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#Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle
Genre: Compilation / Arcade Brawler / Sports (Various)
Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local, Online), 2-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local, Online)
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Review:
Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle is a Compilation of various games in the Double Dragon and Kunio-Kun series, all originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (or its Japanese version, the Famicom) from 1984 through 1993.
Here's how these games hold up by today's standards:
| Game | Genre | # of Players | Score | tl;dr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Double Dragon | Brawler | 1-2 Alternating (Local / Online), 2 Competitive (Local / Online) | B- | Double Dragon is one of the formative classics in the Brawler genre, but this version of the first game clearly had to make cutbacks to get it to work on the console, not just downgrading the graphics, but also removing the genre's signature 2-player co-op mode and limiting the number of enemies onscreen. Despite these cutbacks, this is still a fun game with some amazing and iconic music, and this version even added a fun skill progression system and one-on-one fighting mode that weren't in the Arcade original. |
| Double Dragon II: The Revenge | Brawler | 1-2 Co-Op (Local / Online) | B | While not quite as iconic as the first game, the NES version of Double Dragon II benefits from having 2-player co-op play and a slightly expanded move set, including the series signature cyclone kick move. |
| Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones | Brawler | 1-2 Co-Op (Local / Online) | B- | This entry in the series adds additional playable characters that players unlock as they work through the game, as well as a new weapon inventory system, but the combat doesnβt feel as fluid as the second game. Itβs still enjoyable, but not qui |
I think it was shown around the late 2010s.
It's not River City Girls, of course. Forgot to say that it's not Scott Pilgram either.
It was released on the PC. I think it was also crowdfunded.
It had really slick animations, almost as great as River City Girls, but the character designs are still rather similar to River City Ransom's and the other games that reused the style.
As a long-time fan of the Kunio-kun series, I had to pick this up... and I'm happy I did! The price might seem a bit steep, but the devs put a lot of work into it, and many of the games are still a genuine delight to play. This isn't just some shovelware compilation.
The history of the Kunio-kun series is long and complicated, but the TL;DR is that they're a bunch of games about a good-hearted high school delinquent who splits his time between brawling with other gangs, saving his friends\girlfriend from other gangs, and getting into insane no-rules sports competitions with other gangs. The big draw of the main series was the genuinely impressive engine Technos had, capable of handling many large characters onscreen and a lot more object physics than was typical of 8-bit games. These were some of the first fighting games where the physics were robust enough to allow for emergent chains of collision events semi-independent of the player's actions.
Combined with the highly distinctive superdeformed character art, and these games frequently feel like playing a cartoon, with some real moments of hilarity resulting from the mayhem going on.
The big draw here is that the package includes 11 original Kunio-Kun games all newly translated from Japanese - many of which have never been officially released in English at all. The few that were, such as River City Ransom and Crash 'n The Boys Street Challenge suffered from a lot of adaptation decay, and in some cases, cut content. Fans of RCR will probably be particularly excited about Kunio-Kunβs Historical Period Drama, which has the same gameplay, but with the Kunio characters now inexplicably in the Tokugawa samurai era.
It does include the original bowdlerized English localizations as well, but there's not really any reason to play most of them when the retranslated Japanese editions are better.
Plus, almost every game in the package has two versions: the original game as released, and an upgraded version with bugfixes, rebalancing, and emulator hacks to reduce flicker and slowdown. Like I said, they really put in the work here. Add to that a great menu system and options for online play (which I couldn't really try since the game just came out) and it's a genuinely good package all around.
So, in terms of work put into the set, it easily justifies the $39.99 pricetag. That said, your own interest and tolerance for NES-era games will be the deciding fact
... keep reading on reddit β‘Hello there..I purchased this game - "Double Dragon & Kunio-Kun Retro Brawler Bundle" on PS4, to play Online Co-op with my friend. But whenever we Create a Room and share it with Each Other, we cannot Enter the Room. It shows the Room...we press connect..it takes too long and shows " Could Not Enter Room". Does someone know how to fix this?
I heard some people saying the Online has been Deserted since its launch on Feb 2020. But it's custom room setup for friends should work.
P.S. There is no Send Invite option to directly send it on the PS4 home screen itself, its all in Game Joining.
Update - We managed to Join...It was NAT Type Issue Indeed. Friend had NAT Type 3. He had to connect WiFi of Mobile Hotspot to get NAT Type 2. And then room connected. No speed lag.
Thread Closed.
The retro brawler bundle is 50 percent off on the switch currently if you haven't picked it up yet. $20 is a steal for 18 classic games with online multiplayer.
Hi everyone. Is there an option to take off the border art (or have black borders) on the PS4 version? I want to buy this, but border art used to fill in the 4:3 aspect ratio is a huge pet peeve of mine. Thanks!
So multiple places around the net claim that there is English on the cart, which is weird because I was under the impression that many of the games had never been localized/translated before. And to add to that, a lot of the screenshots I've seen definitely have lots of Japanese text on it.
Can anyone who has the game shed some light on this? Are only some of the games English and some not? And semi-related question, does this have all the same games as the digital-only western version?
Its been out since yesterday and I've been looking forward to this! I love RCR and DD so having a bundle with favorites plus previously unlreased/rare entries is great!
Link: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/double-dragon-and-kunio-kun-retro-brawler-bundle-switch/
My only problem is...its $40! I feel like this should be $20. I'd have bought it for that but I haven't purchased it yet due to the price. Especially considering that RCR is already on the NES virtual console as is Double Dragon 1 and 2. This is fine as I believe they'd perform better not being emulated via the virtual console though. However they didn't include Super Double Dragon for some reason! There was also an old Double Dragon fighter (like Street Fighter) I remember playing but don't know if its present here either.
Does anyone else feel its a good price for the content? Or maybe it should be cheaper? Any other fans of RCR(Kunio) and Double Dragon? What do you guys think of River City Girls?
Hello! Is there a way to extract the roms from this bundle? It contains all the japanese kunio kun games for famicom, entirely translated and with bugs/slowdowns patched. Since rom of Trials of Mana and even roms of Mega Man Legacy Collection have been dumped, I think that it may be possible to do it for this too? The game is basically an emulator, the interface looks A LOT like the SNES classic one, with the eleven games.
If there is not a software for that, the roms themselves are what we want the most.
Donβt know if it is easier to just dump the roms, or to give people a software (like the one for Megaman Legacy Collection) to do it themselves.
Hope people would be able to do this ! Thanks.
Title says it all
Super Dodgeball has always been one of favorite NES games. I have that one for NES but would love this collection too. I know the collection isnβt technically a retro game itself but rather a collection of cool retro games. I donβt want to break any rules.
Hello there..I purchased this game - "Double Dragon & Kunio-Kun Retro Brawler Bundle" on PS4, to play Online Co-op with my friend. But whenever we Create a Room and share it with Each Other, we cannot Enter the Room. It shows the Room...we press connect..it takes too long and shows " Could Not Enter Room". Does someone know how to fix this?
I heard some people saying the Online has been Deserted since its launch on Feb 2020. But it's custom room setup for friends should work.
P.S. There is no Send Invite option to directly send it on the PS4 home screen itself, its all in Game Joining.
Update - We managed to Join...It was NAT Type Issue Indeed. Friend had NAT Type 3. He had to connect WiFi of Mobile Hotspot to get NAT Type 2. And then room connected. No speed lag.
Thread Closed.
