> I've never seen this before. How does it relate to Dodgeball and Dodgeball
> Football? Everyone that I've seen talking about Dodgeball says that it's got
> something to do with this "Downtown River..." game.
I'll try to clear this up a little. I don't remember how many variations
came out, but I'll try to list as many as I can remember. The reason that
these particular games are related is because they are a series and all
feature the same main characters from the same schools. In the US the
games were renamed, the most popular being River City Ransom (Downtown
Nekketsu Monogatari in jpn).
Now, in Japan, everyone in the series has "Nekketsu" in it. It happens to
be the name of the high school that "good guy" students attend. It also
translates roughly to "Hot blooded" or "enthusiastic"... regardless of the
translation, the name of the school doesn't change.
Anyway, there were quite a few games in the series
Nekketsu Koukou Koushinkyoku (the very first game.. aka Renegade)
Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu(the Dodgeball game) (Super dodge ball in US?)
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom in US)
Downtown Soreyuke Daiundoukai (Crash and the Boys Street Challenge in US)
The first two were also in the arcades.
Now the rest are also called Nekketsu KouKou Dodgeball Bu <sport>
(roughly translated as Nekketsu High School Team):
Soccer
Baseball
Ice Hockey
Kickball (? not sure about this one)
All the ones listed above were on the NES, but I believe only the sport
titles came out in Japan. The original dodge ball (HuCard), both
"Downtown" games (SCD), and the Soccer game (SCD and HuCard) were released
on PCE.
The SFC had 2 or 3 Renegade style Nekketsu Highschool games and at least 1
dodgeball version.
My friends and I usually refer to these games as the "Kunio-kun" games,
since Kunio is the name of the guy (same person) in every version. Of
course that isn't the case in the US versions afaik.
Back in the day, Technos was one of my favorite game makers. I liked all
the Kunio-kun games, and it was Renegade that got me started on the whole
series. I was living in Japan when every version debuted, so it was fun
to play those games at the local toy store. Plus, the arcade version of
Renegade and the jpn ver had very different graphics! It has cool to
compare the two. Had to wait for a while to play jpn River City Ransom
though... luckily while waiting for that to open, I was able to play
another... Altered Beast on the PCE. That was when I decided to drop the
NES and go all out with PCE. Never turned back. :) Wow, that was 12
years ago...
*sniff* natsukashiiii!
I'm sure somebody will correct or add any info I have gotten wrong or
forgotten. It's late, so I'm sure my brain isn't working right. :)
------
David Woodford
xxxxxx@umich.edu