/vr/ - Retro Games

What exactly are you curious about?
>This seems like a somewhat big series with a lot of weirdness surrounding the localization of the games
It's simple. They initially didn't expect Kunio game to be such a long-running franchise than when they localized the first few games in the series (Renegade, Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom), they basically treated each one as its own IP due to how aesthetically and mechanically different they were from each other.
Renegade = Serious beat-'em-up
Super Dodge Ball = Comical sports game
River City Ransom = Comical beat-'em-up
By the time they decided to localize Kunio under a consistent brand in the U.S., the NES was pretty much on its deathbed.

>not to mention it's art style shifts
After Nekketsu Monogatari, pretty much stuck with the chibi art style for most the series and only went back for the serious look when they made those two Kunio beat-'em-up on the SFC. Even the newer Kunio games on the DS and 3DS stuck to the chibi style.

>and it's loose connections to double dragon,
DD1AC was essentially intended to be Renegade 2 and the Hattori brothers in Nekketsu Monogatari are expies of the Lee brothers.

>but nobody ever talks about it.
/vr/ is mostly filled with EOPs who only know of RCR for the BARF meme.

Every game is exactly the same.

Not that that's a bad thing they're all good. But if you play one you've played pretty much them all.

>>3800875
Yes. You've played Nintendo World Cup, you know exactly what to do in River City Ransom.

RCR and Super Dodgeball are goddamn fantastic, but I've never really looked into the rest of the series. Exactly how many games are there, anyway?

>>3800970
2 arcade games
11 on Famicom
7 on Game Boy
5 on Super Famicom
5 on PC Engine (two on HuCard and three on Super CD-ROM2)
A Mega Drive port of Kunio's soccer
3 X68000 ports
That one Neo-Geo version of Super Dodge Ball
Plus a bunch of modern versions on newer platforms.

>>3800970

If you liked Super Dodgeball you shoul check out the Ice Hockey game.

It's a great series. But there's not much to talk about it in the end. They basically tried to take the same approach (punch your way to victory) to anything high school themed.
Natsume is doing a nice job trying to revive it. Not ideal, but a good job.

>>3801617
Natsume just localizes the games in the U.S. The newer Kunio entries on DS and 3DS were made by Arc System Works with the involvement of the TJC staff.

They have more spin-offs than beat'em ups, don't they?
I like the PC Engine version of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, they play those voice clips when the bosses show up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nggjgjnPj0

>>3801623
I didn't even look that up. Good to know, thanks man.

>>3800295
>the Hattori brothers in Nekketsu Monogatari are expies of the Lee brothers.

At 45:00, they literally call themselves "Double Dragon Brothers".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_2NxeYtvVM

>>3801623
they made DD4 too, didn't they?

why is the art style so bad in that

>>3801657
I'm guessing the Famicom style is just easier to make. All their recent Kunio games on the 3DS have been using Famicom-style sprites for a while now too, which is a shame since I liked the 16-bit style sprites they went with for the GBA versions of Double Dragon and RCR.

Double Dragon IV was such a disappointing cashgrab.

>>3801691
it's not so much the fact that they used DD2 sprites, it's the fact that the art style is inconsistent

the backgrounds DON'T belong in a NES game for example

>>3801691
With Double Dragon IV in particular, they claimed that they modeled it after the second NES game, since that was the most popular out of all the older entries and had the same boxart across every regional release. I simply don't buy it, considering how quickly the game was released after its announcement.

>>3801693
Apparently the backgrounds were designed entirely by Koji Ogata himself, who never actually did BG art in any of the prior Double Dragon games (he only did character sprites), but was asked to do so for DD4.

He did the JP promo art for the original arcade game too.

>>3801637

>those sound effects

fucking christ

>>3801637
Man, the PC engine version looks beautiful.
I'm too used to the GB. Gotta try it sometime.

>>3801875
It doesn't deviate that much from the Famicom version aside from the more colorful graphics and redbook audio. It's only a marginal improvement at best and in all honest, I prefer the FC original.

>>3801875

If you're going to play a version besides the original, go for Gameboy Advance, there's way more moves, and if you learn about the reputation system, you can get CPU controlled allies, and the final boss has actual "evil powers" so he's not a total pushover.

bump

>>3802605
If you have the Japanese ROM, you can download this patch made by the original developers, which adds new areas, characters, events and even options.
http://mkidz.jp/maruhi/

There's apparently a newer version of the patch that's only available with their doujin Dodge Ball game.

>>3805840
wait what

a patch for a GBA game by the original developers?

>>3802605
i REALLY hope Arcsys localizes RCR SP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0jamkGvKQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV0FGboA3Ds

i have actually played it and beaten a couple times, havent got to the true ending yet...

if you think its just a port or an enhanced version like EX, you are way wrong...

i really want to actually understand the story and all that shit cuz its actually prettry good, we've got things like Kunio befriending guys thru the power fo fighting games, dragon ninjas, DEMONIC NEETS, adult escort cafes, and more.

also the Fighting of Double Dragon minigame isnt that bad.and its two secret characters made me more hopeful for a localization.

>>3806553
Whoa. It's like they made RCR, except with actual decent beat em up in it. So many moves, wish I could play it

>>3806507
Yep. Mitsuhiro Yoshida and Hiroyuki Sekimoto (directors of most of the Downtown Nekketsu games on FC and SFC, including RCR) formed a doujin group called Miracle Kidz that made an "unofficial" Super Dodge Ball sequel for PC (which was much better than the one ASW actually made for DS), along with a bunch of Kunio-related artbooks, strategy guides and story bibles. They were even making a RCR sequel for the Wii that ended up being canceled unfortunately.
http://mkidz.jp/

>>3806553
Oh man, that looks amazing.