Knuckle Heads Revamped

Knuckle Heads Revamped is a reboot of the 1992 fighting game Knuckle Heads by Namco.
It's a 2D fighting game released for the PS4 and PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. 
It's got a story mode, unlike the original game, and introduces three new playable characters and four bosses. 
== Character roster ==
* Rob Vincent (USA): A US army recruit, born in Honolulu and son of the late Marine admiral Darrell Vincent, who was murdered by the deserter Gregor Bergholm. He's on a mission to find out about mysterious terrorists, but he also decided to capture and kill Gregory after finding out he's escaped (not knowing about Gregor being on a secret suicide mission). His style is military close quarter combat combined with dual tonfas and his catchphrase is "I am number one!".
* Takeshi Fujioka (Italy): Head of the Arkani (Italian ninja clan) which used to protect Napoli from demons and supernatural threats and acted as "occult detectives", manipulating underworld groups in order to protect the world from supernatural threats. As the head of the Arkani, Fujioka knows from the Arkani's seer, the Oracolo della Verità, about an imminent apocalyptic event called the Giorno del Sol Levante, which involves the islands of Japan rising in the sky and the rest of the world being burned down by Amaterasu. The Arkani have their own agenda and their allegiance to the Italian government has often shifted, occasionally they cooperate with them, but occasionally the Arkani have done terroristic attacks or other crimes in the name of a greater good and of keeping their knowledge about the supernatural secret (which makes the Arkani a very untrustworthy force, though the Arkani are actually well-meaning and are secretly manipulating the Camorra into self-destructing). He's a fierce rival to Aoi Obake, given that the Arkani manipulate Camorra's Mitamura Family and use it as "interface". Takeshi inherited the title of clan head when his father Iehiro Fujioka was murdered when investigating the AWYTT Cult. Takeshi has three children, Francheska, Hideo and Tetsubrando. His fighting style is ninjutsu using a kusarigama (a scythe with a chain) and his catchphrase is "Reciderò il male!" ("I will cut evil!").
* Claudia Silva (Brazil): A young rookie in the intelligence division. She's looking for information about a recent string of supernatural terrorist attacks referred to as "Purges". She's sent to hunt for Takeshi Fujioka as a way for the Brazilian intelligence division to keep the Arkani in check (because of their supernatural powers) and ensure that they are not connected to the Purges. 
* Christine Myao (China): A survivor living in the wastelands of Hong Kong. As the apocalyptic event that destroyed Japan spread to Taiwan, Hong Kong and eastern China and Russia, even the city of Hong Kong became a wasteland so Christine grew up having to fight her way through endless gang violence and resisting the AWYTT's attempted "Judgment". She uses a quarterstaff and her catchphrase is "Lái ba, wǒ shìbùkědǎng!" ("Come at me, I'm unstoppable!").
* Miroslav "Blat" Blatveyk (Ukraine): Formerly an Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered to the Russians, Blatveyk is serving his sentence in prison when suddenly the AWYTT Cult causes a riot. Blatveyk refuses to join the cult and instead flees the prison. He uses a hammer and his catchphrase is "Ya nikoly ne zdamsya! Gyahaha!" ("I shall never surrender! Gyahaha!").
* Gregor Bergholm and Darrell (Norway): Gregor Bergholm is a Norwegian-American former marine who deserted and was driven insane during a special operation where his ship sunk and most of his crewmates died. He now suffers from DID and hallucinates seeing a ghost he calls Darrell (from the name of Darrell Vincent, a US Marine Admiral who he had murdered after deserting, a personification of Gregor's hatred for Darrell). Convicted in a mental correction facility, he was freed from jail in order to be sent on a suicide mission to hunt for Elisa. His battle style is dual axes as Gregor, but once Darrell takes control (Darrell can be triggered at will as a special move or might randomly take control when Gregor gets hit by a medium- or high-level combo), Gregor becomes faster, more brutal, unable to parry, and attacks with his hands in a berserker kind of way. His catchphrase is "Du er uovervinnelig, Darrell! Hahahaha!" ("You're invincible, Darrell! Hahahaha!", the laughing sound being "said" by Darrell)
* Aoi Obake (Daryo Morimoto) (Italy): A vigilante from Catania, Italy, who wears a blue longcoat and hood and a white Yokai mask and has a passion for leaving haikus and riddles (in Japanese) whenever he commits violent actions. Born Daryo Morimoto, the Aoi Obake ("blue ghost") is known for having murdered lots of mafiosi. He's a fierce enemy of the Arkani because the Arkani have connections to criminal groups such as the Camorra's Mitamura Family (which Daryo wants dead). Daryo found out about the AWYTT cult through his network of informers around Italy, and quickly decided to cash on the bounty that was put on the Tentei's head. He was a wanted man and often rivaled with the state-employed Fujioka family of Arkani. In battle, he uses his gun Juditsyo and his shotgun Massakro (pronounced like "Giudizio" and "Massacro", meaning "judgment" and "massacre"), making him a long-range fighter, and his catchphrase is a haiku: "Seigi no tame ni, / chi no kawa ga / nagarerudarou!" ("for justice, rivers of blood must flow!").
* Sophia Bourbaki (Greece) 
* Z the Cyborg (Russia)
==== Non-playable ====
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* Kubinashi no Rahu (Japan): One of the elite members of the AWYTT Cult, also known as Kubinashi (Headless), characterized by having her head float near their body rather than being attached to the neck. Her fighting style is mostly short-ranged and with few combo options, but centered on draining energy from the enemy by growing mouths and fangs from the chest and hands and having her head used as a bullet to bite the enemy to drain health. 
* Nendo-O no Nuwa (Japan): One of the elite members of the AWYTT Cult, also known as Nendo-O (Clay Tail), her legs are replaced by a snake-like tail made of semiliquid clay and her arms are always folded. Her fighting style is based on crafting multiple weapons out of her clay tail, such as a hammer, an ax, a shield, a claw or a spear. 
* Homura no Mazda (Japan): One of the elite members of the AWYTT Cult, also known as Homura (Flame), she's a very frail woman covered in a kimono made of flames. Her fighting style is based on fire manipulation to act as a long-range attacker and she's capable of self-healing. 
* Tentei no Elisa (Japan): The game's main antagonist and final boss, not playable, also known as simply "The Japanese". Self proclaimed Tentei ("Heavenly Emperor"), leader of the violent cult "Akuma Wo Yaki Tsukusu Taiyo" ("Sun Which Incinerates Demons"), also known as AWYTT (A-witt") by non-Japanese people, their cult took power in Japan after a coup and rules it with an iron fist. They are an avatar of the alien abomination sleeping under Kyoto that the Japanese worship as goddess Amaterasu (but they were possessed by Amaterasu herself and turned into her avatar), and want to reactivate the sunken alien starship that has become the islands of Japan and terraform Earth in order for their species (which is known as Kami) to thrive. Elisa is an androgynous angel-like creature with black and white hair and the right eye blue while the left one red. They speak with both a male and a female voice simultaneously and refers to themselves as "soregashi" (even in English, they talk about themselves in third-person using "Soregashi" rather than I). Elisa claims to be an emissary of goddess Amaterasu sent to Earth to absorb the world's Kegare and open the gates to heaven. Elisa fights from multiple ranges by generating a light blade to fight up close with quick slashes, shooting rains of laser needles and sending gravity impulses to knock back enemies and creating a black hole to make dodging harder.
== Trivia ==
* Blat Vaike was a Greek in the original game. He was split into two characters: Miroslav Blatveyk and Sophia Bourbaki. 
* Aoi Obake's catchphrases are both in Italian and in Japanese because he uses Japanese when he's making a haiku. 
* Takeshi Fujioka was Japanese in the original game and his catchphrase was "Aku wo Kiru", which in the reboot got replaced with its Italian translation "Reciderò il male!" because Takeshi is now an Italian (with a name that is not widely used in Italy).
* Mazda, Nuwa, Rahu and Elisa's names are meant to be Japanese-sounding gibberish that isn't actually Japanese. 
** Their names are all in Kanji and, aside from Elisa, are taken from gods (a Persian, a Chinese and an Indian god respectively, Elisa likely represents Christian angels or Amaterasu herself), and their fighting styles are based on said gods. 
** Elisa's name Kanji would usually be read as "Amahisa" in Japanese, and he was given that name because it's not only not a Japanese name, it's not even a real name (it's a fusion of the Greek root "Elysium" with the Japanese root "Hisashi").
*In the original Knuckle Heads, most catchphrases were just laughing sounds or very simple phrases. They got changed in this reboot. 
Category:Fighting Games
Category:Knuckle Heads
Category:Reboots
Category:2D Fighting Games
Category:Namco Games