The Kunio-kun (くにおくん) series (typically localized as River City) is a video game series started by Technōs Japan. The series is now handled by Arc System Works who purchased all of the intellectual property rights from Technōs' successor, Million Corp. The first game in the series is fully titled Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (熱血硬派くにおくん), which roughly translates to "Hot Blood Tough Guy Kunio", with Nekketsu being the name of the series' title character Kunio's high school. The kun suffix after his name is an informal Japanese honorific usually applied to young males. The series originated in arcades, before appearing on the Famicom console. Kunio later became Technōs Japan's main mascot, appearing on the company's logo in several games and television commercials. A few of the early Kunio games for the NES were localized for the North American market. These include Renegade, River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball, Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge and Nintendo World Cup, which are heavily "Americanized" versions of the Kunio-kun games. Technōs Japan has released over twenty Kunio-kun titles for the Famicom, Game Boy, and Super Famicom in Japan. In addition, licensed ports of the games were made for other platforms such as the PC-Engine (through Naxat Soft), Mega Drive (through Pal Soft) and the X68000 (through Sharp).

Development

The original game Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun was created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto. He pitched a semi-autobiographical game based on his teenage high school years, with the protagonist Kunio-kun loosely based on himself. Kishimoto recalled his experiences as a high school student regularly getting into fights on a daily basis, which was partly triggered by a break-up with a girl who dumped him. Kishimito was also a fan of Bruce Lee's Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly Enter the Dragon (1973). He combined elements from Lee's Enter the Dragon with that of his own life to create the concept for Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun. He went on to design Double Dragon (1987), which was originally envisioned as a direct sequel to the original Kunio-Kun game, before becoming a new game with a different cast and setting. The game's title and its protagonist, Kunio (variously renamed "Alex" and "Crash Cooney" in the United States), were named after Technōs Japan's former president, Kunio Taki. Many of the later games in the Kunio-kun series, particularly those under the Downtown Nekketsu moniker, were the handiwork of two men: Mitsuhiro "Yoshimitsu" Yoshida and Hiroyuki "Mokeke" Sekimoto. Renegade, the Western localization of Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, spawned its own separate spin-off series developed by British company Ocean Software for home computers. There were two Renegade sequels: Target: Renegade (1988) and Renegade III: The Final Chapter (1989).

List of games

Characters

The following is a list of characters appearing in most of the games, ordered by the games where they first appear.

Main characters

Sanwakai

The Sanwakai (三和会) are a ruthless Yakuza gang that serve as the series antagonists:

Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun (Renegade)

Nekketsu High School Dodge Ball Club (Super Dodge Ball)

Downtown Nekketsu Story (River City Ransom)

Nekketsu High School Dodge Ball Club: Soccer Story (Nintendo World Cup)

Downtown Nekketsu March: Super-Awesome Field Day!

Shodai Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun

Go Go! Nekketsu Hockey Club: Slip-and-Slide Madness

Surprise! Nekketsu New Records! The Distant Gold Medal / Crash 'n The Boys: Street Challenge

Nekketsu Fighting Legend

Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari

Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari EX (River City Ransom EX)

Kunio-kun no Chou Nekketsu! Daiundoukai

Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-Kun Special

Riki Densetsu

Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-Kun SP: Rantō Kyōsōkyoku (River City: Tokyo Rumble)

River City Girls series

Manga

A gag manga based on the video games was produced titled Ore wa Otoko Da! Kunio-kun (おれは男だ! くにおくん). The manga was illustrated by Kosaku Anakubo and was serialized in the monthly anthology CoroCoro Comic from 1991 to 1996, lasting 11 collected editions. Ore wa Otoko Da! was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1995.