is a two-on-two

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

arcade game released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, ...

in 1992. It runs on Namco NA-2 hardware, and represents the company's answer to Capcom's 1991 hit '' Street Fighter II''.

Gameplay

In the single-player tournament mode, the player's chosen character fights an 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. 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 A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

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

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

es; all of them have their own unique statistics and special moves. * (voice actor:

Nobuo Tobita is a Japanese voice actor and narrator from Ibaraki Prefecture. He is represented by Arts Vision. He is most known for the roles of Kamille Bidan (''Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam''), Albert Heinrich/004 (''Cyborg 009'' (2001)), and Sueo Maruo (''Chibi ...

): Born in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, 1964, measuring 181 cm (5'11") high, and weighing 84 kg (185 lb); he uses dual

tonfa The ''tonfa'' ( Okinawan: , lit. ''old man's staff'' / ''"crutch"''), also spelled as ''tongfa'' or ''tuifa'', also known as T-baton is a melee weapon with its origins in the armed component of Okinawan martial arts. It consists of a stic ...

s, and has the catchphrase of "I am No. 1!" when he wins. * (voice actor:

Toshiyuki Morikawa is a Japanese voice actor, narrator and singer who is the head of Axlone, a voice acting company he founded in April 2011. His name is also sometimes mistranslated as Tomoyuki Morikawa. In 2003, he and Fumihiko Tachiki formed the band "2Hearts", ...

): From the game home country, he was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

in 1967, measures 175 cm (5'9") high, and weighs 75 kg (165 lb); he uses a kusarigama, and has a catchphrase of when he wins. His ending reveals himself to be an undercover investigator of the ICPO. * (voice actor: ): he was born in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

in 1957, measures 158 cm (5'2") high, and weighs 70 kg (154 lb); he uses a hammer, and a catchphrase "Gyahahahaha!". * (voice actor:

Megumi Hayashibara is a Japanese voice actress, singer, lyricist and radio personality from Kita ward in Tokyo and is affiliated with self-founded Woodpark Office. One of the most prominent Japanese voice actresses since the 1990s, Hayashibara is best known for ...

): Born

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 1974, she measures 168 cm (5'6") and weighs 43 kg (95 lb); she uses a

quarterstaff A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European pole weapon, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period. The term is generally accepted to refer t ...

, and has the catchphrase "Yeah!" on a win. * (voice actor:

, same as Vincent): Born in Lillehammer, 1953, he measures 216 cm (8'4") high, and weighs 127 kg (280 lb); he uses dual axes and a catchphrase "Hahahaha!". * (voice actor:

Kotono Mitsuishi is a Japanese voice actress, actress, singer, and narrator. She was affiliated with Arts Vision and Lasley Arrow, but is now freelance. Mitsuishi lived in Nagareyama, Chiba. She graduated from high school and entered the Katsuta Voice Actor's Ac ...

): Was born in

Sao Paulo SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U ...

in 1969 and measures 172 cm (5'8") high, but her weight is unknown; she uses steel claws, and a catchphrase "Come On Baby!"

Virtual Console release

The game was later re-released by Namco Bandai Games (as they are now known) on the

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Uni ...

in Japan on August 18, 2009.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Knuckle Heads'' on their April 15, 1993 issue as being the seventh most-successful table arcade game of the year. ''RePlay'' reported ''Knuckle Heads'' to be the nineteenth most-popular arcade game at the time.

Gameplay

Characters

Virtual Console release

Reception

See also

References

External links