LJN was a Japanese toy company started as a subsidiary of Matsushita. Later, they were acquired by Acclaim Entertainment. As a subsidiary of Acclaim, they ventured into the video game market in the 1980s and released several titles for the NES, often based on movie licenses.
Nintendo's draconian licensing rules during the 8-bit gaming era were legendary, and one of them was that no publisher could release more than five games per year for the NES. As a result, Acclaim used LJN as if it were a separate publishing house to increase this number. Similar tactics were employeed by other companies, such as Konami and its subsidiary Ultra.
