Game Boy: US Kunio-kun games

The title Kunio-kun may not immediately ring any bells, but the chances are good that you've played one of his games. The series is incredibly long-running in Japan, but sadly few titles have been brought over to the US. And in many cases the ones that have been were completed remade to lose their very specific art-style and charm. But trust me, you've played (and most likely loved) some of these games; among them are NES cult-classics such as Renegade, Super Dodge Ball, and River City Ransom. But of course our interest involves which of the 30 or so titles made their way across the pond and landed on a Game Boy system.

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The Game Boy version of Double Dragon II actually has nothing to do with the Double Dragon series at all. It was originally released in Japan under the title Nekketsu Tough Guy Kunio: The Further Brawls and was basically a portable River City Ransom sequel. However, when Acclaim brought the game to the US, they decided to completely Americanize it by replacing all the awesome Kunio characters with sprites from the first Game Boy Double Dragon and replacing Kunio cutscenes with some nonsense about Jimmy and Billy Lee.

Sadly pretty much everybody loses. As a Double Dragon game, it's pretty boring. The controls are wonky and the levels leave a lot to be desired, especially when compared to the NES game of the same title, which is arguably the greatest Double Dragon game ever released. On the flipside, the original Kunio sprites probably would have made the game at least slightly more interesting with it's cutesy style that fans of the series are accustomed to.

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I am personally not a fan of soccer at all. And I'm not much of a fan of soccer video games. But yet Nintendo World Cup is addicting. Why? Because like the best Kunio-kun sports games it contains the classic Kunio character sprites, and more importantly it allows you to beat the hell out of your opponents. Simply put, this is a fantastic game. Though it does suffer from a bit of slow-down now and again where there is too much action taking place on the screen, it really does an admirable job of including a full team roster and the aforementioned beating the hell out of your opponents. Highly recommended!

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River City Ransom EX is THEE must-own Kunio game if you have a Game Boy Advance. The remake was helmed by Atlus, who you may know as being incredibly awesome. The game sticks very closely to the original NES version, but adds a lot of really great extras such as lack of slow-down caused by the NES' inferior hardware. The graphics are incredible, the story is well-translated, and the save feature will allow you to pick up and play your adventure anywhere you go. Trust me on this one: get this game!

As a weird side-note, there was a downside to this release. When Atlus announced the game it caused the end of another game that was in process by an indie developer. There was actually a River City Ransom 2 being worked on for the Game Boy Advance, but ultimately it seemed that Atlus' release would overshadow the unknown sequel and it sadly never materialized.

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Atlus also released a port of Super Dodge Ball on the Game Boy Advance. Much like their port of River City Ransom the cover art completely sucks. The gameplay on the other hand is fabulous. Luckily Super Dodge Ball Advance supports multi-player gameplay, which fans of the original game know is a necessity. The graphics are all really impressive, although for some strange reason Atlus decided to completely remove the Kunio sprites and opted for a decidedly more American looking game. But fear not, at its heart this is still a very polished remake of a fan favorite. Definitely worth tracking down.

Much like I had hinted at in the Double Dragon II description, there are also an incredible amount of Game Boy and GBA Kunio games released in Japan. Almost every sport has been given the Kunio treatment for instance. However, the full game list is a bit out of the scope of this blog post. But if you've played any of those, I'd love to hear your thoughts on which are great and which are not.