Games - Technos Japan Corporation

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	Games - Technos Japan Corporation

Technos Japan Corporation is the defunct Japanese video game publisher that originated the Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio-Kun (including River City Ransom) and Double Dragon franchises. The company was also the owner of the American publishing subsidiary, "American Technos Inc." Initially operating from a single-room apartment, Technos was founded in 1981 by three former members of the now-defunct video game company, Data East, including Kunio Taki, whom the Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio-Kun franchise was named after.

History

Arcade-based games

Technos' earliest games, such as Tag Team Wrestling, Karate Champ, and Dog Fight were published by DataEast. Nekketsu Kouha Kunio kun, the first game that Technos published on its own, was marketed in the United States by Taito under the name, Renegade.

The company, however, ran into financial difficulties after the release of Nekketsu Kouha Kunio kun(Nekketsu Kouha means "Hot Blooded Tough guy"). It was on the verge of bankruptcy when it began work on a sequel to Renegade, the result of which was totally unexpected. In 1987, Technos released Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball bu, in which Kunio kun takes part in a "dodge ball" game tournament. This title spawned a new sports series, featuring the Kunio kun character. Its financial woes, however, were far from over.

In 1987, Technos started the arcade-based Double Dragon video game franchise. After the success of its arcade games, the company was finally able to relocate from its single-room apartment to an urban plant of its own. The success of Double Dragon in the United States also gave the company more confidence in the Western video game market, leading to the formation of its subsidiary, "American Technos", in the United States.

Double Dragon II was more of a reworked version, rather than a new game. At that time, Technos was too preoccupied with several other arcade games, among which were China Gate, V'Ball and WWF Superstars. After the marvellous success of Double Dragon, the new games seemed insipid, and Technos decided to suspend further development.

NES ports

In 1988, Technos turned its attention to the NES (Nintendo) console, which had become very popular at that time. Among the new titles were ports of Double Dragon and Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball bu. The former was much worse than the arcade version, most notably lacking the cooperative game mode; the latter, however, excelled the original, introducing more game modes, teams and better music.

At the same time while it was porting the Super Dodge Ball, Technos developed its third game in the Kunio kun trilogy, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom in USA). Although the game was quite popular in Japan, it passed unnoticed in the United States because of poor advertising strategy of American Technos. The game gained popularity only several years after, and acquired a cult following.

In 1989, Technos released the Double Dragon II for NES. It was a completely reworked version of the arcade version, featuring new plot, stages, graphics and music. Although the NES game could not beat the arcade version, it was hailed as a masterpiece at the console level, and gained worldwide popularity as a result of Acclaim's publication.

Concurrently, Technos ported V'Ball on NES. Initially named U.S. Championship V'Ball, it changed its name to Super Spike V'Ball when it was released in the United States. The game was published by Nintendo itself.

When success seemed to fade, Technos decided to return to the arcade market with a Double Dragon sequel. As the original team was preoccupied with the Combatribes title, a whole new team had to be brought in, and this predetermined the game's fate. Despite good graphics, Double Dragon III fared much worse than the previous two games. The game was very difficult to score, as Technos' objective was to make the gamers spend as many tokens as possible. Although the NES version fared better, it still could not motivate the arcade gamers, and Technos' income rapidly declined.

Combatribes did not succeed either. It was ported to the Super NES in 1992, but did not become a hit despite good graphics and playability. After the double failure, Technos left the arcade market and returned to consoles once again.

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