a parking lot where the player must fight against four of these hitmen. Once this first wave of enemies have been defeated, the player character automatically proceeds to enter a building at the far right of the stage. Inside, he faces three more knife-wielding underlings and the final boss, a handgun-wielding mobster (Sabu) who can kill the player with a single shot. Once the final boss is defeated, the main character exits the building and is greeted by his rescued girlfriend, who proceeds to give him a kiss. The game then begins the next loop with an increased difficulty. Development The game was created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto. He previously worked at Data East, where he created the successful laserdisc games Cobra Command (1984) and Road Blaster (1985). Data East's competitor Technōs Japan was a fan of his work and were interested in entering the laserdisc game business, so they called him for a meeting. Kishimoto instead pitched a different idea he had in mind, one that did not require laserdisc technology. He instead pitched a semi-autobiographical game based on his teenage high school years, with the protagonist Kunio-kun loosely based on himself. Kishimoto recalled his experiences as a high school student regularly getting into fights on a daily basis, which was partly triggered by a break-up with a girl who dumped him. Kishimito was also a fan of Bruce Lee's Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly Enter the Dragon (1973). He combined elements from Lee's Enter the Dragon with that of his own life to create the concept for Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun. In contrast to earlier side-scrolling martial arts action games, most notably Irem's Kung-Fu Master (1984), Kunio-kun greatly increased the amount of health available to the player and the enemies. This allowed Kishimoto to create gameplay centered around the "knock-down-drag-out" fights, as seen in Bruce Lee films such as Enter the Dragon as well as the altercations Kishimoto had himself experienced in his youth. Rather than one-hit kills, his idea was that the player needed to hit enemies multiple times, "beating them up" in order to defeat them. Compared to earlier side-scrollers, the environment was expanded to a scrolling arena-like space, while the combat system was more highly developed. The use of an isometric perspective, combined with separate buttons for punching and kicking, also meant that the player character could no longer press up to jump like in Kung-Fu