A couple of years ago I posted up a news piece that covered a compilation of Kunio-kun games called Kunio-kun The World Classics Collection. This was a collection of 11 Kunio-kun games that were released in Japan in their original form plus four games that got localized in the West and re-named (Renegade, River City Ransom, Crash n’ the Boys Street Challenge, and Super Dodgeball). While we did get four of the games during the NES era, most Western fans of the series never got to experience the original games. That is till now. Now for the first time gamers can experience the Japanese Kunio-kun games as they have translated everything into English. And if that wasn’t enough, they also decided to pack in the the first three Double Dragon games as well. Dust off your school uniform, slick back your hair and get ready to experience some fun retro gaming classics in DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle for the Nintendo Switch.
Return to River City
North American and Japanese version of games in one package- One of the best things about game compilations is that it give you the ability to play games that you would never had the chance to play due to it being expensive or the language barrier is too great. That is the main draw (at least for me) for the DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle. This collection gathers 18 games from Techos Japan that are related to the Kunio-kun franchise. Three of these games are the Double Dragon games, four are the Kunio-kun games that have been localized but changed to relate to North American gamers and eleven games that have only been published in Japan are now being localized for the first time in North America. Here’s the list of all the games in this collection:
- DOUBLE DRAGON
- DOUBLE DRAGON II: The Revenge
- DOUBLE DRAGON III: The Sacred Stones
- Renegade
- Super Dodge Ball
- River City Ransom
- Crash’n the Boys Street Challenge
- Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun
- Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club
- Downtown Nekketsu Story
- Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club – Soccer Story
- Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day!
- Downtown Special Kunio-kun’s Historical Period Drama!
- Go-Go! Nekketsu Hockey Club Slip-and-Slide Madness
- Surprise! Nekketsu New Records! The Distant Gold Medal
- Nekketsu Fighting Legend
- Kunio-kun’s Nekketsu Soccer League
- Nekketsu! Street Basketball All-Out Dunk Heroes
All of the Famicom Kunio-kun games have never been released in their original form outside Japan, which makes this the first time gamers will be able to play them fully translated. I understand that seven of the games we have some type of access to since they have already been released in North America years ago and even have been re-released digitally (especially the Double Dragon games), but to see our localized version of the Kunio-kun games right next to the original Famicom versions is really cool to see.
Quality up option- A really interesting feature that Arc System Works built into some of the games in the collection is a “Quality Up” mode. What this does is that on the games that have the mode, it fixes some problems the games originally had. For example playing with the Quality up option on will reduce screen flickering/lag, unlocks teams in certain modes, changes gameplay mechanics, fixes bugs and so on. Out of all the retro game compilations that I’ve looked at and played so far, it seems that Arc System Works has done the most to their games. They have gone out of their way to not only localize previously unreleased games but to also fix bugs, make gameplay adjustments and perform other improvements to the games that were not possible during each games initial release. But if you want to play the games in their original format, ASW gives you that option.
Online multiplayer- While couch co-op is the preferred way to play these games, ASW added in online multiplayer to the games in the DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle that support it. Which is great for those who have friends who also love these games and want to play with them though they might not be close. Grab two more and have a four player brawl as there are games that do support four player multiplayer.
Interface mimics Famicom/NES minis- A cool and nice touch that ASW did with the game’s main menu UI is have it mimic the NES/Famicom classic UIs. The layout is almost the same with a few differences. For one when scrolling through the NES games, it changes to the North American grey/light grey colors and when scrolling through the Famicom games it changes to the Japanese red/gold colors. There’s even a save state section under the lineup of games just like in the NES/Famicon Classic UI.
Remappable buttons– One of the things that I think most retro compilation games are weak on is the ability to remap button inputs. For the most part you’re stuck with the original layout, which is fine if using a Joy-Con sideways or using a retro styled controller. The DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle let’s you remap button inputs. Now you might be thinking “What’s so special about remapping button in these games”? Two words: jump button. Back when these games first released, they only had two actions: punch and kick. In order to jump you would have to press both buttons at the same time, which made for some awkward jumps. As I mentioned earlier ASW made a lot of quality of life adjustments to a couple of the game. And one of those adjustments is a putting in a jump button in most of the games. This is usually mapped to the shoulder buttons but thanks to the game allowing for button remapping, you could place the jump button on one of the face buttons, though I personally leave it on the shoulder button.
In game achievements/unlockables– Having achievements being put into re-released retro games is a nice and fun way to encourage replayablity. The DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle has plenty of achievements. A lot actually as each game in the compilation has their own list of achievements. These are pretty simple, such as clear stage 1, clear mode B, eat all the sushi etc. And as you clear each achievements you’ll unlock avatar icons and nicknames for online.
Lost in translation
No jukebox– Insert minor complaint about not having a jukebox/sound test option here.
No rewind-To rewind or not to rewind, that is the question. As more and more retro compilation games get released, a feature that is starting to be common place only second to save states is a rewind feature. The rewind feature lets players rewind gameplay from a few second to thirty seconds back, depending on how generous the developer wants to be. So far it seems that thirty seconds the most common limit that I’ve seen. Much like the save states, the rewind feature can save a player’s run on a game when things get harry. However with a save state, players can restart from where they’ve saved with out having to either go all the way back to the beginning of a level or to a check point that they’ve past ten minuets ago. With the rewind feature, players can back up, as I mentioned before, to thirty second, and replay that same section. Or say if a player is about to fall into a pit trap, they can use the rewind feature to back up a few seconds and avoid the trap when starting back up again. Though it may feel like cheating, its a very useful tool when trying to complete sections of a game without having to start from the beginning. The DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle doesn’t have that feature. It kind of doesn’t make sense as Double Dragon, Double Dragon II and River City Ransom on the Nintendo Switch Online service and on the NES/Famicom Classic mini consoles have that feature.
Online lobbies are empty- As I mentioned earlier, the DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle allows for online multiplayer. Which is great. Or would be great if there was anyone online. I received a review code for the game early, so it make sense for there to be little to no active players online. But now that it has officially been released, I still can’t find anyone online. I’m not sure how it is on the PS4 side of things but it’s kind of a shame as I was looking forward to meeting fellow fans of these games online.
Alternate selection for some games- While I do like the line up of the DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle, I feel that some of the games should have been replaced, mainly the Double Dragon games and the Western versions of the Kunio-kun games. These games have seen several re-releases before in different formats in the West. Plus The four Western Kunio-kun games are doubles of the Japanese versions. Instead of the Double Dragon games and the Western versions of the Kunio-kun games, the five SNES Kunio-kun games should have been added, in my opinion. Those five SNES games are as follows: Shodai Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (The Original Nekketsu Tough Guy Kunio), Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen’in Shūgō (It’s Kunio’s Dodgeball, Assemble Everyone!), Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari: Yakyū de Shōbu da! Kunio-kun (The Baseball Tale of Downtown Nekketsu: Its a Baseball Match! Kunio-kun), Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, (The New Nekketsu Tough Guy: The Elegy of Kunio and Co.), and Kunio no Oden. These games follow Kunio into his second year in highschool, a follow up to his dodgeball game, a baseball game that has him as a secondary character, a game that take place before the events of River City Ransom and introduces players to the first appearance of Misako and Kyoko and a puyo puyo type puzzle game. I mean when this compilation first came out in Japan a few years ago, it was the 30th anniversary of the series. I would have made sense to have all of the NES and SNES Kunio-kun games in one package. There are even games that got released on the 3DS both here and in Japan that would have been good picks as well, such as Knights of Justice. This isn’t much of a deal breaker, just a tiny nitpick/wishful thinking.
Out of all the compilation games that I’ve played, the DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle has to be one of my favorites so far. It has games I’ve played, games that I haven’t played because they are too expensive, games that I haven’t played because they were never localized. There’s online and local multiplayer for most of the games. Its main menu UI feels like the NES/Famicom Classic menu. There’s achievements and unlockables to help keep me busy. And some of the games even have a Quality Up mode that fixes a lot of the limits the NES/Famicom had. However it does slip up just a bit with no rewind feature, (insert complaint about no jukebox here), and empty online rooms/lobbies (for now). As for replacing the seven Western games, again that’s more of a nitpick/wishful thinking on my part.
If you’re a big fan of the Kunio-kun series and been wanting to see what the Japanese games are like, I think you are going to enjoy this compilation a lot. As for everyone else, yes the title may be a bit misleading, but that should not discourage you from checking these games out. They are truly fun games, especially when you have friends playing along. Then you too can be a hot blooded tough guy or gal too.
