synth.

Availability: Seen only on Yaksa for the MSX2.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd (known) Logo

(1991-1994)

Logo: On a white background, a red/black zig-zag is shown with the text "WolfteaM" below it, also in red/black.

Variants:

• On Sega Genesis games, the first and last letters slide in from the sides, and then reveal the rest of the text.
• On Sega CD and SNES games, the zig-zag would spin in and then move back. The text then shines in below.

FX/SFX: The logo's mostly animated.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Very rare.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd (known) Logo

(1991-1993)

Logo: On a black background, a purple sphere drops to the center from the top-right. Blue liquid then gets revealed, and the ball splashes through it, causing the liquid to ripple. The Wolfteam zig-zag then "ripples" in and zooms out, complete with the text.

Variant: A prototype variant has the whole logo in an off-center perspective. The liquid is also extremely saturated, to the point that only a blue color is shown.

FX/SFX: The sphere dropping, the liquid rippling, the logo forming and zooming out. This is obviously done with full motion video techniques.

Music/Sounds: A heartbeat-like sound at first, with a reverse crystal synth sound effect. We then hear a brief drumbeat, followed by liquid sounds, a swoosh, a 3-note double bass and two flanged hitting sounds. A male announcer then says "Game Creative Staff. Wolf Team."

Availability: Rare. The prototype variant only appeared on the Sega CD port of Sol-Deace. This logo was very common on Laserdisc Arcade game ports for the Sega CD such as Time Gal and Road Avenger.

Editor's Note: None.

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