Beat me up, Scotty!

Or: An overview about beat 'em up games based on movies and other popular media

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It is the year 1986 and former three-man-company Technos Japan just released a game called Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun to the japanese game centers. Little did they know that after a series of some good and some not-so-good arcade games since their departure from Data East in 1981, Kunio-kun should finally led them to recognition in the video game industry, creating one of the most influential games of its time.

Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun, roughly translated to something along the lines of "Violent Roughneck Kunio" or "Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kunio", was all about beating the living crap out of, well, everybody actually. Technos already gathered some experience in the fighting genre before with titles like Tag Team Wrestling or the well-known Karate Champ, one of the first head-to-head fighting games.

Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun, adjusted and exported to the west as Renegade, was an instant hit and a great financial success for the company. It spawned several sequels and spin-offs featuring the titular Kunio character like the much praised Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, better known to the west as River City Ransom, but most notably it lay the foundation for one of the greatest series in Beat 'em Up history: Double Dragon.

Punching a woman in the stomach never started so much fun

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Final Fight Thoughts

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Legacy

Main Beat 'em Up Series:

1987 • Double Dragon
1988 • Double Dragon II
1990 • Double Dragon III
1992 • Return of Dbl. Dragon
1993 • Revenge of Billy Lee
2003 • Double Dragon Adv.
2009 • Double Dragon (ZB)
2012 • Double Dragon Neon

The original Double Dragon was popular enough to spawn a whole bunch of sequels, remakes and other things up to this day.

There was a saturday morning cartoon show, fighting games based on that show, comic books by Marvel, a Crossover game with RARE's own Battletoads and even a live action movie starring Mark Dacascos, Robert Patrick and Alisa Milano (of Who's the Boss? fame).

Game creators around the world still draw inspiration from or pay homage to the Double Dragon series with titles like Revenge of the Wounded Dragons, The Warriors: Armies of the Night or Abobo's Big Adventure.

Although there are other Beat 'em Ups that came after Double Dragon to build upon or improve its game mechanics, none of them achieved a similar impact in- and outside the gaming world.

by ceno
2012 • 05 • 22
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