At Nekketsu High School, Kunio finds a note pinned to his locker inviting him to a martial arts tournament hosted by "Double Tiger". Kunio's longtime rival, Riki, comes across the note and decides that Kunio doesn't deserve to have all the fun by himself. 14 other grapplers, each with their own special moves and fighting styles, also take part in this tournament, all trying to earn a slot in the final match against Toraji and Toraichi.
This is a straightforward tournament fighter. You can join the computer or a friend to fight your way through the story mode, or you can fight up to 3 other players in an all-out brawl.
The combination of innovative features and superb gameplay make this, in my opnion, one of the best games ever created for the Famicom [Japanese NES]. The controls are responsive, the gameplay is fast, and the graphics look great. Featuring 4 player games, the create-a-character mode, plenty of secrets, and an awesome pair of final bosses, this is one of the best fighting games ever created.
The Japanese opening menu is easy to navigate. The first choice will ask if you want to play Story Mode or Battle Mode. The second choice asks you to choose how many players will be in the game. Finally, if you choose battle mode, you will be given the option to choose from a stock fighter instead of creating your own.
Create a character by providing your name, birthday, and blood type in the character creation screen. This information will be used to determine the starting characteristics of your character.
To find your combination of special attacks, add the number of your birth month to the number of your birth day, increment this total by one, then modulo by 20. Use this number with the table below. For example, all fighters born on Jan 10th, Jan 30th, Feb 11th, and October 30th use combination # 10.
| 1 | Stone Guard | Spin Attack | Bomb Kick |
| 2 | Jump Elbow | Stone Guard | Spin Attack |
| 3 | Jump Guillotine | Jump Elbow | Stone Guard |
| 4 | Mach Stomp | Jump Guillotine | Jump Elbow |
| 5 | Spin Attack | Bomb Kick | High Spin Kick |
| 6 | Mach Stomp | Tornado Attack | High Spin Kick |
| 7 | Mach Punch | Tornado Attack | High Spin Kick |
| 8 | Spin Attack | Mach Punch | |
| 9 | Spin Attack | Mach Punch | Tornado Attack |
| 10 | Jump Elbow | Bomb Kick | |
| 11 | Tornado Attack | High Spin Kick | |
| 12 | Mach Stomp | Mach Kick | Tornado Attack |
| 13 | Jump Guillotine | High Spin Kick | |
| 14 | Jump Elbow | Mach Kick | |
| 15 | Bomb Kick | Tornado Attack | High Spin Kick |
| 16 | High Spin Kick | ||
| 17 | Spin Attack | Bomb Kick | Mach Kick |
| 18 | Tornado Attack | ||
| 19 | Bomb Kick | Mach Kick | |
| 20 | Spin Attack | Mach Kick |
Each team carries a compatibility rating, indicated by the color of the team's outfits. The compatability rating is determined by the combination of the zodiac signs of each member.The best possible rating is Red, followed by Blue, White, Green, and finally Yellow. To determine your team's rating ahead of time, compate birthdates of each member of the team by using the chart on the right. For example, Kunio is a Sagittarius, and Riki is a Taurus. The cross reference chart shows that they have perfect compatability, and will wear red as their team color.
| Zodiac Sign | Ar | Ta | Ge | Ca | Le | Vi | Li | Sc | Sa | Ca | Aq | Pi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | 3/21-4/20 | B | B | C | D | C | D | B | B | A | C | C | C |
| Taurus | 4/21-5/21 | B | B | C | B | B | D | E | D | A | E | B | A |
| Gemini | 5/22-6/21 | C | C | A | C | D | C | B | B | C | B | B | D |
| Cancer | 6/22-7/22 | D | B | C | B | C | E | A | C | C | B | B | A |
| Leo | 7/23-8/22 | C | B | D | C | D | C | C | C | A | D | C | B |
| Virgo | 8/23-9/23 | D | D | C | E | C | B | C | C | A | B | B | E |
| Libra | 9/24-10/23 | B | E | B | A | C | C | D | B | C | A | D | B |
| Scorpio | 10/24-11/22 | B | D | B | C | C | C | B | B | E | C | A | D |
| Sagittarius | 11/23-12/21 | A | A | C | C | A | A | C | E | E | D | B | C |
| Capricorn | 12/22-1/20 | C | E | B | B | D | B | A | C | D | C | E | C |
| Aquarius | 1/21-2/18 | C | B | B | B | C | B | D | A | B | E | C | B |
| Pisces | 2/19-3/20 | C | A | D | A | B | E | B | D | C | C | B | C |
There are three different endings to the game, each one differs from the others only slightly.
To play as Riki, Kunio, or any other of the main characters with their initial statistics, just get the password for them from their status screen shown in battle mode. The cheat section has passwords for every character.
At the title screen, hold down SELECT, LEFT, and press A.
Normally in battle mode, each character can be used only by one player at a time. To remove this restriction, hold down A+B on the second controller while pressing START on controller one at the title screen.
To skip to the final battle, hold down SELECT and RIGHT at the title and press A. Then enter story mode and choose your characters.
Select battle mode, the number of players you want to use, then press RIGHT to choose not to use a custom character but don't press A yet. Push the SELECT button, and continue holding throughout this entire process. Press A to enter the character select screen. Once there, press and hold Right if you want to use Toraji, or press and hold Left to use Toraichi. Then press A to finalize your choice. You can repeat this process for characters 2 through 4.
