First next-gen entry in the Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun brawler series. The story this time deals with the Nekketsu High gang making a field trip to Osaka. However rebel student Kunio and his pal Riki do a little more than sightseeing and get tangled up with the local Yakuzas so now its a battle for survival if they want to get out of the city alive. Gameplay-wise the game follows the already familiar beat ’em up/RPG hybrid template for the series, in which you control your character as he battles his way through side scrolling levels with a collection of attacks and special moves. These special moves can be acquired by collecting special items and your character gains experience for defeating enemies which allows you to upgrade his stats when leveling up. The battles are somewhat more chaotic as they are now staged as distinct waves that must be cleared before you can continue to scroll down the level, in each of these waves you’ll face not only opposing gang members, but also neutral characters, policemen and other assorted NPCs that can fight on your side, against you, or simply ignore you depending on your behavior. New features in Shodai-NKKK include branching plot-points that lead you to different challenges and even alternate endings as well as completely reworked graphics to take advantage of the 16-bit SNES which now feature a more realistically proportioned character design.
