Helixe

Background

Helixe was a division of THQ focused on development for portable game devices, including the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. The company was formed in July of 2000 by Rafael Baptista and Kurt Bickenbach, who had previously developed real-time hardware accelerated 3D games for PC. Helixe consisted of three development divisions and was eventually shut down in November 2008 by THQ.^[1]

1st Logo (June 6, 2002-September 8, 2006)

Nickname: "The Helix"

Logo: On a white or black background, the word "helixe" can be seen in a white font, with the "x" being represented by a teal/green "helix" shape.

Variants:

On Scooby Doo, Star Wars: The New Droid Army, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, and Cars for the DS, the logo is still.
On Tak and the Power of Juju, the green piece wipes in, followed by the blue piece, and then the rest of the lettering draws in with the dot last. All of this takes place on a jungle backdrop as Tak runs by.
On The Fairly OddParents!: Breakin' da Rules, the logo slides in from the right, with Cosmo and Wanda wiping in the helix.
On Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams and The Incredibles, the logo drops in letter-by-letter, but with the helix actually being a normal "x" before expanding outwards. The helix shines, then the logo splits apart and flies off-screen from all sides.
On Cars on Game Boy Advance, the letters slide in before the helix draws in and shines.
On Cars on Nintendo DS, the logo is seen on a drive-in theatre screen.

FX/SFX: Depends on the variant.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening theme of the game, as well as any sounds accompanying the actions.

Music/Sounds Variants:

Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams had a short techno beat, with a whoosh when the logo flies away.
Cars on Game Boy Advance has the sound of a car engine, followed by a car drifting noise.

Availability: Common. It can be seen on the aforementioned games for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (June 26, 2007-June 24, 2008)

Nicknames: "The Control Pad", "The D-Pad"

Logo: On a white background, a green circle is seen, along with a lighter green D-pad tilted 45 degrees to form an "x" with white arrows and an even lighter green circle in the center. In front of it, "HeLixe" can be seen in a "wacky" font.

Variant: An animated variant exists, where a green spec flies in from the left to the center screen, zooming and rotating to reveal itself as the D-pad. The D-pad rotates to become the "x", and the letters of "HeLixe" pop in one-by-one. The white arrows and "TM" symbol then pop into view. The animation is noticeably sped up on the Nintendo DS version of Ratatouille.

FX/SFX: None. The D-pad zooming in for the animated variant.

Music/Sounds: None. The animated variant has a "power on" chiptune sound, followed by "sucking" sounds for the letters appearing and a "ding" when the arrows pop in.

Availability: Uncommon. The animated variant appeared on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS ports of Ratatouille, but the other games, those being Ratatouille: Food Frenzy, and Wall-E for the DS, have it still.

Editor's Note: None.

References

↑ https://www.mobygames.com/company/helixe

[1] ttps://www.mobygames.com/company/helixe

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