Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio

• Hot-blooded Tough Guy Kunio
• Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio
• Renegade Hot-blooded Tough Guy Kunio
• Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio Nes
• Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio Nes Wikipedia

Technos Japan's Nekketsu Kouha Kunio kun ('Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio') was the video game front runner for this genre, proceeding even one of the most well known representations of tsuppari, a manga series called 'Crows'. It's unclear how much inspiration was actually taken from other media, but in a 2013 interview director Yoshihisa. Tommychi024 I dont know why k unio fans think that hasebe is his girlfriend.his real and caring girlfriend is misako because they love and have misako kiss kunio in soccer hen.hehehe Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio-Kun Special 3DS - zaidi footage7.

Technōs Japan Corp.^[1] was a Japanesevideo gamedeveloper, best known for the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun (which includes Renegade, Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom) franchises. As of June 2015, Arc System Works owns the intellectual properties of Technōs Japan.^[2]

History[edit]

Initially operating from a single-room apartment, Technōs was founded in 1981 by three staff members of Data East. Their first game was Minky Monkey, released in 1982. A few months after their foundation, a lawsuit was brought up against the company by Data East under allegations that Technos had stolen data from Data East's arcade game Pro Tennis with the intent of producing and selling a bootleg of it.^[3] The two companies settled in August 1983 and Technos would go on to create two arcade games published by Data East, Tag Team Wrestling and Karate Champ. Technōs Japan's earlier games were published by other companies, as Technōs at the time did not have the economical resource to distribute their own games.

Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun ('Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio'), a side-scrolling beat-em-up released in 1986 about a high school student who fought thugs and delinquents from other schools, was the company's first big hit in Japan. Kunio-kun was released in the west as Renegade with the game's graphics changed to make the game marketable in the overseas market. Technōs would then produce a Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game, which would be Technōs' first game for the home console market. Technōs Japan's subsequent arcade beat-em-up, Double Dragon, was a big success worldwide when it was released in 1987, leading to the production of an NES version of the game, as well as licensed versions by other companies for various platforms.

The success of Kunio-kun led to the production of numerous spin-offs and sequels starring the same character produced for the 8-bit Family Computer platform in Japan and later for the Game Boy and Super Famicom, resulting in more than twenty games starring Kunio by the mid-1990s, many of which were rule-bending sports games. A few Kunio-kun games were localized for the North American market; namely Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom (considered by critics to be a cult classic^{[citation needed]}) and Nintendo World Cup, but none maintain any connection with each other. Technōs would attempt to remedy this by attempting to localize several Kunio-kun under the Crash 'n the Boys label, but only Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge was released (the game's ending features a teaser for Ice Challenge, which was unreleased).

Technōs also released two arcade sequels to Double Dragon: Double Dragon II: The Revenge in 1988 and Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone in 1990 (the latter was developed by an external development team at East Technology), and produced the respective NES versions of those games, as well as Super Double Dragon in 1992, an original installment for the Super NES. An American-produced Double Dragon animated series and a live-action film were also made as well.

Outside the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun games, Technōs produced a few original games for the arcade and home markets such as U.S. Championship V'Ball, The Combatribes and Shadow Force, as well as two WWF arcade games (WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest), but most of these games did not achieve the same kind of success that Kunio-kun and Double Dragon achieved. The company's last games were produced for the Neo Geo hardware, which include a Double Dragonfighting game based on the movie, their second and last fighting game Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, and a Neo-Geo sequel to Super Dodge Ball. By 1996, Technōs Japan declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Some of the developers who worked on the Neo Geo titles briefly worked at FACE, a former affiliate of SNK.

Post Bankruptcy[edit]

Following the closure, a licensing company named Million Co., Ltd was formed to purchase the former intellectual properties of Technōs Japan. Million continued to produce new games such as Super Dodge Ball Advance, Double Dragon Advance and River City Ransom EX for the Game Boy Advance, Super Dodgeball Brawlers for the Nintendo DS, as well as reissuing older titles via the Virtual Console and other services. On June 11, 2015, Arc System Works announced they had acquired all intellectual properties of Technōs Japan from Million Co., Ltd.

U.S. subsidiary[edit]

Technōs Japan had a subsidiary in the U.S. called American Technōs Inc., which was located at Cupertino, California. American Technōs was formed in 1987, shortly after the release of Double Dragon at the arcades and published all of Technōs Japan's arcade games in North America beginning with Double Dragon II: The Revenge. While the majority of Technōs Japan's console games were still licensed to other companies such as Tradewest (Double Dragon and Super Double Dragon), Acclaim Entertainment (Double Dragon II and III), CSG Imagesoft (Super Dodge Ball) and even Nintendo (Super Spike V'Ball and Nintendo World Cup), American Technōs also managed to publish a few console games, namely River City Ransom and Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge for the NES, Super Double Dragon (co-published with Tradewest) and The Combatribes for the Super NES, and Geom Cube for the PlayStation. American Technōs also published Super Bowling (developed by Athena) and Super Pinball: Behind the Mask (developed by Meldac/KAZe) for the Super NES and the helicopter game Strike Point for the PlayStation.^[4] American Technōs was still operating after Technōs Japan's demise until sometime during the late 1990s. Its former president was Keiichi Iwamoto.

List of games by platforms[edit]

All games are listed by original Japanese titles unless otherwise noted. Neo Geo games are listed separately from the other arcade games. This list does not take account licensed versions that were released by other companies (such as the Master System port of Double Dragon and the PC Engine ports of the Kunio games published by Naxat Soft) or games that were produced by Million, the subsequent copyrights holder of Technōs Japan's former properties. Also, all of the following games are listed by their original Japanese release date.

Arcade[edit]

• Minky Monkey: 1982
• Zeroize: 1983
• Eggs (Japanese: Scrambled Egg): 9/1983
• Dommy: 1983
• Tag Team Wrestling (Japanese: The Big Pro-Wrestling!): 12/1983
• Twin Lever: 1984
• Karate Champ: 7/1984
• Shusse Ōzumō: 1984
• Mysterious Stones: 11/1984
• Acrobatic Dog-Fight (Japanese: Dog-Fight: Batten O'Hara no Sucharaka Kuuchuu-sen): 1984
• Suchiyarach: 1985
• Bogey Manor: 1985
• Mat Mania (Japanese: Exciting Hour): 1985
• Mania Challenge: 1986
• Battle Lane Vol. 5: 1986
• Renegade (Japanese: Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun): 5/1986
• Xain'd Sleena (American title: Solar Warrior; European title: Soldier of Light): 11/1986
• Double Dragon: 6/1987
• Super Dodge Ball (Japanese: Nekketsu KōKō Dodgeball Bu): 11/1987
• China Gate (Japanese: Sai Yu Gou Ma Roku): 3/1988
• Double Dragon II: The Revenge: 6/1988
• U.S. Championship V'Ball: 12/1988
• WWF Superstars: 7/1989
• Block Out: 10/1989
• The Combatribes: 6/1990
• Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone (developed by East Technology): 11/1990
• WWF Wrestlefest: 7/1991
• Shadow Force: 6/1993

Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System[edit]

• Renegade (Japanese: Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun): 4/17/1987
• Double Dragon: 4/8/1988
• Super Dodge Ball (Japanese: Nekketsu KōKō Dodgeball Bu): 7/26/1988
• River City Ransom (Japanese: Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari; PAL version: Street Gangs): 4/25/1989
• Super Spike V'Ball (Japanese: U.S. Championship V'Ball): 11/10/1989
• Double Dragon II: The Revenge: 12/22/1989
• Nintendo World Cup (Japanese: Nekketsu KōKō Dodgeball Bu Soccer Hen): 5/18/1990
• Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku Soreyuku Daiundōkai: 10/12/1990
• Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (Japanese: Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone): 2/22/1991
• Sugoro Quest: 6/28/1991
• Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki dayo Zen'in Shūgō: 7/26/1991
• Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu: Subette Koronde Dairantō (announced in the U.S. as Crash 'n the Boys: Ice Challenge, but was unreleased): 2/7/1992
• Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge (Japanese: Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal): 6/26/1992
• Nekketsu Kakutō Densetsu: 12/23/1992
• Kunio-kun no Nekketsu Soccer League: 4/23/1993
• Nekketsu Street Basket: Ganbare Dunk Heroes: 12/17/1993
• Block Out : Unreleased
• Nekketsu Yakyuu Kozou: Unreleased
• Xain'D Sleena: Unreleased
• China Gate: Unreleased

Game Boy[edit]

• Double Dragon: 7/20/1990
• Double Dragon II (Japanese: Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun: Bangai Rantō Hen) 12/7/1990
• Nintendo World Cup (Japanese: Nekketsu Kōkō Soccer Bu: World Cup Hen): 4/26/1991
• Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu: Kyōteki! Dodge Soldier no Maki (Game Boy version of Super Dodge Ball released only in Japan): 11/8/1991
• Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Dokodemo Daiundōkai: 7/24/1992
• Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Dokodemo Kin Medal: 7/16/1993
• Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki dayo Zen'in Shūgō: 12/22/1993
• Taiyō no Tenshi Marlowe: Ohana Batake no Dai Panic!: 5/27/1994
• Nekketsu! Beach Volley dayo: Kunio-kun: 7/29/1994

Super NES/Super Famicom[edit]

Hot-blooded Tough Guy Kunio

• Shodai Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun: 8/7/1992
• Super Double Dragon (Japanese: Return of Double Dragon): 10/16/1992
• The Combatribes: 12/23/1992
• Kunio-kun no Dodgeball dayo Zen'in Shūgō: 8/6/1993
• Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Challenge: 12/17/1993
• Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (developed by Almanic): 4/29/1994
• Kunio no Oden: 5/27/1994
• Popeye: Ijiwaru Majo Sea Hag no Maki: 8/12/1994
• Funaki Masakatsu no Hybrid Wrestler: Tōgi Denshō: 10/21/1994
• Sugoro Quest ++: Dicenics: 12/9/1994
• Dun Quest: Mashin Fūin no Densetsu: 7/21/1995
• Kunio no Bike Racing: Nekketsu Bari Bari Kouttotai: Unreleased

Game Gear[edit]

• Popeye: Beach Volleyball: 8/12/1994

PlayStation[edit]

• Geom Cube (3D puzzle game similar to Blockout): 12/22/1994

Neo Geo[edit]

• Double Dragon: 2/1995
• Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer (Japanese: Chōjin Gakuen Gowcaizer): 9/1995
• Super Dodge Ball (Japanese: Kunio no Nekketsu Dodgeball Densetsu): 1996

References[edit]

1. ^Japanese: 株式会社テクノスジャパンHepburn: Kabushiki gaisha Tekunosu Japan
2. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2015-08-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. ^'September 1983 issue'. Game Machine. Vol. 9. September 1, 1983.
4. ^'Review Crew: Strikepoint'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 89. Ziff Davis. December 1996. p. 94.

External links[edit]

• Technōs Japan Portal Website Official website
• Technōs Japan Corp. at MobyGames
• American Technōs Inc. at MobyGames

Renegade is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up developed by Technos Japan and distributed by Taito for the arcades in 1986.^[2] The player controls a street brawler who must face four different gangs in order to rescue his girlfriend being held captive by a mob boss. The game was released in Japan as Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (Japanese: 熱血硬派くにおくん, which loosely translates to 'Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kunio'), with this version of the game revolving around a high-school delinquent named Kunio who must stand up against a series of rival gangs frequently targeting his classmate Hiroshi. In order to make the game more appealing for the west, Technos produced a graphically-altered version with a visual style inspired by the 1979 film The Warriors, changing the looks of some of the game's characters and scenery. The first game in the Kunio-kun series, Renegade was ported to a variety of consoles and computer platforms.

Gameplay[edit]

Controls[edit]

The player controls a fighter (in the NES version, he is named 'Mr. K' in-game, and 'Renegade' in the instruction manual)^[3] who must fight a variety of street gangs on the way to save his girlfriend from the gangsters. The controls consists of an eight-way joystick and three actions buttons; left attack, jump and right attack. Unlike previous beat-'em-ups such as Kung-Fu Master, Shao-lin's Road or My Hero, in which the player character's movement was limited to only left or right, in Renegade the player can also move towards or away from the background by pressing up or down in a matter similar to Technos Japan's 1985 wrestling game Mat Mania, although the battle system is still limited to only two directions. Pressing the attack button of the character's current direction will cause him to throw punches, while the opposite attack button causes him to perform a rear kick instead. When certain enemies are stunned after a few punches or a single kick, the player character can approach him for a collar grab and kick him repeatedly with the front attack button or perform a shoulder throw with the opposite attack button. While jumping, the player can press either attack button for a jump kick towards that particular direction.

Pressing the joystick left or right twice quickly will cause the player to run, at which point pressing the front attack button will perform a running punch, jumping will automatically perform a flying kick, and the rear attack button will bring the player to a sudden halt and perform a back-kick. Pressing down over a fallen enemy will make the player sit on top of them, at which point pressing the front attack will cause the player to pummel them. All of the boss characters (with the exception of Sabu) can only be sat on or put on a collar grab if their health is low enough, otherwise they'll push the player off.

The player has a limited amount of lives (which vary depending on the game's DIP settings) and no continues to complete the game. The player loses a life if he runs out of health after sustaining too many enemy attacks, gets knocked off the subway platform or into the sea in the first two stages or fails to complete the stage under the time limit. Health is automatically recovered at the start of each stage. Stages 2 and 4 are the only stages to have checkpoints in the middle of them.

Stages[edit]

Unlike Technos' subsequent game Double Dragon, the playing field is limited to a series of three-screen-wide areas and does not scroll continuously. The first three stages (a subway platform, a harbor and a street alley) each take place in a single area where the player must face against a gang of seven underlings with their boss watching from the background. The gang of the first two stages consists of two types of underlings: an armed thug who is easier to defeat, and an unarmed thug who can take more punishment and can grab the player character from behind.

When only three underlings remain (in any combination of the two) their boss will come in from the sidelines and join the fight. When the boss (Jack in the first stage, Joel in the second) is defeated, any remaining underling will retreat off the bottom of the screen, and the stage ends. Each boss character has their own health displayed underneath the player's. The second stage follows this same formula, but begins with a series of enemies riding motorcycles trying to run the player down. Once a certain number of bikers have been defeated (which vary depending on the difficulty level), the normal enemies will begin to face the player. The third stage features an all female gang. Like the first two gangs, the female gang also consists of two type of underlings: a weaker chain-wielding blond-haired type and a more resistant mace-wielding redhead type. The female gang leader (Kim) is a large woman who can easily grab and slap the player around. She's the only enemy in the game who cannot be put into a collar grab. The fourth and final stage consists of two areas and only has one type of underling, a bald knife-wielding hitman who can kill the player with a single stab. The first area is set in a parking lot where the player must fight against four of these hitmen. Once this first wave of enemies have been defeated, the player character automatically proceeds to enter a building at the far right of the stage. Inside, he faces three more knife-wielding underlings and the final boss, a handgun-wielding mobster (Sabu) who can kill the player with a single shot. Once the final boss is defeated, the main character exits the building and is greeted by his rescued girlfriend, who proceeds to give him a kiss. The game then begins the next loop with an increased difficulty.

Localization[edit]

Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio

Renegade is a localization of the Japanese Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun for the North American and Worldwide markets, with the game's graphics changed in an attempt to adapt the game's setting to a more western style (with what can be seen as thinly veiled 'inspiration' from the film The Warriors). The gangs of thugs and bikers featured in Renegade were originally high school delinquents, bōsōzoku members, a sukeban along with her minions, and finally Yakuza members in Kunio-kun. The subway level in the first stage was originally a Japanese train station, whereas most of the signs and billboards in the last two stages were also written in Japanese. The title of the Japanese version was influenced by Konami's arcade game, Shinnyuushain Tooru-Kun (known outside Japan as Mikie).

Instead of the damsel-in-distress plot of Renegade, Kunio-kun instead featured the titular high school student, Kunio (くにお), standing up for his bullied friend Hiroshi. Each stage begins with the stage's gang beating up Hiroshi in front of Nekketsu High School and Kunio chasing after his attackers. Unlike Renegade, Kunio and the game's bosses are identified by name in-game, whereas the characters in Renegade are simply identified by the generic identifier '1P' or '2P' (depending on who is playing) and 'BOSS' (it was not until the NES version that bosses in Renegade were given names). The bosses of Kunio-kun are: Riki (りき), Shinji (しんじ), Misuzu (みすず) and Sabu (さぶ). The game ends with Hiroshi and several students of Nekketsu High School greeting Kunio outside Sabu's hideout, with Hiroshi giving Kunio a firm handshake. The game begins a new cycle, this time skipping the pre-stage introductions. Like Renegade, each character has a catch-phrase said by them in digitized voice, but spoken in Japanese.

The Family Computer version of Kunio-kun was Technos Japan's first game for a home console. After Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, Technos Japan reused the Kunio character for several more games, beginning with Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu (the Japanese version of Super Dodge Ball) released for the arcades and the Famicom/NES. Some were released overseas, such as River City Ransom (the American version of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari), Nintendo World Cup (Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen) and Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge (Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!), but most of them were released only in Japan. Kunio eventually became Technos Japan's official mascot, appearing on the company's logos in the intros of some of their later games, as well as in their Japanese television advertisements.

Ports[edit]

The Nintendo Entertainment System version, developed in-house by Technos and released in 1987 by Taito in North America, is a strong departure from the original arcade game; the first three stages each consist of a series of two-screens wide levels against a group of three enemies at a time, culminating in a one-on-one fight with the boss. The second stage also contains a side-scrolling motorcycle chase, in which the player tries to kick opponents off their motorcycles, prior to the boss fight. In the third stage, the player can choose from one of two paths after clearing the first level of enemies: one leads to a confrontation against the stage boss, while the other is a second level filled with small fry enemies. The fourth and final stage is a maze of numerous rooms, filled with enemies and previous bosses, inside a building which the player must proceed in order to reach the final boss. There are trap doors in this stage which warp the player back to a previous stage, forcing the player to begin all over.

The Master System version, developed by Natsume and published by Sega in 1993, is based largely on the NES port rather than the original arcade, but with enhanced graphics and several improvements like new death cutscenes and a revamped ending. This port was only released in Europe, Australia and Brazil.

Renegade Hot-blooded Tough Guy Kunio

Home computer versions were released for the Amiga, Apple II and IBM PC in North America and for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and Commodore 64 in Europe. The American computer ports were developed by Software Creations and published by Taito, whereas the European computer ports were handled by Imagine Software and published by Ocean Software. They were typically limited to one fire button rather than three; the different moves are achieved by combining different joystick directions with a fire button press. The Amstrad CPC version mimicked the three-button control of the original by combining the joystick control with the cursor keys. The Spectrum and Amstrad versions use flip-screen rather than scrolling levels.

Reception[edit]

The Spectrum version was voted number 48 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.^[9]

Legacy[edit]

The NES port of Renegade was released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on May 5, 2008 at a cost of 500 Wii Points.^[10][11] It was re-released on February 27, 2014 both on the 3DS Virtual Console and Wii U Virtual Console.^[12][13]

On June 28, 2018 a port for the Nintendo Switch was released by Hamster as part or their Arcade Archives series.^[14] This port includes both original US and Japanese arcade game, making it the first time the original Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun being released in the west commercially.

Sequels and related games[edit]

Ocean Software produced two sequels to Renegade: Target: Renegade, and Renegade III: The Final Chapter. These were released for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and MSX, but never had corresponding arcade versions. Target: Renegade was also released on the NES.

Technos was slated to release the Game Boy title Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun: Bangai Rantō Hen as a follow-up called The Renegades, but it was eventually retooled as Double Dragon II and published by Acclaim.^[15]

Technos produced numerous games starring Kunio in Japan. Some of these were localized in North America as Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom and Nintendo World Cup. Technos had no involvement with the Ocean-produced Renegade sequels.

In popular culture[edit]

Manga artist Mizuki Kawashita has named one of the characters in her best known manga, Ichigo 100%, Misuzu Sotomura after the game character of the same first name.^[16]

References[edit]

1. ^'The Year In Review'. Cash Box. January 17, 1987.
2. ^'Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)'. Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 287. Amusement Press, Inc. July 1, 1986. p. 25.
3. ^'Game's Instruction Manual'(PDF).
4. ^'World of Spectrum - Computer & Video Games-99'.
5. ^'World of Spectrum - Crash-44'.
6. ^'World of Spectrum - Sinclair User-67'.
7. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. ^'World of Spectrum - the Games Machine-1'.
9. ^'Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time'. Your Sinclair. September 1993.
10. ^'Pokémon Puzzle League and Renegade Now Available on Wii Shop Channel!'. Nintendo of America. May 5, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
11. ^'Renegade'.
12. ^'Renegade'.
13. ^'Renegade'.
14. ^[1]
15. ^'Article 48—AMERICAN TECHNOS THE RENEGADES FLYER'. VIDEO-GAME EPHEMERA.
16. ^ichigo 100% vol.19: Shuisha 2002

External links[edit]

Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio Nes

• Kunio-kun at Hardcore Gaming 101.
• Renegade at SpectrumComputing.co.uk

Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio Nes Wikipedia

• Renegade on the Amiga at The Hall of Light (HOL)