Kaiser Knuckle (Ver 2.1J 1994/07/29) - MAME machine

Taito F3 cart. published 30 years ago:

Kaiser Knuckle © 1994 Taito.

A one-on-one fighting game featuring nine selectable characters and three end bosses, controlled with a single joystick and six buttons. In addition to the usual kicks and punches, each character also has a number of special moves, that can be utilized via complex joystick and button combinations. In the one player game, players can chose their first opponent, with subsequent opponents chosen randomly by the game.

Unusually for a game of this type, Kaiser Knuckle features blood; something that had hitherto only been associated with Midway's "Mortal Kombat" series. The blood option can be switched off in the game's dip settings.

Kaiser Knuckle was Taito's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II during the fighting game trend of the 90s. Despite showing highly detailed and unique content in the arcades, it didn't catch enough attention to become a success and was never ported to home consoles.

A unique feature is that this was the first and only fighting game to feature five different strength for basic punches and kicks.

Another unique feature are power zones, these are activated when landing a special move when a character's Power (Crush in the Japanese version) meter is full. Power zones contain electricity or fire that can help improve a character's special move. Stage backgrounds can also be destroyed by the combat, getting hit fills the Power meter and when a special move connects when it is full, it greatly damages the background walls and can unlock the fire or electric zones found in levels.

TECHNICAL
Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers: D84

Players: 2
Control: dial
Buttons: 6 (Weak Punch, Medium Punch, Strong Punch, Weak Kick, Medium Kick, Strong Kick)

TRIVIA
Kaiser Knuckle was released in July 1994 in Japan.

This game was known in US as "Global Champion".

An updated prototype of this game is known to exists as "Dan-Ku-Ga". The project was cancelled.

STAFF
Image Illustrator: Nobuteru Yuki
Project Leader: Takeshi Kobori
Planners: Takeshi Kobori, Hiromi Mikami, Yuji Sakamoto, Hiroshi Aoki
Main Character Designers: Yuji Sakamoto, Takeshi Kobori
Character Designers: Hiroto Nizato, Hiromi Mikami, Atsushi Iwata, Shinichi Arai, Makoto Fujita, Horitaka Kawamoto, Takayuki Isobe, Shin Tanaka, Shinjiro Sugitani, Seiji Kawakami, Kazuhiro Numata, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), Nobuhiro Hiramatsu, Hiroyo Kujirai, Tomohisa Yamashita, Tsuyoshi Tanigawa, Hideyuki Kato, Keisuke Nishioka, Tatsuya Ushiroda, Hiroshi Nishida
Assistants: Peacock, Production IG, Vap
Main Programmer: Hiroshi Aoki
Programmers: Kosuke Usami, Kumi Tsuchiya, Tatsuo Nakamura, Isao Oyama
Music Composer: Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata)
Sound Effect Designer: Katsuhisa Ishikawa (Zuntata)
Recording Engineer: Munehiro Nakanishi (Zuntata)
System Engineers: Katsumi Kaneoka, Hironobu Suzuki
Designers: Kumi Mizobe, Takeshi Kobori
Mechanic engineer: Koichi Otsu

• CAST:

Kazuya: Kazuki Yao
Barts: Ryutaro Okiayu
Lihua: Saeko Shimazu
Liza: Aya Hisakawa
Gekkou: Hideo Ishikawa
J-McCoy: Kazunari Tanaka
Wulong: Yasushi Horibata
Marco: Ichiro Otowa
Boggy: Andrew Holms
Gonzales: Hisao Egawa
Azteca: Ryu Kuzu
General: Steve Yamashita
Narrator: Randy Sexton

Special Thanks: Yoshihisa Nagata, Yuji Iwasaki, Minoru Masuyama, Yasuo Tsumori, Tsukasa Oshima, Akira Kurayabashi, Tatsuhiko Abe, Kenji Nakatsuka, Makoto Tanaka, Takao Kawashima, Koichi Morita, S.Yamakata, VG Kumagaya R&D, VG Tokyo R&D, VG Osaka R&D, Taito America, Taito Europe, Ebina Factory

CONTRIBUTE
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