So I picked up the fancy edition of the English Egret II Mini which came with a book full of tips and interviews on all the games. It seems what happened at the Dan-Ku-Ga location test was simply that no one played it. Kaiser Knuckle had an absolutely packed location test but did poorly in the arcades because the difficulty was too high. Apparently the game cost a lot to make so to recoup costs they tried to make an easier version called Kaiser Knuckle EX but no one played that so they made more drastic changes with Dan-Ku-Ga and while the people who played it liked what they saw, people were so burned by how annoying Kaiser Knuckle was to play that they didn't even try it. Though as a fun side note, the interview with Hiroshi Aoki in the book, he mentiones that if you search Dankuga on TH-cam you can find Western players playing very competitively. So he is watching, apparently!
@@GuileWinQuote If you really want one you can still get them but yeah it's pricey. Just checked Strictly Limited. What you're looking for is the "Taito Arcade Strategy Book".
This video cleared my skin. Fighting games are beautiful and you'll never run of new things to explore. The discovery and gradual build of Dan-Ku-Ga as a game means a lot to me, and I hope it becomes more popular on Fightcade!
"Big Body Dhalsim" I've read Marco's page on Mizuumi and your 3-word description of him somehow sold me way harder on him (and the game). Excellent job as usual.
my pet theory on Gonzalez is that he was a blend of Brazilian grappler named Ivan Gomes who worked with pro wrestler/promoter Antonio Inoki and had actual beef with Dutch judoka Wim Ruska (who he kind of favors, looks-wise.) They were briefly big deals in the '70s and there would have probably been at least one member of the crew who remembered at least reading magazines about them. No idea about the coonskin cap, tho.
I'm wondering how much the negative location tests were due to "wrong place at the wrong time" and how much of it was due to being tested by people outside of the intended audience (like has happened so many times with movie test screenings and comic book surveys).
Honestly I wanna believe it was less of the location test bombing and more of just Taito not seeing the profits of putting the game out... But who knows. I hope we can get some insight some day!!
This game coming out around the time Capcom was using state of the art graphics in X-Men & DarkStalkers probably made even experienced fighting game fans laugh at Dan Ku Ga, to be honest.
@@holdthetruthhostage honestly, i spent the least amount of money on Street Fighter, I never cared for it. By the time MK amd Street Fighter both came up with combo systems same time, I had little reason to play the SF series. Also, KoF always appealed more to me. The style, the clashing, way friggin better stories. Nothing SF is today, feels deserved looking back. It was the same game sold for 20 years with new titles and a character here, speed adjustment there. Never understood the love for it. Both have some of the worst animated features. Street Fighter V series animation looks great, but it took Ryu 20 minutes to use Hadoken. Who didn't see that coming as a major issue? Capcom. They let it slide. Laughable.
@@Jabroniville the graphics look only slightly better by comparison. Also, KoF games where of this calibur graphically, but did compete the entire time in arcades.
What an incredible piece of 90's ephemera. It's downright tragic that a full release was canned after whatever disaster befell the location test. Maybe someone who knows what the hell happened there will come forward with the uptick in interest, I mean it must have been something truly traumatizing to have outright killed this amazing game.
According to the interview in the book that comes with the Egret II? It was simply that no one played it. People HATED Kaiser Knuckle so much because of its ludicrous difficulty they refused to give Dan-Ku-Ga a chance.
@@GELTONZ I see... Well, that's a bummer. I would think that at least some fighting game fans might have enjoyed the challenge, but I guess none of them were in attendance for the test.
Back in the past, my favorite FAQ creator for fighting games was Chris MacDonald a.k.a. Kao Megura (R.I.P.), and, as a fighting game passionate, I was very well informated with his FAQs. But, when it cames from obscure games, we didn't had such rich information source as in Kao's FAQs. I got very frustrated to see incomplete movelists, or even the lack of them (without telling miss in the translations or lack of official names for the moves) for some fighting games, like Cyberbots, Gekitou Power Modeller, Warzard, Grove on Fight, the Asuka 120% series, Real Bout Special: Dominated Mind, and many many others. Because of it, I was determinated to build a database of movelists, searching all around japanese sites. It's very complicated to check everything because many sites put the moves names with diferent kanjis, and I need to look for some official source to check who is correct. Because of it, I could say I have the most complete movelist for some games, like Cyberbots, Dominated Mind, and Wild Ambition. Dan Ku Ga was one of those games I found a movelist on japanese sites on that time, but I never had a chance to clean the things up and check for every detail. I hope I can make it in the future...
It's because of people like you and Kao that the poverty fighters community can even exist. I spent way too much time as a kid reading FAQs on random games and I know that without them I probably wouldn't have had the interest in a lot of these niche fighters!
Wow gamefaq is still around? That’s wild! I come from a time when I would get movelist and combos from gamepro magazine! Also bought the “official” game books for killer instinct 2 and tekken 3
Those Barts combos are GNARLY, it's always fun to see these alternative takes on now classic fighting game archetypes, just the small things like Kazuya punching his fireballs out or J-McCoy's sick ass uppercut
The General teleport>grabbed all of the cabs with Dan Kuga and smashed them in a preemptive strike so he could never be beaten in a sequel where he was nerfed. He really was a perfect soldier.
Honestly, I'm just glad that the Egret II Mini has Dan-Ku-Ga for preservation purposes and to be more accessible to more gamers, heck, I considered buying one just for that reason alone. I actually found out about Dan-Ku-Ga due to a TAS someone did with Linhua, and even the TAS had a hard time with the General, but I'm glad you've given it more exposure. You're the definitely the family man with the plan, Guile! I salute you for what you have done for the FGC!
@@sladejosephwilson2300 Mate, did you even watch the video? Guile specifically talks about how Dan-Ku-Ga technically has a release in the Egret II Mini. I suggest you watch it again or specifically go to this part. 12:53
@@megamix5403 That doesn't mean it's the current build. I asked someone who has it and said it was not the current build that is mentioned in this video.
Saying I had a story with Kaiser Knuckle would be an understatement, this game has been my life for 2 years, or so it was beating the game without losing rounds, once I did what I wanted, I never even wanted to touch Kaiser Knuckle or another version ever again, it had become a trauma I struggled to forget, it left me with an undying hatred towards Taito's lowest moral point with the General and a statement on myself to never give up, yet the absolute stupidly hard and illogical difficulty of Kaiser Knuckle left me without any intentions to even touch Dan-Ku-Ga, even knowing how much better of a game it was, this video pushed me a bit more towards foriveness and to give this game a try, but I still cannot ever find it in my heart to forget the consecutive days I suffered with the original Kaiser Knuckle.
One thing I wish you mentioned, and is my favorite fact about it (other than The General and his infamous 100% safe and invincible teleport). Was the fact that Kaiser Knuckle is technically a 10-button game. By pressing 2 punches/kicks at the same time you'd get a new "level" of button, not unlike Samurai Shodown's way of being a 6-button fighter on 4-button hardware. L+M would give you a "super", and M+H would be an "extreme". Kinda sucks that Don Kuga got rid of 'em, but a lot of those extra strengths of button were apparently a bit redundant, so it makes sense. Not to mention some 5-button conversion kits for KN got rid of them entirely Also, thanks for reminding me that this existed. I remember discovering this game a few years back, and one of the only places I could find that talked about it in any detail was some dude's comedy game review site. It was called gaming hell, and it looked like it was from the earliest days of the internet. Though it doesn't seem to be updated much, I'd still recommend checking it out
It was in the script! But after I explained it, it was so deep into the video and I hadn't covered Dan-Ku-Ga yet so I cut it! I super interested in the 5 button version, I wanna see an IRL MK cab that got converted for it hahaha
Had I not already known about the infamous Kaiser Knuckle final boss General, I would have been expecting a fighting game adaptation of the 1985 mecha anime Dancougar.
Even funnier considering Kazuya has Shinobu's VA and even says the "Yatte yaruze!" phrase. Dancouga did appear in a fighter in Super Robot Spirits, though.
I’m really happy to see you talking about this. I remember seeing some cool TASes for the game as well looking for the soundtrack. I’ll definitely find the time to play this game.
I'm like a year late to this, but fun fact/potential explanation for the Russian character being called Gonzales: during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), thousands of Spanish children from Republican families (the communist side of the conflict) were sent as refugees to the USSR, and many chose to remain in the country instead of returning to Spain even after the fascist dictatorship ended in 1975 as they had put down roots in the USSR. There are still quite a handful of Russian citizens who have Spanish surnames to this day, so it's entirely possible that Gonzales is either one of these children or a descendant. I have no explanation whatsoever for the Davy Crockett hat, though; that definitely isn't a typical Spanish garment (nor Russian, for that matter).
I freakin' LOVE Dan-Ku-Ga. Didn't even know it existed until I found it on an emulator console I bought in _the past year,_ but when I fired it up, I instantly fell in love the with sprite art. It may be a "Street Fighter 2 clone" at first glance, but it is _bombastic,_ boy. The sprites are bigger, the stage breakthroughs are more exciting, the color palette is larger (with some of those more watercolor-y shades in the background that reminds me of Konami's excellent beat 'em up, Violent Storm)... if you're going to be (viewed as) a clone, then pumping up the presentation is at least doing the whole cloning thing right. The bouncing/jump canceling thing is super cool to know though; I didn't even _think to try that_ when I played it! I wasn't playing it right at all - I was treating it like... well, a Street Fighter 2 clone with stage breakthroughs and those Crush Meters. Definitely gonna be playing this more! God, I gotta play this more just to experience Gonzalez's _incredible_ desperation move, lmao. That's so amazing! I also didn't know about the connections between this and Psychic Force. I love this channel; your work is awesome!
Nice report. I was kind of fascinated by this one, as I'd never even heard of it until the General became a meme 10-ish years ago. But yeah, debuting THIS the same month DarkStalkers came out? Forget about it- it was doomed.
Taito weren't the only ones to fail, konami also flopped really hard to, that time period from 1992 to 1996 will never be replicated or beaten it was truly a real golden age, it's funny because you say sf clone and that is how a lot of people looked upon other 2d fighters at the time i think games like samurai shodown 2 really helped swing peoples opinions on other non sf games and capcoms stubbornness to shake things up between editions really started to push people away from sf, i think kaiser knuckle failed because while it is a great game you had to look at what was doing the rounds at the time, super and ST kof ss 2 and the biggest ones vf and tekken which saw people looking towards the new generation, i think if kaiser knuckle had come out in 1992 i think it could have had a bigger legacy
Two fighting game series that became a big deal in Japan in the 1990s but never got big overseas are _Power Instinct_ (Atlus) and _Fighter's History_ (Data East). Both of them have had cross-overs with _King of Fighters_ (SNK). Fighter's History and _Fatal Fury_ (SNK) have also had a cross-over mobile game.
So...the game is from 1994, but a female character do the dab in her winning pose...a move which is considered to have been originated around the 2010s. Mind blowing.
The "dab" is by no means of the imagination a 2010 move. It's been a thing in Japanese pop culture for decades thru tokusatsu (Think Power Rangers or Ginyu Forces from DBZ). Even the dab itself is referencing the Tokusatsu shows as it came out of underground internet culture which is heavily anime influenced.
The guy from the videoclip from the song What is Love by Haddaway also dabs, the song is from the early 90's and by no means japanese, so there is another evidence from the dab being as old as the world
DanKuGa is one of my favorite games! Playing in polar bair's tournaments was always a super good time. I hope they come back at some point. #PlayDanKuGa
Violence Fight was pre SF2 so I didn't know if I should mention it, haha. I guess I need to get around to making a Pre-SF2 fighting games video at some point!
one of the many reasons why i like to point out we can be the reasons why games go way under the radar and only want to see what we want to see back then, it's sad to see this happen and still happens today. some games just don't come out but it kinda reminds me of how SFIII was back then and now everyone Loves it.
Adding to the speculation of the failed location test, comparing both it and it’s predecessor to what on the market it might not have held up. KOF, Darkstalkers, pre-render games and most notably Virtua Fighter demonstrating 3D fighting (which IMO needs much more discussion in terms of impact to fighting games as a genre overall)- it had to have been a hard sell to expect returns on cabinets. Still tho glad it found its audience in the afterlife!
I've heard of the first Kaiser Knuckle, but I never knew that there had been an update planned! Let alone a sequel that got turned into the game "Psychic Force".
3:31 dang didnt expect to see MONSTER on there, I was thinking of contacting you to talk about that game and inviting you the discord server for it with the owner of the server has the current build of the unreleased arcade version.
Really, I have to wonder why this and the original weren't included in Taito Legends (2) or Taito Memories. The Atari compilations have had prototypes included. Only guesses are 1: PS2 wasn't up for playing it smoothly 2: They lost the original data.
Really weird to see how Necro appears to have inspired Necro, his stage in SFIII and there’s even the same kinda Russian skyline stage from Third Strike
How have you not hooked up with Matt McMuscles yet to do something?!? I swear, that dude LOOOOOOOOVES Dino Rex, and I legit think Justin would love having you on Triple KO given taht he's jealous of you and your Buriki One setup.
awesome video, I'm really interested in the game now. really wish Taito released it back then, fantastic cast, moves and mechanics that deserve a bigger spotlight for sure
Cant imagine a world where Fatal Fury failed due to being a Street Fighter cline, and Dan-Ku-Ga was an abosulte sucess with sequels nowadays. If people of the 90's tought this game was bad, then i must've been an arcade machine on a Redbeck town arcade.
Where is that screenshot taken from at 3:36 with all those unreleased games ? Want to have a look my self, looks very interesting ! Great video by the way mate, Thanks for the share !
I love how now that Jojo's BA is more widely known here (aside from that Capcom fighter of the late 90s) we can all play the game of "spot the Jojo reference" retroactively in every japan fighting game that came out in the 90s and beyond. I do like how creative with their character concepts than to just make them obvious stand ins for SF characters (looking at you Fighters History). Like their Russian grappler is such an otaku that he uses Judo instead of spinning pile-drivers. You could argue Boggy is like their DeeJay but with his stage and break dancing animation he reminds me more of Duck King in Fatal Fury Special.
Never heard of this one. Thanks for sharing. A few months ago, I ordered The Eye of Typhoon from Limited Run. It stands out to me as one of those “Street Fighter clones”. However, the soundtrack isn’t too bad. Can’t wait to try it out! My order is supposed to include a tips ‘n tricks booklet too.
I looked up Kaiser Knuckle a bunch last year and found the cast of characters a unique mix of SFII rip-offs (a Guile, a Ryu, etc.), but mixed in some unique guys like a Frankenstein Dhalsim, a Russian Judo Davy Crockett, and more. I had heard if KK2 being cancelled, but not any of the unique attributes the game had had, so that's great info! Interesting how even things like this can create a minor "scene".
Like guilty gear prototype, the game was almost done but Daisuke god said it was trash so all work should be done again. Maybe taito doesnt had the money to do a rework and thats it
Thank you!!!! Doing 1 video a month is sometimes too much for me ha, but i've been thinking about putting out some smaller stuff to bide time between bigger uploads!
Taito's FG history is super interesting. I hope you eventually cover Psychic Force and Psychic Force 2012! ZUNTATA goes even harder on those soundtracks!
It's so weird how Taito basically finished a game, then did a location test, and then decided to not release it. If a game is 25% complete and you feel that it's not going to be good, okay, that's one thing. But how can you put all of that money and effort into a game and basically finish it and then still not release it? There's no way it would have hurt Taito's image or anything like that. And they didn't even need to advertise it. Just say that it's available to buy and at least get something back for the effort put into it...
Okay, what is this list of unreleased fighting games? Garou 2 I recognize. Capcom Fighting Allstars. Sure. Is that an NES SF1? A Fallen Angels sequel? WTF is Deadly Sport? Can we get a full list?
Whoever owns Taito now needs to reboot this game with updated character bios including adding the REAL boss that was seen on the General's stage after tou defeat him. I also agree about the soundtrack..it's criminally underrated & GOOD
YO YOU MENTIONED M.O.N.S.T.E.R AT 3:34 and I would be happy if you do a retrospective of that game. I’ve been wanting a psychical copy of that game for so long and it would be amazing if M.O.N.S.T.E.R get some recognition since the game is created by ShoK who is involved in Darkstalkers and Street Fighter Alpha and supposedly the creator of Jon Talbain
hm. i wonder what online discussion was like when da-ku-ga was first posted online. i cant even figure out when/where it first turned up, or who posted about it
Sadly me neither, and I searched and asked around for it quite a bit. Goh_Billy says he first downloaded it in 2006, so that's all I have. The release of the prototype is definitely something I wish I could have expanded on in this video...
Love the old school multi scrolling effects, especially when they're applied to the breakable walls. Watched a playthrough of the vanilla not long ago, would like to see some of this version. The world could use the charm of misc random fighter attempts like these again that dare to do something different, but also just take their genuine crack at things. Tired of seeing the same big names release sequels and little else other than occasional cash grabs.
Think it's worth mentioning that the Egret II Mini has a couple of graphical corrections like restoring Gonzales' and Azteca's character select portraits. Not sure if anyone's dumped the ROM to ensure MAME/Finalburn are using the truest, most authenticest version of Dan-ku-ga.
Wow Dan Ku Ga seems fun I can tell. I would’ve played a lot on this fighting game. Ripped up floors and destructible walls? It’s truly a shame this wasn’t released!
I didn't realize Psychic Force had a prequel, but I also didn't even realize there was a Psychic Force game before Psychic Force 2012. I loved that game, played it on Dreamcast practically nonstop.
This game had to compete with the alpha series, KoF, Fatal Furies and the new 3d fighting games, looking at it now is interesting but it was obsolete compared to what Capcom, SNK, Sega and Namco were doing.
Interesting game with excellent sprite animations. It's cool to know that unreleased games can still be played. That shows it SHOULD have been released after all.
After Street Fighter 2 blew up, everyone wanted to make a fighting game... and in many cases, that's exactly what they did. Remember Tao Taido? Martial Champion? Mutant Fighter? Kaiser Knuckle was exactly what you should've expected from a quickie cash-in from a company with zero experience with Street Fighter-style games: rough, flawed, limited, with way too difficult bosses and an _outrageously_ overpowered final boss. (See? It's not _just_ SNK! 🙂) The problem was that there was nothing it did that literally every other Street Fighter clone did way better. Fighters History, World Heroes, and all the sequels got plenty of action where I live, where you'd be hard-pressed to find 1,000 arcadegoers who remember that Kaiser Knuckle even existed. I'm not sure why it ever needed a Champion Edition-ization, or for that matter how not releasing it is regrettable or even a bad business decision (Mortal Kombat 3, Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken, and The King of Fighters '94 all came out the same year, so there's a very good chance it would've just gotten buried). I'm kinda suprised that it has a following. But the great thing about emulation (and sites like TH-cam) is that even a long-dead idea can gain a following and get some recognition. Even bad games or "ripoffs" are a part of history and deserved to be remembered. Not remembered _the same way_ as the greats, but remembered all the same.
So I picked up the fancy edition of the English Egret II Mini which came with a book full of tips and interviews on all the games. It seems what happened at the Dan-Ku-Ga location test was simply that no one played it. Kaiser Knuckle had an absolutely packed location test but did poorly in the arcades because the difficulty was too high. Apparently the game cost a lot to make so to recoup costs they tried to make an easier version called Kaiser Knuckle EX but no one played that so they made more drastic changes with Dan-Ku-Ga and while the people who played it liked what they saw, people were so burned by how annoying Kaiser Knuckle was to play that they didn't even try it.
Though as a fun side note, the interview with Hiroshi Aoki in the book, he mentiones that if you search Dankuga on TH-cam you can find Western players playing very competitively. So he is watching, apparently!
Whoa, now I wish I picked up the damn Egret II mini 😭😭😭
Thanks for the info! Mystery solved!
@@GuileWinQuote If you really want one you can still get them but yeah it's pricey. Just checked Strictly Limited. What you're looking for is the "Taito Arcade Strategy Book".
I wish this was the pinned quote; this is great info to add to the video, but people are gonna miss it unless they scroll through the comments. Bummer
@@GuileWinQuote Agree with the idea that this comment should be pinned
@@GuileWinQuote Please, where can i find this tier list in 3:35?
General was so powerful he even killed its sequel.
Not powerful than kof bosses
@@imnotsure296 Untrue. Have you SEEN how that guy fights?
@@imnotsure296 KOF bosses are a joke compared to The General.
"Forgotten by the general public"
Don't think I didn't hear that pun lmao
I don't the pun :(
@@ponpoon5415 "Forgotten by the GENERAL public"
It's a reference to the final boss
@@MegaShingo97 hehe thanks
This video cleared my skin. Fighting games are beautiful and you'll never run of new things to explore. The discovery and gradual build of Dan-Ku-Ga as a game means a lot to me, and I hope it becomes more popular on Fightcade!
"Big Body Dhalsim"
I've read Marco's page on Mizuumi and your 3-word description of him somehow sold me way harder on him (and the game).
Excellent job as usual.
my pet theory on Gonzalez is that he was a blend of Brazilian grappler named Ivan Gomes who worked with pro wrestler/promoter Antonio Inoki and had actual beef with Dutch judoka Wim Ruska (who he kind of favors, looks-wise.) They were briefly big deals in the '70s and there would have probably been at least one member of the crew who remembered at least reading magazines about them.
No idea about the coonskin cap, tho.
That is a fascinating theory. They probably confused coonskin for the ear flap hats we often see in media.
@@alwaysxneveru mean the Ushanka?
I'm wondering how much the negative location tests were due to "wrong place at the wrong time" and how much of it was due to being tested by people outside of the intended audience (like has happened so many times with movie test screenings and comic book surveys).
Honestly I wanna believe it was less of the location test bombing and more of just Taito not seeing the profits of putting the game out... But who knows.
I hope we can get some insight some day!!
This game coming out around the time Capcom was using state of the art graphics in X-Men & DarkStalkers probably made even experienced fighting game fans laugh at Dan Ku Ga, to be honest.
@@GuileWinQuote The problem they were not thinking about during this private testing was if there were Capcom Agents or Fans that would hate anyway
@@holdthetruthhostage honestly, i spent the least amount of money on Street Fighter, I never cared for it. By the time MK amd Street Fighter both came up with combo systems same time, I had little reason to play the SF series. Also, KoF always appealed more to me. The style, the clashing, way friggin better stories. Nothing SF is today, feels deserved looking back. It was the same game sold for 20 years with new titles and a character here, speed adjustment there. Never understood the love for it. Both have some of the worst animated features. Street Fighter V series animation looks great, but it took Ryu 20 minutes to use Hadoken. Who didn't see that coming as a major issue? Capcom. They let it slide. Laughable.
@@Jabroniville the graphics look only slightly better by comparison. Also, KoF games where of this calibur graphically, but did compete the entire time in arcades.
What an incredible piece of 90's ephemera. It's downright tragic that a full release was canned after whatever disaster befell the location test. Maybe someone who knows what the hell happened there will come forward with the uptick in interest, I mean it must have been something truly traumatizing to have outright killed this amazing game.
According to the interview in the book that comes with the Egret II? It was simply that no one played it. People HATED Kaiser Knuckle so much because of its ludicrous difficulty they refused to give Dan-Ku-Ga a chance.
@@GELTONZ I see... Well, that's a bummer. I would think that at least some fighting game fans might have enjoyed the challenge, but I guess none of them were in attendance for the test.
Back in the past, my favorite FAQ creator for fighting games was Chris MacDonald a.k.a. Kao Megura (R.I.P.), and, as a fighting game passionate, I was very well informated with his FAQs.
But, when it cames from obscure games, we didn't had such rich information source as in Kao's FAQs. I got very frustrated to see incomplete movelists, or even the lack of them (without telling miss in the translations or lack of official names for the moves) for some fighting games, like Cyberbots, Gekitou Power Modeller, Warzard, Grove on Fight, the Asuka 120% series, Real Bout Special: Dominated Mind, and many many others.
Because of it, I was determinated to build a database of movelists, searching all around japanese sites. It's very complicated to check everything because many sites put the moves names with diferent kanjis, and I need to look for some official source to check who is correct.
Because of it, I could say I have the most complete movelist for some games, like Cyberbots, Dominated Mind, and Wild Ambition.
Dan Ku Ga was one of those games I found a movelist on japanese sites on that time, but I never had a chance to clean the things up and check for every detail. I hope I can make it in the future...
It's because of people like you and Kao that the poverty fighters community can even exist. I spent way too much time as a kid reading FAQs on random games and I know that without them I probably wouldn't have had the interest in a lot of these niche fighters!
Wow gamefaq is still around? That’s wild! I come from a time when I would get movelist and combos from gamepro magazine! Also bought the “official” game books for killer instinct 2 and tekken 3
@@boonjuefpvboonjue1230 It's STILL the best place to get your info on most games, obscure or otherwise.
Those Barts combos are GNARLY, it's always fun to see these alternative takes on now classic fighting game archetypes, just the small things like Kazuya punching his fireballs out or J-McCoy's sick ass uppercut
The General teleport>grabbed all of the cabs with Dan Kuga and smashed them in a preemptive strike so he could never be beaten in a sequel where he was nerfed. He really was a perfect soldier.
6:00 this game sounds amazing!! I never get why 2D fighters didn't have wall stage breaks. But having it when this game out is even more cool!
fail fury real bout has ring outs achieved by breaking down walls at the end of the stage. I always thought that was sweet.
Honestly, I'm just glad that the Egret II Mini has Dan-Ku-Ga for preservation purposes and to be more accessible to more gamers, heck, I considered buying one just for that reason alone.
I actually found out about Dan-Ku-Ga due to a TAS someone did with Linhua, and even the TAS had a hard time with the General, but I'm glad you've given it more exposure. You're the definitely the family man with the plan, Guile! I salute you for what you have done for the FGC!
You mean it only has Kaiser Knuckle. It doesn't have the sequel. But I wanted to buy the Egret 2 just for Kaiser Knuckle
@@sladejosephwilson2300 Mate, did you even watch the video? Guile specifically talks about how Dan-Ku-Ga technically has a release in the Egret II Mini. I suggest you watch it again or specifically go to this part. 12:53
@@megamix5403 That doesn't mean it's the current build. I asked someone who has it and said it was not the current build that is mentioned in this video.
Between this and Chaos Breaker, l legit believe Taito was just cursed when it comes to fighting games.
This is the sort of fighting game content I long to see. Keep doing what you're doing, king.
Blessed be the GuileWinQuote video
Saying I had a story with Kaiser Knuckle would be an understatement, this game has been my life for 2 years, or so it was beating the game without losing rounds, once I did what I wanted, I never even wanted to touch Kaiser Knuckle or another version ever again, it had become a trauma I struggled to forget, it left me with an undying hatred towards Taito's lowest moral point with the General and a statement on myself to never give up, yet the absolute stupidly hard and illogical difficulty of Kaiser Knuckle left me without any intentions to even touch Dan-Ku-Ga, even knowing how much better of a game it was, this video pushed me a bit more towards foriveness and to give this game a try, but I still cannot ever find it in my heart to forget the consecutive days I suffered with the original Kaiser Knuckle.
Love this game
One thing I wish you mentioned, and is my favorite fact about it (other than The General and his infamous 100% safe and invincible teleport). Was the fact that Kaiser Knuckle is technically a 10-button game. By pressing 2 punches/kicks at the same time you'd get a new "level" of button, not unlike Samurai Shodown's way of being a 6-button fighter on 4-button hardware. L+M would give you a "super", and M+H would be an "extreme". Kinda sucks that Don Kuga got rid of 'em, but a lot of those extra strengths of button were apparently a bit redundant, so it makes sense. Not to mention some 5-button conversion kits for KN got rid of them entirely
Also, thanks for reminding me that this existed. I remember discovering this game a few years back, and one of the only places I could find that talked about it in any detail was some dude's comedy game review site. It was called gaming hell, and it looked like it was from the earliest days of the internet. Though it doesn't seem to be updated much, I'd still recommend checking it out
It was in the script! But after I explained it, it was so deep into the video and I hadn't covered Dan-Ku-Ga yet so I cut it!
I super interested in the 5 button version, I wanna see an IRL MK cab that got converted for it hahaha
I'll never get tired of hearing you wax poetic about obscure fighting games. Have a comment for the algorithm.
Thank you for the support 🫡
Had I not already known about the infamous Kaiser Knuckle final boss General,
I would have been expecting a fighting game adaptation of the 1985 mecha anime Dancougar.
Even funnier considering Kazuya has Shinobu's VA and even says the "Yatte yaruze!" phrase.
Dancouga did appear in a fighter in Super Robot Spirits, though.
ZUNTATA is amazing there is no WONDER the soundtrack goes as hard as it does!
You can never go wrong with the Daddy Mulk people
I’m really happy to see you talking about this. I remember seeing some cool TASes for the game as well looking for the soundtrack. I’ll definitely find the time to play this game.
I'm like a year late to this, but fun fact/potential explanation for the Russian character being called Gonzales: during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), thousands of Spanish children from Republican families (the communist side of the conflict) were sent as refugees to the USSR, and many chose to remain in the country instead of returning to Spain even after the fascist dictatorship ended in 1975 as they had put down roots in the USSR. There are still quite a handful of Russian citizens who have Spanish surnames to this day, so it's entirely possible that Gonzales is either one of these children or a descendant. I have no explanation whatsoever for the Davy Crockett hat, though; that definitely isn't a typical Spanish garment (nor Russian, for that matter).
Thank you for making sense of half of this goofy character 🫡
Might be a Russian sambo gi, though the pants are too long.
This was really well put together. I absolutely love learning about hidden gem fighting games like this. Kudos to you!
Damn shame it never got a release, but sorta feels satisfying that the dev's efforts are finally getting recognition
I freakin' LOVE Dan-Ku-Ga. Didn't even know it existed until I found it on an emulator console I bought in _the past year,_ but when I fired it up, I instantly fell in love the with sprite art. It may be a "Street Fighter 2 clone" at first glance, but it is _bombastic,_ boy. The sprites are bigger, the stage breakthroughs are more exciting, the color palette is larger (with some of those more watercolor-y shades in the background that reminds me of Konami's excellent beat 'em up, Violent Storm)... if you're going to be (viewed as) a clone, then pumping up the presentation is at least doing the whole cloning thing right.
The bouncing/jump canceling thing is super cool to know though; I didn't even _think to try that_ when I played it! I wasn't playing it right at all - I was treating it like... well, a Street Fighter 2 clone with stage breakthroughs and those Crush Meters. Definitely gonna be playing this more! God, I gotta play this more just to experience Gonzalez's _incredible_ desperation move, lmao. That's so amazing!
I also didn't know about the connections between this and Psychic Force. I love this channel; your work is awesome!
I'm so glad that you've brought this video! I'm fascinated about unreleased games.
Nice report. I was kind of fascinated by this one, as I'd never even heard of it until the General became a meme 10-ish years ago. But yeah, debuting THIS the same month DarkStalkers came out? Forget about it- it was doomed.
10:10 He even has DIO written on his arms like Diego Brando's Scary Monsters
Art Of Fighting 2 is extremely difficult as is Samurai Shodown III but those games were played.
If this was released back then, it would have rivalled street fighter with ease.
Dan-Ku-Ga is one of the examples that 90's fighting games go beyond the traditional ones.
Taito weren't the only ones to fail, konami also flopped really hard to, that time period from 1992 to 1996 will never be replicated or beaten it was truly a real golden age, it's funny because you say sf clone and that is how a lot of people looked upon other 2d fighters at the time i think games like samurai shodown 2 really helped swing peoples opinions on other non sf games and capcoms stubbornness to shake things up between editions really started to push people away from sf, i think kaiser knuckle failed because while it is a great game you had to look at what was doing the rounds at the time, super and ST kof ss 2 and the biggest ones vf and tekken which saw people looking towards the new generation, i think if kaiser knuckle had come out in 1992 i think it could have had a bigger legacy
At least give Konami props for giving us 2 blonde hotties: Rachael (Martial Champions) & Layla (Dragoon Might). 😅
Two fighting game series that became a big deal in Japan in the 1990s but never got big overseas are _Power Instinct_ (Atlus) and _Fighter's History_ (Data East).
Both of them have had cross-overs with _King of Fighters_ (SNK). Fighter's History and _Fatal Fury_ (SNK) have also had a cross-over mobile game.
So...the game is from 1994, but a female character do the dab in her winning pose...a move which is considered to have been originated around the 2010s. Mind blowing.
The "dab" is by no means of the imagination a 2010 move. It's been a thing in Japanese pop culture for decades thru tokusatsu (Think Power Rangers or Ginyu Forces from DBZ). Even the dab itself is referencing the Tokusatsu shows as it came out of underground internet culture which is heavily anime influenced.
You must be new to the world. Most things are old. “There’s nothing new under the sun” is a saying for a reason.
The guy from the videoclip from the song What is Love by Haddaway also dabs, the song is from the early 90's and by no means japanese, so there is another evidence from the dab being as old as the world
highly interested in seeing the rest of the games in that unreleased game tier list
Your videos are so good! Keep up the great work
Thank you for watching 🙇🏼
DanKuGa is one of my favorite games! Playing in polar bair's tournaments was always a super good time. I hope they come back at some point. #PlayDanKuGa
Ahhh yes Dan Ku Ga, I first played it on fightcade and now am a huge fan of it
Annie Hamilton's Finisher From Power Instinct 10:01
DINO REX MENTIONED
Violence Fight forgotten
@@DirectorHatman RIP Lick Joe
Violence Fight was pre SF2 so I didn't know if I should mention it, haha.
I guess I need to get around to making a Pre-SF2 fighting games video at some point!
@@GuileWinQuote oh yea, it's just i know a bit about Violence Fight/Solitary Fighter so I was like "wait but Taito did do a FG before Dino Rex..."
I love the soundtrack and these characters. Thanks for making a video of this game!
Man, I like your channel!
Thanks for that!
Dropped a comment and got censored? 12:51 is my video there. Like I said, very underrated fighter and can be played on Fightcade
Its a good day when guile uploads
one of the many reasons why i like to point out we can be the reasons why games go way under the radar and only want to see what we want to see back then, it's sad to see this happen and still happens today. some games just don't come out but it kinda reminds me of how SFIII was back then and now everyone Loves it.
Adding to the speculation of the failed location test, comparing both it and it’s predecessor to what on the market it might not have held up. KOF, Darkstalkers, pre-render games and most notably Virtua Fighter demonstrating 3D fighting (which IMO needs much more discussion in terms of impact to fighting games as a genre overall)- it had to have been a hard sell to expect returns on cabinets. Still tho glad it found its audience in the afterlife!
I've heard of the first Kaiser Knuckle, but I never knew that there had been an update planned! Let alone a sequel that got turned into the game "Psychic Force".
3:31 dang didnt expect to see MONSTER on there, I was thinking of contacting you to talk about that game and inviting you the discord server for it with the owner of the server has the current build of the unreleased arcade version.
Really, I have to wonder why this and the original weren't included in Taito Legends (2) or Taito Memories. The Atari compilations have had prototypes included. Only guesses are 1: PS2 wasn't up for playing it smoothly 2: They lost the original data.
Great video, dude!
And that Gonzales's special... gaaaaahd! it's fkn' awesome!
Beatiful description and explanation. Fei long seems so appropiate
You make the best Fighting Game videos!
Really weird to see how Necro appears to have inspired Necro, his stage in SFIII and there’s even the same kinda Russian skyline stage from Third Strike
How have you not hooked up with Matt McMuscles yet to do something?!? I swear, that dude LOOOOOOOOVES Dino Rex, and I legit think Justin would love having you on Triple KO given taht he's jealous of you and your Buriki One setup.
Matt is a poser
I'd like to see that happen too 👀
@@GuileWinQuote I'm amazed he hasn't contacted you yet
You've been name-dropped on TKO quite a few times
great video man... ivebeen watching justin wong on twitch and learning about some fighing games i didnt know about ..this was one them. thank you
holy sh*t i forgot about mugen haha ty man
awesome video, I'm really interested in the game now. really wish Taito released it back then, fantastic cast, moves and mechanics that deserve a bigger spotlight for sure
Cant imagine a world where Fatal Fury failed due to being a Street Fighter cline, and Dan-Ku-Ga was an abosulte sucess with sequels nowadays.
If people of the 90's tought this game was bad, then i must've been an arcade machine on a Redbeck town arcade.
3:37 we need to have full descriptions of this list
Well, if Breaker's Collection and Rumble Fish can get re-releases, here's to hoping this one can as well!
Where is that screenshot taken from at 3:36 with all those unreleased games ? Want to have a look my self, looks very interesting ! Great video by the way mate, Thanks for the share !
That guy with the jeans and wooden shoes 😂😂
Thanks for answering my question I always thought it was going to make one.
I love how now that Jojo's BA is more widely known here (aside from that Capcom fighter of the late 90s) we can all play the game of "spot the Jojo reference" retroactively in every japan fighting game that came out in the 90s and beyond. I do like how creative with their character concepts than to just make them obvious stand ins for SF characters (looking at you Fighters History). Like their Russian grappler is such an otaku that he uses Judo instead of spinning pile-drivers. You could argue Boggy is like their DeeJay but with his stage and break dancing animation he reminds me more of Duck King in Fatal Fury Special.
2:48 Frauds, that's Dankuga, not Kaiser Knuckle
Great video as always
Never heard of this one. Thanks for sharing. A few months ago, I ordered The Eye of Typhoon from Limited Run. It stands out to me as one of those “Street Fighter clones”. However, the soundtrack isn’t too bad. Can’t wait to try it out! My order is supposed to include a tips ‘n tricks booklet too.
Apparently Fighters History was recently made available on the Switch's SNES library
7:28
YOOOO... is that a Super Beast Machine God Dancouga reference?
I looked up Kaiser Knuckle a bunch last year and found the cast of characters a unique mix of SFII rip-offs (a Guile, a Ryu, etc.), but mixed in some unique guys like a Frankenstein Dhalsim, a Russian Judo Davy Crockett, and more. I had heard if KK2 being cancelled, but not any of the unique attributes the game had had, so that's great info! Interesting how even things like this can create a minor "scene".
This would be an instant smash ..
I’m a 90s boy ..
Looking at this in an arcade shop would have blown my mind.
I was raised on SF 2
My favorite new game I picked up last year
Like guilty gear prototype, the game was almost done but Daisuke god said it was trash so all work should be done again. Maybe taito doesnt had the money to do a rework and thats it
11:45 lol @ the bio
I AM A PERFECT SOLDIER
Damn, kinda wished you upload more frequently your content is S+!
Thank you!!!! Doing 1 video a month is sometimes too much for me ha, but i've been thinking about putting out some smaller stuff to bide time between bigger uploads!
@@GuileWinQuote thanks for your hardwork mate, keep them coming!!!
Wall breaking, air dash , double hit while jumping... A GG Strive vibe 30 before GG Strive lol
Great video as always!
Taito's FG history is super interesting. I hope you eventually cover Psychic Force and Psychic Force 2012! ZUNTATA goes even harder on those soundtracks!
It's so weird how Taito basically finished a game, then did a location test, and then decided to not release it. If a game is 25% complete and you feel that it's not going to be good, okay, that's one thing. But how can you put all of that money and effort into a game and basically finish it and then still not release it? There's no way it would have hurt Taito's image or anything like that. And they didn't even need to advertise it. Just say that it's available to buy and at least get something back for the effort put into it...
I hope Taito realizes how much of a fool they have been and just release both Kaizer Knuckle AND Dan-ku-ga with rollback netcode.
Okay, what is this list of unreleased fighting games? Garou 2 I recognize. Capcom Fighting Allstars. Sure. Is that an NES SF1? A Fallen Angels sequel? WTF is Deadly Sport?
Can we get a full list?
Whoever owns Taito now needs to reboot this game with updated character bios including adding the REAL boss that was seen on the General's stage after tou defeat him. I also agree about the soundtrack..it's criminally underrated & GOOD
a lot of the things mentioned in the system features secret sauce are similar to features found in strive, which is officially neat
Growing up I tired most fighting games but always gravitated towards SF games...
Another W video GuileWinGOAT 😤
YO YOU MENTIONED M.O.N.S.T.E.R AT 3:34 and I would be happy if you do a retrospective of that game. I’ve been wanting a psychical copy of that game for so long and it would be amazing if M.O.N.S.T.E.R get some recognition since the game is created by ShoK who is involved in Darkstalkers and Street Fighter Alpha and supposedly the creator of Jon Talbain
Oh yeah I would love to see a video about the unreleased Dragons Heaven
I wonder if Square Enix would release another Kaiser Knuckle...
But they're more concerned in developing, publishing and releasing JRPGS.
hm. i wonder what online discussion was like when da-ku-ga was first posted online.
i cant even figure out when/where it first turned up, or who posted about it
Sadly me neither, and I searched and asked around for it quite a bit.
Goh_Billy says he first downloaded it in 2006, so that's all I have.
The release of the prototype is definitely something I wish I could have expanded on in this video...
@@GuileWinQuote the mystery somehow makes its story and its scene more charming.
So although I really wanna know.... I also know I don't need to
Love the old school multi scrolling effects, especially when they're applied to the breakable walls. Watched a playthrough of the vanilla not long ago, would like to see some of this version.
The world could use the charm of misc random fighter attempts like these again that dare to do something different, but also just take their genuine crack at things. Tired of seeing the same big names release sequels and little else other than occasional cash grabs.
Think it's worth mentioning that the Egret II Mini has a couple of graphical corrections like restoring Gonzales' and Azteca's character select portraits. Not sure if anyone's dumped the ROM to ensure MAME/Finalburn are using the truest, most authenticest version of Dan-ku-ga.
It sadly hasn't been updated so far. I'd love for that to change just in case they fixed any bugs that no one noticed.
Wow Dan Ku Ga seems fun I can tell. I would’ve played a lot on this fighting game. Ripped up floors and destructible walls? It’s truly a shame this wasn’t released!
Ok now I want to know about every other game on that tierlist
Please tell me you'll cover the rest of the games in your tier list at the 3:36 mark; I BEG YOU!!!
I didn't realize Psychic Force had a prequel, but I also didn't even realize there was a Psychic Force game before Psychic Force 2012. I loved that game, played it on Dreamcast practically nonstop.
I'm in love with the stage expansion mechanics!!!
This game had to compete with the alpha series, KoF, Fatal Furies and the new 3d fighting games, looking at it now is interesting but it was obsolete compared to what Capcom, SNK, Sega and Namco were doing.
Interesting game with excellent sprite animations. It's cool to know that unreleased games can still be played. That shows it SHOULD have been released after all.
After Street Fighter 2 blew up, everyone wanted to make a fighting game... and in many cases, that's exactly what they did. Remember Tao Taido? Martial Champion? Mutant Fighter? Kaiser Knuckle was exactly what you should've expected from a quickie cash-in from a company with zero experience with Street Fighter-style games: rough, flawed, limited, with way too difficult bosses and an _outrageously_ overpowered final boss. (See? It's not _just_ SNK! 🙂) The problem was that there was nothing it did that literally every other Street Fighter clone did way better. Fighters History, World Heroes, and all the sequels got plenty of action where I live, where you'd be hard-pressed to find 1,000 arcadegoers who remember that Kaiser Knuckle even existed.
I'm not sure why it ever needed a Champion Edition-ization, or for that matter how not releasing it is regrettable or even a bad business decision (Mortal Kombat 3, Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken, and The King of Fighters '94 all came out the same year, so there's a very good chance it would've just gotten buried). I'm kinda suprised that it has a following. But the great thing about emulation (and sites like TH-cam) is that even a long-dead idea can gain a following and get some recognition. Even bad games or "ripoffs" are a part of history and deserved to be remembered. Not remembered _the same way_ as the greats, but remembered all the same.
Reminds me of fighters history. Glad I didn't play this back in the day cause it sounds like I would have broke my remote at the last boss.
Holy shit, this whole time I've only been using my Egret II Mini for Darius Gaiden and Raystorm - had no idea it had this game on it