Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun, released only on the Super Nintendo, is a great sequel of Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun, the first game in Technos’ outstanding beat ‘em-up series that star Kunio and Riki (Alex and Ryan in US/Europe releases), two high school gangster buddies. The basic premise is quite thin... but then again, it’s just an excuse for another fun round of beating people up ;) This time, Kunio and Riki and their fellow rowdy students from Nekketsu High School have found themselves brawling in Osaka. The review at Classicgaming.com says it all: "The closest I can compare this to any other Nekketsu game is River City Ransom because of its RPG elements. There's no money collecting or food-buying, in fact, I don't think you can buy anything, ever. You simply gain experience from beating people up and your stats rise when you gain a level. You can equip different shoes, "lining" (coat lining?) and weapons, which consist of things like boxing gloves and brass knuckles. The items you collect include taxi cards for a quick return to your hotel, and you learn techniques that temporarily raise your stats but drain your willpower. You can beat up anyone, whether or not they're angry at you. At first you'll probably just be accosted by punks in blue school uniforms and the occasional schoolgirl, but old men with beer guts, ladies, and salarymen eventually start fighting you too. Even with the translation, I'm not sure why. When you get into a fight, there's no way of escaping, and the screen won't scroll again until everyone's dead. Whenever you die, you're returned to your hotel bed, probably with some kind of penalty (though I never noticed what). Sometimes people on the streets will join your side during a fight, but you still get experience for killing them. The fighting works well and has a good "brawl" feeling, and you'll be doing a lot of it. At certain points you can get a companion to fight with you, but they usually hurt you more than help. The music is incredible, and it never got old for me. You also hear satisfying sound effects when breaking a wooden stick over someone's head, or when a thrown lead pipe bounces off the side of the screen. I think the story is very good... it has some branching options; you can join the evil side later in the game, as well as be uncooperative with the police. If you're a person who needs to know what's going on in a game to enjoy it, I recommend you wait until the translation is 100% complete. If you know Japanese or just want a good aimless romp, by all means, go for it. It's a lot of fun." Two thumbs up, way up! Reviewed by: Underdogs |