DOUBLE DRAGON & KUNIO-KUN: RETRO BRAWLER BUNDLE / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: ARC SYSTEM WORKS / PLATFORM: PS4, SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Comprising the original Double Dragon trilogy and a whopping 15 Kunio-kun titles, this is one of the more stacked compilations we’ve seen in recent years. Many will be familiar with the Double Dragon games – having been a large part of most NES owners’ childhoods, it’s one of those names that has retained a cult following over the years. Originally released between 1988-1991, the first three side-scrolling brawler DD games are undeniable classics despite some rough around the edges gameplay and some rather limited movesets.
The Kunio-kun series is a little more obscure, though. It might be familiar to modern players through the main characters’ appearances in 2019’s River City Girls, where two high school girls try to rescue their boyfriends, Kunio and Riki, the main protagonist and antagonist of 1989’s River City Ransom. It may come as a surprise to find out that more than 20 Kunio-kun games have been released over the years, mostly exclusive to Japan but widely sought after by western aficionados. But that has now changed, thanks to this newly-localised collection which makes a huge swathe of Kunio titles playable in the west for the very first time.
There are a few duplicates in the collection, where we’re able to play both the original western releases of a handful of titles as well as the newly-translated (and uncensored) Japanese versions, but even if we discount any doubles, there are still 14 unique titles to play through here (a hefty amount of which are sports games like football, dodgeball and ice hockey), and most of them are still an absolute joy to play. Many games have been subjected to numerous bug fixes and graphical touch-ups, and the option is there to play either the original titles, warts and all, or the new “Quality Up” version. Online options have been included, as well as multiplayer capabilities, additional background information, and a raft of sound and display options. A huge amount of work has gone into this compilation, and the effort really shows. It’s a truly wonderful collection that actually improves on the original games and offers a way of playing previously-inaccessible titles. Exactly the sort of thing you want from a re-release such as this. Highly commendable indeed!
