Art of Fighting X Kunio-Kun

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Hello everyone! In this new entry of my blog I´m going to talk about one of the most curious, original and well done fan games I had the pleasure to play. I´m talking about Ryuko No Ken Nekketsu. I guess some of you are thinking, what the hell does that long and weird name mean? Well, if I had to explain it using mathematics, it would be something like this: Art of Fighting X Kunio-Kun = Ryuko No Ken Nekketsu. Created by an Italian two-man team called SEEP using the OpenBOR open source engine, a very popular engine in the versus and beat ´em up fan game developers scene together with the M.U.G.E.N. engine, Ryuko No Ken Nekketsu shows us what a crossover between these two popular SNK and Technos franchises could have been, and judging from the result, I´m sure both companies would feel proud with this unique mix. I´m gonna try to explain some of the main features of this interesting game.

The game includes all of the Art of Fighting trilogy characters.

As the tribute to the Kunio-Kun (a.k.a. River City Ramson/Target Renegade in the west) series that it is, Ryuko No Ken Nekketsu is basically an old school 2D scrolling beat ´em up in which the main characters are the popular characters of SNK´s versus fighting classic Art of Fighting. Using the light and goofy graphic style of Technos´ popular Japanese high school gangsters series as a base, this talented Italian developing team has recreated pixel by pixel the 23 characters that appear in the Art of Fighting trilogy, which will be available for us to use in one or two players matches in the 4 game modes included in the game, which are:

We will be able to choose from between 3 different routes.

- Arcade Mode: In this mode we will be able to choose one of the 3 different routes available, each with their own stages based on each of the 3 chapters of the Art of Fighting series, in which we will have to punch and kick everything that moves in order to complete them.

- Mission Mode: In this mode we will have to fulfill several requirements in order to complete a series of missions in which we will have to... yeah, you guessed right, beat the crap out of anything that moves.

- Nettou Ryuko No Ken Mode: This mode is some kind of “Boss Rush” in which after we choose one of the 3 different routes available, we will fight in a series of single versus combats against the characters of the Art of Fighting trilogy.

- Densetsu Tag Mode: This is another “Boss Rush” mode similar to the previous one, but this time we will fight in 1 vs 2 combats against 2 Art of Fighting characters at the same time.

The game includes several tributes to other popular SNK games.

As you can see the game has plenty of content, and the gameplay system is no less. Regarding the controls, basically we have a Punch Button, which we can push repeatedly in order to perform the typical combo we can see in most classic beat ´em ups, a Kick Button which we can use to... I´ll let you guess this one... a Jump Button which will allow us to dodge the enemies and perform aerial attacks, and finally the Directional Buttons which will allow us to move our character across the stage, being able to run by pressing twice to the right or to the left. Till here it seems the game has nothing special, and it would have been so if it was not because the guys from SEEP decided, not only to include all the characters from the Art of Fighting trilogy, but also the special techniques these could use in the Neo-Geo classic so that we can use them during the combats. In order to do so, on top of the typical Health Gauge, we will have also a Power Gauge that, after imputing the required commands, will allow us to perform the special techniques. Every time we use a special technique, the Power Gauge will deplete, and once is completely empty we won´t be able to perform any more techniques till we refill the gauge.This, together with other elements such as some platform sections, helps to give the game more variety and personality.

Anyway, I won´t say no more, if you liked what you just read, the best thing to do is that you give the game a chance so you can judge by yourselves. You can download the game right here. There is also a version for Dreamcast and Wii, although the PC version is by far the most complete of them all. The game is definitely far from being perfect, but taking in count we are talking about a fan game, and specially that is FREE, it´s impossible to deny the great job that this small Italian team has done with this unique mix of two classic franchises. If you like beat ´em up games, specially the Kunio-Kun series, or if you just feel curious to see how popular classic SNK characters such as Ryo, Robert Garcia, Geese or Takuma look in a chibi style kicking some serious chibi ass, you should definitely give this game a try, I´m sure you will have a great time with it! And if not, oh well, IT´S FREE!


GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uADohFML6r0