Hebereke

Developer	Tokyo Design Center
Publisher	Sunsoft
Date	1991
Links	Wikipedia MobyGames

Hebereke (known as Ufouria: The Saga in Europe) is a platformer developed by Sunsoft's Tokyo Design Center division and published on 20 September 1991 in Japan, and in Europe on 19 November 1992. The game's story varies depending on region: In Hebereke, the titular character has ended up in a strange world he must escape from with some help from a few of its denizens, while in Ufouria main character Bop-Louie must enter the land to rescue his three friends.

The game has an unusual development history of which little is known; While the project was started with the intent of featuring Hebe and his friends, production appears to have begun with Ufouria and ended with Hebereke's simultaneously-developed assets being added back in afterwards.

Although Ufouria was developed with input from Sun Corporation of America they never released the game themselves, deeming it too late for the cutesy platformer to perform well in their region. Meanwhile, Hebereke and Ufouria were released as planned in Japan and Europe respectively, retroactively being recognised as a polished take on the Metroidvania subgenre of platformers.

Alternative box art

• 

  Box for the German PAL-B version of Ufouria: The Saga.

Interviews

• 

  Pages explaining the history of the character O-Chan from 拳王MARIMO, a doujinshi by Character Designer "Yokkyun.Suzuki".

• 

• September 6, 1991 issue (No.17) of Family Computer Magazine (Famimaga). The "Sun Corporation: Can't Miss It!" segment features a brief interview with the game's developers.
• October 1, 1993 issue (No.20) of Famimaga. The "Sugoi Hebereke Special Feature" details the history of the franchise, and includes early Hebekeke art originally submitted to doujin magazine Manga Hot Milk.

Forum threads

• Thread on 5channel from 2008, with people discussing the origins of the character O-chan.

Website

• [https://web.archive.org/web/19991105224621/http://www.netlaputa.ne.jp/~puuta/index.html Homepage of "Yokkyun.Suzuki".

Miscellaneous

• Research section of fansite Hebereke no Nekoto, listing Japanese print media that mention Hebereke

Game credits

Source: In-game Staff roll.

Directer

Chow-Mu-Sow (Kiharu Yoshida)
Yoshinori Homma

Programmer

Nom (Masahito Nomura)
Nyoro Nyoro

Graphic Designer

You-Ri (Yuriko Yuzawa)
Tamura
Ajiro (Tohru Ajiro)

Music Staff

Nobuyuki.H (Nobuyuki Hara)
About.SS (Shinichi Seya)
Kodaka San (Naoki Kodaka)

Character Design

Ucchi (Ryoji Uchimichi)
Yokkyun.Suzuki

Special Thanks

Hirokun (Hiroaki Higashiya)
A.T (Akito Takeuchi)
Kitachin (Koichi Kitazumi)
H.Eguchi (Hisayasu Eguchi)
M.Kawai (Masato Kawai)
K.Kozawa (Kazumoto Kozawa)
H.Yamamoto (Hideo Yamamoto)
M.Okazaki (Mihoko Okazaki)
T.Mori (Tatsuo Mori)
Rita Zimmerer
Kazuko Harman
Karen Shadley
Steve Gehrke

Adviser

Asshi (Atsushi Sakai)
Mac (Masahito Terao)
North River (Masaaki Kitagawa)
Makihara (Masaharu Makihara)
Idaten (Tohru Ida)
Ishikawa (Takumi Ishikawa)
Sleepy.H (Atsushi Hatano)
Shimamura (Masayuki Shimamura)
Furihata (Masashige Furihata)
Tsukada (Masashi Tsukada)
Shikano (Masaru Shikano)
Monma (Kouki Monma)
Kojima (Yusuke Kojima)
Yamamoto (Chieko Yamamoto)

Game Designer

Ucchi (Ryoji Uchimichi)

And

Players