| smbhax [sys=GB; cat=Beat_em_up; reg=JPN] |
| | | Sort've a port or remake of what was known on the NES as "Renegade," I think (the first part of the Japanese name means something like "Hot-Blooded Tough-Guy Kunio"). At any rate, you trundle along through streets and subways, beating up thugs. Sweet!
Surprisingly, you don't have a jump-kick move. There's Punch, Kick, and Uppercut with both buttons twice: once to crouch, again to punch upwards. It's kind of hard to connect with the uppercut, but it can be useful in tight spots. Mostly, though, punch seems to have the power and speed combination to see you through. Once a guy is down, get close to him and push either button to jump on his prone body in a painful way.
Once you get the hang of that, the game is pretty easy until you get to nasty spots pretty far on where they can knock you off a cliff or something, killing you in one hit. They only send two baddies at you at once, so later they start sending in what amounts to two bosses at once. The stages and enemies get pretty repetitive, even for a beat-em-up, but hey, it's the GB.
The super-deformed Kunio characters look kind of funny here, with sort of elongated torsos (for super-deformed characters, at any rate). Kunio appears to be wearing some kind of bulky overcoat. The background art tends to be a bit blocky, and the music ain't all that.
Still, it's got a sort of rhythmic pace to it that makes it each to keep playing: punch combo, prone attack, next guy, punch combo... The dudes make funny expressions when hit! Everyone can appreciate these simple things, I think.
Three skill levels there be, and the top one does get pretty tough, I suppose. It also seems to support two-player, but I haven't had a chance to try that. |
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| | | The GB Kunio beat em up actually uses all the GB colors you can set manually in Mesen. ^ _^ (The Double Dragon conversion for the West doesn't, at least not obviously.) ; ) Here's a garish palette (CGA-style blue/purp bg, green/maroon sprites 'p'):
Background: DEE7F7,00CEF8,AC008C,000000
Sprites #1: EFEFEF,A0FF69,0084FF,000000
Sprites #2: EFEFEF,00E639,FF0079,000000 |
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| | | https://gamehacking.org/game/915
P1 Infinite Lives by DukeOdin:
01046CC6
0104AFC6 |
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In Mesen, on HARD, w/ infinite lives cheat
1:35 - playthrough
31:15 - boss rush
37:42 - boss
39:55 - ending & credits
43:32 - Double Dragon II comparison
The Kunio-Kun fandom wiki says the title is "熱血硬派くにおくん 番外乱闘編, lit. "Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kunio: The Further Brawls".'
Possibly a few of the bosses have different attacks vs the Double Dragon II version, not sure--a couple of them look a lot different, though. |
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| | | | I wrote this in a convo with loki on selectbutton, after he mentioned it's his fave GB beat-em-up: "You know, it could just be my favorite beat-em-up period. It's like they took all the annoying parts out of Double Dragon. It's effortlessly engaging and the pacing is delightful." https://selectbutton.net/t/screenshot-through-the-heart-a-lot-through-mame-print-screen-threads-get-bad-names/14900/1376 |
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| | | Translation patch:
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/41/
Readme says it translates everything but the credits. Works with the Inf lives cheat. |
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| | | | The wiki also notes that the game is meant to be the sequel to the arcade game (Renegade in the West). Buttt it says originally it wasn't going to have Kunio and was just going to be a "Renegade" game. So apparently it went Renegade - Kunio - Double Dragon all in the course of one game's development! |
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I put together level / mission maps for each of the levels:
3:24 - Map 1 School
6:22 - Map 2 Train 1
11:15 - Map 3 Entertainment District
16:40 - Map 4 Train 2
20:11 - Map 5 Clinic
23:29 - Map 6 Tower
30:41 - wrap!
Forgot to mention that the fandom wiki says a Technos guy said later that this game started out as a "Renegade" game but then they decided to put Kunio in it, so it became a Kunio-kun game instead. And then as I did mention, it got a graphical makeover for its Western release to look like street gangs instead of high schoolers, and was called "Double Dragon II" even though it isn't otherwise like the arcade / NES Double Dragon II (which was subtitled "The Revenge"). 'p'
The maps are on GameFAQs: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gameboy/563268-double-dragon-ii/faqs . |
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| | | | It's a solid game but I think I'm going to drop it from my play rotation, it's just a lot slower and grindy in comparison to the arcade/FC prequel. (And so blocky. ^ ^_) |
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