Kunio-kun

The Kunio-kun (くにおくん?) series is a video game franchise started by Technōs Japan, the company that made the Double Dragon franchise. Million Corp., founded by former Technōs staff, purchased all of Technōs' assets (including the Kunio-kun game series) several years after Technōs went defunct. The first game in the series is fully titled Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (熱血硬派くにおくん?), which roughly translates to "Hot Blood Tough Guy Kunio", with Nekketsu being the name of Kunio's high school. The kun suffix after his name is an informal Japanese honorific usually applied to young males.

The series originated in the arcades and the Famicom console; its title and its protagonist, Kunio (variously renamed "Alex" and "Crash Cooney" in the United States), were named after Technōs Japan's former president, Kunio Taki. Along with that, Kunio also later became Technōs Japan's main mascot, appearing on the company's logo in several games and television commercials. Although the original game was created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto — who later designed Double Dragon — many of the later games (particularly those under the Downtown Nekketsu moniker) were the handiwork of two men: Mitsuhiro "Yoshimitsu" Yoshida and Hiroyuki "Mokeke" Sekimoto.

A few of the early Kunio games for the NES were localized for the North American market. These include Renegade, River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball, Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge and Nintendo World Cup, which were heavily "Americanized" versions of the Kunio-kun games. Technōs Japan has released over twenty Kunio-kun titles for the Famicom, Game Boy, and Super Famicom in Japan. In addition, licensed ports of the games were made for other platforms such as the PC-Engine (through Naxat Soft), Mega Drive (through Pal Soft) and the Sharp X68000 (through Sharp). After Technōs went out of business, a company founded by former Technōs staff called Million purchased the intellectual rights for the games and characters.