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Nekketsu Bangai Rantou Hen

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Simple beat'em up diversion.

Story - Controls - Review - Images - Downloads

Storyline I think it's something to do with one of Kunio's friends falling in love with the same girl as a rich bastard from another city, so the rich guy sends his cronies to beat the crap out of him. Then Riki and Kunio are forced to commute to the big city and force him to apologize. This could be totally wrong.

Controls
B: Kick to the gut. This'll stun enemies on the first hit, so it's pretty useful. The second kick is a silly looking flying job that leaves you open to attack.
A: Punch. About 3 normal punches, then a wicked hook.
A+B: Duck. Follow up with either A or B to perform a rising uppercut that'll knock enemies down with one hit.
A or B close to downed enemy: Chest stomp. Best used following the uppercut.
B (holding enemy): Toss.
A (holding enemy): Punches.


In-Depth Review
This is a pretty fun, fast-moving little beat'em-up. There's no messing around, just fight your way to the finish (and try not to fall off the subway platforms). The scenery or enemies don't change much throughout the game, but there's just enough variation to keep fighting fans interested to the end (it's not very long, either).
You start off in a city, walking from left to right until you reach a boss. Then you go to a subway station, where you get on a train to the next city. In that city, you walk from left to right until you reach another boss, then go through what looks like the same subway station... at one point, the game scrolls in the opposite direction, but that's just a short scene near the end where you fight all the bosses again (d'oh!). You'll fight the same four basic enemies (two of which are just graphic variations on the other two), but they start throwing in mini-boss characters into the mix close to the end.
As in most simple beat 'em ups, the best strategy against bosses is to take advantage of their incredibly stupid AI. Don't approach from the front, just let them come to you from above or below, and keep knocking them down with the uppercut. I got through the game without losing a life, until the last boss (I doubt he's any smarter--I just decided to go for a fair fight).
The music's pretty jazzy and upbeat, it fits the mood nicely. You get a good sense of impact when you're fighting, especially with the chest stomp, so beating up the punks is always satisfying. I doubt this game does much to develop the Nekketsu storyline, but it's a good diversion.

Images
Running to school? (cinema)
Two of your four enemies, and a subway train.
He's shooting at me... and he's not the last boss?
The map.
S-Shinji...?

Downloads
Bangai Rantou Hen & Double Dragon 2 Gameboy ROMs - requires a Gameboy emulator, I suggest Hello! Gameboy or smyGB.
(check Links section to find the emulators you'll need to play these)

Double Dragon 2

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This is an oddity...

Summary Yeah, I was right. I remembered seeing pics of Double Dragon 2 on Gameboy in Nintendo Power and it seemed awfully, well, not like Double Dragon 2. That's because Technos licensed the engine of the above game to Acclaim and they just screwed around with the graphics a bit and released it as Double Dragon 2 (no relation to any other DD2, continuity-wise). I've included it here for completeness' sake. It's the same game as above, only some of the stage layouts got changed around and everyone's drawn closer to human proportions. Downloads Both Gameboy ROMs - requires a Gameboy emulator, I suggest Hello! Gameboy or smyGB. (check Links section to find the emulators you'll need to play these)