Designer(s) O. SugiCaptain Gan Cabinet Upright Initial release date 1992 | Composer(s) Takayuki Aihara | |
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Genre(s) Two-on-two versus fighting game CPU 1x Motorola 68000 @ 12.5 MHz,1x Motorola M37702 @ 12.5 MHz Publishers Namco, Bandai Namco Entertainment Modes Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Similar Numan Athletics, Finest Hour, Kaiser Knuckle, Martial Champion, Emeraldia |
Knuckle heads arcade
Knuckle Heads (ナックルヘッズ, Nakkuru Hezzu) is a two-on-two fighting arcade game which was released by Namco, in 1992; it runs on Namco NA-2 hardware, and represents the company's answer to Capcom's 1987 hit Street Fighter. The US version was also the fifth title from the company to show the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen during its attract sequence - and it is also the only game from them where points are merely awarded as a "remaining time" bonus.
Contents
Knuckle heads arcade
Gameplay
In the single-player tournament mode, the player's chosen character fights against his or her opponent, in best two-out-of-three matches with the CPU or against another human player; however, when both are knocked out simultaneously in the first round, one of them will win the second round. The player has a character roster of six fighters to choose from, each with their own weapons and special techniques - and after the player knocks out five different characters, the player must fight two opponents at once instead of one, for three rounds, and finally an "evil" solid-gold version of their own character, before their character's own ending sequence. The most notable features are the jump button, and multiplayer mode which allows up to four players to play simultaneously; however, the multiplayer mode does not have an ending (much like Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle, which was released earlier in 1992 and also ran on Namco's NA-1 hardware), and the closest a player can get to winning it is if they win ninety-nine times because that is when their "WIN" counter will roll over.
Characters
There are six playable characters and no bosses; all of them have their own unique statistics and special moves.
Virtual Console release
The game was later re-released by Namco Bandai Games (as they are now known) on the Virtual Console in Japan on August 18, 2009.