Ring ni Kakero (video game)

Ring ni Kakero
Ring ni Kakero title screen
Developer(s)	Earthly Soft^[1]
Publisher(s)	Masaya (NCS)^[1]^[2]
Composer(s)	Kenichi Ōkuma^[3]
Platform(s)	Super Famicom (Nintendo Power)^[4]
Release date(s)	^JP June 1, 1998^[1]
Genre(s)	Traditional sports^[1] (boxing)
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer

Ring ni Kakero (リングにかけろ, lit. "Bring the Ring")^[5] is a Japan-exclusive release that was scheduled to sell as a Super Famicom video game in 1995. Because of the fewer-than-expected orders and the market of the Super Famicom getting smaller, it was sold instead as part of the Japanese Nintendo Power download game service, in 1998.

Summary

Being the only game based on the Japanese manga of the same title, it covers from "The Champion Carnival" to "The World Championship" in the original. There are 20 boxers and two hidden characters. There were only six voices for all the 22 boxers, voice actors in this game include Daisuke Sakaguchi, Tetsu Inada, Hiroshi Kamiya, Shinichi Yamada, Ito Asako, and Atsushi Kisaichi.

Ring ni Kakero is a simulation of amateur boxing rather than professional boxing. Like in real boxing, there is a timer for each round. The game uses a manga outlook to the boxing scene as two fighters appear to fight using various cutscenes for action shots.^[6] Each boxer has a special move and an energy meter in addition to a stamina meter.

The story is arranged and a little bit different from the original on the "story mode". After beating all the opponents, at the ending there is a phrase "TO BE CONTINUED...?" on the screen, and if the player waits for three minutes, a hidden character appears from a helicopter and must be defeated. This character is called Masami Kurumada, and it's a kind of caricature from the creator of the manga. On the "knockdown mode", the player chooses a character and fights against 19 boxers and the 20th boxer would be the hidden character called Leader of Shadow Clan, before being crowned the world champion.