THIS COLLECTION IS NOT BARF.
I have said before I love the River City/Kunio games. I love them so much that last year while a colleague was in Japan I had him pick me up the physical copy of Kunio-kun: The World Classics Collection for PS4 because I had assumed that there would never be a release of some of these games outside of Japan; it had been around 30 years since release and there was no sign of that happening. Of course, after about a month of owning my copy Arc System Works announced they would be releasing the collection in the West, with full translations of the Famicom only Kunio games.
I will stop anyone who is thinking about importing a copy of the Japanese physical release now and say that while the NES titles are in English the Famicom ones are not, and that collection is not the same as this collection despite being nearly identical. That means no new translations for physical collectors.
Because this collection consists of 14 unique releases under 18 titles, I’m going to go through them each in some detail.
PLATFORMS: PS4, SWITCH
MSRP $39.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $39.99
The Double Dragon NES trilogy is here in all its glory. The games still feel great to play and with the “Quality Up” versions I noticed there was less stuttering as I moved across the screen. I did notice some odd visual effects on the edge of the screen in Double Dragon II: The Revenge even with the Quality Up version, but nothing that affected gameplay. Don’t worry, “Bimmy” is still found in Double Dragon III.
The first Kunio game is Renegade, and it shows because this is hands down the worst game in the collection. It plays poorly (think a slower version of Double Dragon II’s control scheme) and the backstory is almost non-existent; bad guys are trying to hurt the nameless main character and the player can’t let that happen. Only one player can play at a time, which reduces any fun factor to near zero. I realize this is the oldest game in the collection being from 1987, but it is clearly only here because of historical value. I would have been more interested to see the arcade version included, but that is being sold as part of Hamster’s Arcade Archives series. The American visuals also are unappealing, taking cues from The Warriors. The Japanese version (Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun) has a brief intro of his classmate getting kidnapped on the title screen and has more visual appeal in general. I also thought it played better, but I might have just been getting used to the controls. Regardless, this is by far the most uninteresting game in the collection.
Next is River City Ransom, which is the Americana/50s greaser version of Downtown Nekketsu Story. This time the goal is to team up with Kunio’s rival Riki to save Riki’s girlfriend from the Dragon Twins. It’s a beat ‘em up with fighting game and RPG elements, as well as a town that can be explored because it is sort of open world. Not only is it impressive, it is fun. There’s simultaneous co-op in both versions, meaning the whole adventure can be played by two people. I recommend playing the Quality Up version because there were programming tricks used to get as much on the screen as possible on original Famicom/NES hardware that are not emulated in this version, however the original version is here for purists. This is my favorite game in the collection, likely because most of the newer River City/Kunio games clearly are using this one as the model. I was also glad to see enemies still say “BARF” as they die in the newly translated Downtown Nekketsu Story.
The last of the beat ‘em up titles is Downtown Special Kunio-Kun’s Historical Period Drama. Basically it is River City Ransom set in historical Japan (except Kunio and friends are actually acting out a play). The player is accompanied by an NPC who will fight alongside them. The goal is to defeat all the other clans by tracking them down. As the player moves around the map so do rival clans. It’s impressive a Famicom game can do what this game does and it is a great follow up to River City/Downtown Nekketsu Story.
Now some readers may lose interest when I say that the rest of the games are sports titles, but I will say now that they are not boring simulation sports titles because they work using similar mechanics to River City Ransom (and star the characters of the Kunio-kun series in the Japanese releases). First up is Super Dodge Ball, which is dodgeball. I found it easy to grasp how the game worked without having to look at the included controls, however I wish there was more explanation on the menu options before gameplay (this was something I felt most sports games suffered from). Visually, Super Dodge Ball was more busy and colorful, and I found it hard to look at in comparison to Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club, which takes place in more realistic locations. Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club also trades the world based competition of Super Dodge Ball for schools competing against each other. The Quality Up version includes access to four player Bean Ball (a chaotic, no holds barred version of dodgeball) when the original NES version only had two player Bean Ball as four player peripherals were not yet available.
Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club Soccer Story was originally released in the West as Nintendo World Cup as it was published by Nintendo. For obvious reasons that version is not included. I don’t really like soccer but the fact that I can throw punches to stop other players does make me more inclined to enjoy it. The options are fairly basic and this game is another that is kept mainly for historical or nostalgic purposes as Kunio-kun’sNekketsu Soccer League is by far the more advanced soccer title, with things like wind affecting play. Go-Go! Nekketsu Hockey Club Slip-and-Slide Madness is my favorite of the sports titles. It is essentially a faster version of the soccer titles where the aggressive punching of opponents makes sense.
Nekketsu! Street Basketball All-Out Dunk Heroes is the most complex, as it is both attempting to be basketball and still maintain the brawler elements of River City. I found it messy and unclear on what I should be doing (other than having baskets, it really isn’t basketball). This is by far my least favorite of the recognizable sports titles.
Nekketsu Fighting Legend is a straight up fighting game using the same mechanics as River City. Imagine an NES version of Smash Bros. with a cast of characters from one series. It’s okay. I think playing with friends would be far more satisfying than playing against the AI opponents. The same goes for Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day! Which is a series of track and field events including a cross country race through the city (and through people’s houses), an obstacle course (think Takeshi’s Castle, MXC or Wipeout), martial arts (which is another fighting game like Nekketsu Fighting Legend), and Ball Break. Ball Break was chaos and I loved every second of it. The goal is to climb one of two poles and destroy a ball hanging at the top of the screen while opponents are trying to knock me off; the absurdity made me laugh out loud multiple times.
The last title is Crash ‘N The Boys Street Challenge or Surprise! Nekketsu New Records! The Distant Gold Medal. Thank god I’m done writing the Japanese titles because they are unnecessarily long. Outside of a coat of paint and different translation, these titles are functionally identical. Both are a series of Olympic style events. I couldn’t get the hang of the running and kept doing terribly at the hurdles. This is one I would have preferred to play with friends rather than the computer, who decimated me at every opportunity.
Good news is that friends are not necessary, as this collection has online support for multiplayer and nearly every game has multiplayer (except Renegade which doesn’t really count). The emulation is fantastic, however getting a control scheme to feel good on PS4 was difficult, as I couldn’t map any buttons to the touch pad on the controller. I recommend remapping the controls immediately as I found the default to be less than exceptional. There was also no option to get rid of the borders that I could find, so while the box art blown up looks fantastic I much rather have just black bars to the sides of the screen. The only real spot this collection fails though is not including the manuals in any form. I would have loved to see all the material that came with these games, but I know that isn’t something everyone looks for. While I can’t say that every game is a winner in this collection, those that are vastly outshine the lesser offerings. This bundle is a must have for any lovers of old side scrolling beat ‘em ups and more arcadey sports games, especially for those who want to play with friends.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
