The video game world lost one of its greatest pioneers this month with the passing of Yoshihisa Kishimoto. The beat ’em up genre wouldn’t be what it without the intuitive controls and cinematic elements the games he worked on helped define or sharpen.
Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, its English localization version known as Renegade, and Double Dragon hit arcades with a rawness that was rare at the time, but those games also brought so much more than that, thanks to Kishimoto. As different as the controls from the side-scrolling brawlers made before them, they also felt solid and even second nature after a bit of playing. Even now, there’s a lot of satisfaction in landing a back kick or headbutt in Double Dragon. That was a good thing, as those were some of the first games many of us ever played where it felt like whole crews of sneaky, dangerous enemies were coming at us instead of waves of unthinking drones. It was like being trapped in an 1980s Golden Harvest martial arts flick where every villain was nearly as skilled as the heroes and the only key to survival was a mix of wits, skill, and speed.
Kishimoto’s brawlers had other film-like touches, with enemies and bosses sometimes entering the scene by door, elevator, or demonstrating their strength by punching through a background wall. Kidnappings and rescues happening on the play field kept you in the moment, keeping that feeling that you were in a movie. His earlier game direction gigs included anime FMV games like Thunder Storm/Cobra Command and Road Avenger (player vehicles from both were referenced in the first two Double Dragon games), so cinematic thinking wasn’t new to him.
He also directed fan-favorites in another genre known for fisticuffs and chaos: wrestling. WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest were arcade staples so solid that it was appreciated even outside wrestling fandom. Once again, those controls just felt right and the hits felt solid, making it a perfect game to play with a bunch of friends or strangers at the mall.
He’s been gone for over a week at the time I’m writing this, and it honestly took that long for me to write about him because what he created means that much. I was in my teens when he made these games, and I have a lot of great memories playing these games with friends. The first article in the Minus World section of this site is named after my friend Kenyon yelling, “INTO THE DRINK!” in a perfect Popeye imitation after kicking a biker into the water while playing Renegade. Even when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, and other brawlers were in the limelight at the arcade, I still made sure to stop at the Double Dragon cabinet on the left hand side near the front of the arcade to get in a few more hits. This site probably wouldn’t exist without his work. It feels like he deserves far more than whatever ramblings I’m able to type, and I hope more writers do that for him. Yoshihisa Kishimoto deserves all the tributes he’s been getting and many, many more. Thank you, Mr. Kishimoto.