Space Manbow

Space Manbow is a scrolling shooter game. The premise takes place in the year 189 of the stellar calendar, where humanity has begun to expand into space. An archaeological research team discovers the ruins of an ancient civilization on a mechanized planet. As the research delves deeper into the subterranean depths, weapons installed across the planet begin to activate, as the ancient civilization's automated defense system was still active.

Perceiving the team as an enemy and the research as an invasion, the planet's defense system deploys a colossal space battleship called the Manbow to attack the solar system. Archaeologist and former pilot Kliever Mu decides to use the Manbow-J, a fighter craft built from blueprints unearthed in the ruins, and take on the mission of preventing the Manbow from destroying the solar system.

Space Manbow was developed by the MSX division at Konami's PC development department, under the general management of Akihiko Nagata. Initially, the team decided to adapt the arcade game Thunder Cross for the MSX. The final product was deemed excellent from a programming standpoint, but uninteresting and was not expected to sell well in its current state. Konami would order production to cease if the game was not entertaining, so the team repeatedly remade it under the working titles Alphard and Egzart, leading to constant delays, but it still failed to gain approval.

Around that time, Osaka Gas began including the manbow, a popular fish back then, in its advertisements, and Nagata thought of taking advantage of the idea. Hideo Kojima and Konami composer Yasuhiko "Mansan" Manno recalled that one day, Nagata said aloud, "Manbow sounds good, right?" ". Deciding that the game would not work as it was, Nagata ordered the name changed, resulting in Space Manbow.

Space Manbow received acclaim from critics. The Japanese magazine LOGiN highlighted the game's smooth scrolling, the lack of flickering, the variety of enemies, and the music, but noted its low level of difficulty. Micom BASIC Magazine's Kazuhiko Nishijō felt that the game surpassed the Gradius series, citing its gameplay and power-up system. The Japanese MSX Magazine praised the game for its audiovisual presentation, excellent difficulty balance, and smooth scrolling.

MSX Club's Pere Baño lauded the game's visuals for its remarkable use of color and scrolling backgrounds, as well as the sound design for being up to par. Software Gids' Dennis Lardenoye applauded the game's graphical department for its large bosses and multidirectional scrolling. MSX Computer Magazine proclaimed that "With Space Manbow, Konami once again proves to be among the absolute top MSX developers".

The Mambo and Samba sunfish in Gokujō Parodius are based on the Manbow-J ship from Space Manbow. Planner and programmer Tsukasa "Chichibinta" Tokuda wanted the game's character roster to focus on living creatures rather than ships. Ha!") stated that the character concept arose spontaneously.

The first stage of Space Manbow appears as an unlockable in Ganbare Goemon: Tōkai Dōchū Ōedo Tengu ri Kaeshi no Maki if the Kessaku-sen! Ganbare Goemon 1・2: Yuki-hime to Magginesu collection for Game Boy Advance is inserted into the bottom cartridge slot of the Nintendo DS. In 2007, Stichting Sunrise published a fan sequel titled Manbow 2, developed by RenovatiO, for the MSX2 at an MSX fair in Bussum.