Nekketsu Oyako by TechnoSoft (or alternately Tecno Soft) – not to be confused with the other Nekketsu games, starring Kunio, by Technos – is a rather average Final Fight clone beatemup. You’ve got your three characters, the big buff slowpoke, the fast but weak girl, and the all around average guy, and they walk through a bunch of levels beating the puss out of stuff for some reason or another.

Graphically, the game is… well, sub-par for the Playstation, but considering that it was one of the first titles to grace the system (and considering that it was up against the likes of Funky Horror Band for Sega CD as a contender for “worst near-launch title graphics”) I’d say it did quite well. The sound is, as well, nothing to write home about. Neither is the gameplay. In fact, the whole thing just screams of average, and it would remain so if it took itself seriously. As it is, the amount of bizarre doesn’t quite reach the level of Gourmet Sentai Barayarou for the SNES, with its nose-rocket-propelled moai heads and dance button, but it comes sort of close, with half of the second level being inside a whale (which eats you at the end of the first.) Inside the whale you’ll find boxing octopi and blobs of water with “H2O” written on ‘em. Weird.

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It deserves some playtime though, even if the lack of Kunio is a bit of a disappointment. Given the… closeness of the game title and company name, I think TechnoSoft was specifically aiming to confuse people into thinking that this was a Kunio game, but it’s not. Shame on you, TechnoSoft! That’s bad business that is!