You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
2D Beat 'em ups - From Double Dragon to River City, from Final Fight to Streets of Rage, from Golden Axe to Castle Crashers, from Shadows Over Mystara to Dragon's Crown, from fan-made to official.
Kunio-kun and Double Dragon series creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto has tragically died this week, news confirmed by his son.
“I am the son of Yoshihisa Kishimoto, the director of Kunio-kun. I am writing to inform you that my father passed away on April 2, 2026,” his son said in a new update celebrating the series’ 40th anniversary. “Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions or need further details. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all Kunio-kun fans for the wealth of information
you have shared over the years. I look forward to your continued support.”
Originally getting his game industry start with Data East in the early 1980s, he eventually left and joined Technos Japan where he designed the Kunio-kun and Double Dragon franchises. Both franchises became immensely popular and were inspired by Kishimoto’s love of Bruce Lee’s films, as well as memories of his childhood where he got into fights on a daily basis (some due to a bad breakup with his girlfriend).
While not the first games in the beat ’em up genre, Kunio-kun and Double Dragon largely influenced everything afterwards, which lead to Kishimoto being considered the grandfather of the beat ’em up genre (known as belt scroll action games in Japan).
Since both Kunio-kun and Double Dragon became the main franchises, Kishimoto said he eventually only worked on those titles and later departed from Technos in the 1990s and became a freelance designer and producer. More recently, he ended up working on new Kunio-kun and Double Dragon games again as a producer or consultant on titles like Double Dragon Neon,River City Ransom: Underground, Double Dragon IV, and Stay Cool, Kobayashi-San!: A River City Ransom Story.
Purely by chance, I happened to be playing the original arcade Renegade yesterday, for the first time in ages, futilely struggling to beat the first two stages...
Still holds up, in my book. Maybe a tad stiff, but it has a surprisingly fairly large set of actually useful moves. If you ever wondered which beatemup was the first to have back attacks, double-tap-to-run, wall jumps, grabs and throws, or attacks on grounded enemies: it's this one, the very first one. It also gave us enemy tropes like Motorcycle Guy, Whip Lady, and Rich Boss Gun Guy.
Notwithstanding technical limitations, I think it's better-designed and balanced than most games that came in its wake (a lot of which only have one attack, or only one good attack). That's especially impressive considering the wave of arcade beatemups didn't really begin for another two or three years, so almost anything you can compare it to had a huge technical advantage over it.
It remains pretty unique for being a product of its time (a seven minute game that actually feels complete for what it is). fwiw, the Japanese version is easier.
All that is to say, this guy made some really cool stuff.
A special notice to the Heroic Warriors of Eternia:
We’re nearing the end of development for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction. To ensure that this release will excite and challenge fans across all generations, additional time for development is needed. We can assure you that you’ll be venturing through Eternia in no time as He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, and She-Ra in peak arcade glory.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction will release digitally this summer on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series XIS, and PC.
Thank you for your continued patience as we take additional time to refine the game and deliver an experience worthy of fans. We look forward to welcoming players into Eternia as they join He-Man in defending the planet from Skeletor.
It makes sense.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s during the heyday of the arcade.
Saw plenty of fights there.
Something kinda satisfying about seeing a person smashed up against a cab.
