Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari: AKA River City Ransom / Street Gangs

[termis]

I saw this game on sale when I was in Japan at one of my local used game shops for a whooping 18,000yen, so I said "no thank you" at the time.    And I was recently able to *ah-hem* get it through other means, so I gave it a go and took a few days to finish it.  (Anyone have good cover scans for it?)

Man, this is one of the prime examples of a game that didn't have to rely on graphics and sound to make the playing experience enjoyable back in those days.  Even though they were touched up a tad from the famicom/NES version, I still wouldn't consider them even beyond average for a PCE game.  Nevertheless, this was good in a way since they didn't overhaul it so much to the point where it lost touch with the original. 

Simple fighting, but the great power-up system made this game fun.  I mean, whacking the bad guys with a lightning 1-2-3 pops to the head is so satisfying!  I wish a lot of other beat-em ups had used this "pseudo-RPG style" of powering up your characters.  (Guardian Heroes comes to mind)

A little bit of Japanese knowledge was helpful in playing the game, but there's no kanji at all in the game, and I figure someone who took just 1 introductory course in Japanese would know enough to get by the whole game, since most of it is just simply reading hiragana/katakana menu items in shops. 

I really wanna try the other Kunio-kun beat-em ups for the Super Famicom now.

Anyone else a fan of this series?

[Bonknuts]

Even though they were touched up a tad from the famicom/NES version, I still wouldn't consider them even beyond average for a PCE

A tad? Maybe you need a side by side screen shot comparison

[Keranu]

I've always wanted to play the PCE version of this game, but not willing to spend the cash for it yet (or download it).

[Bonknuts]

There's two Downtown Nekketsu games, right? I can't remember what the other one is called.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I have both, I can't remember the name of either.  I just call this one River City Ransom, & the other River City Ransom Sports

Let's see, the other one is Downtown Nekketsu Soreyuke Daiundoukai.  I forget what the US name of the NES game is, Crash n' the Boys??

[termis]

There are tons games in these Kunio-kun series, and it all started with Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (aka Renegade) - though for the western release, all of the character sprites were changed, so you don't see any of the same characters.  Here's something with a good rundown of the series.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/kunio/kunio.htm

As far as I know, the ones that came out for the PCE were all Famicom ports:

Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu (Super Dodgeball)
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (RCR / Street Gangs)
Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball-bu: Soccer-hen (Nintendo World Cup)
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai (Crash 'N Boys)

I just love it when you beat the crap out of someone and they yell, "BARF!"  The Japanese version is just as funny, like "GE-!" or "OKAAA-CHAN!"

[Ninja Spirit]

My favorite Kunio has to be Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari's feudal alter-ego for Famicom

[termis]

That one does look fun.  Gotta give it a go sometime.

So many games that I'd like to try - so little time.