Overview
Battle K-Road, also known as Battle K-Road: Multi Style Fighting Tournament, is a 2D fighting game developed and released by Psikyo (with a North American release by Jaleco) for arcades in January 1994.
One of the earliest games from Psikyo (who are better known for their various shoot-'em-up and mahjong games), Battle K-Road focuses on semi-realistic mixed martial arts tournament combat rather than the spontaneous fantasy street fights and supernatural abilities of other 2D fighting games. Likely inspired by the K-1 promotion, the story focuses on a fictional underground MMA tournament known as "K-Road", with fighters of several martial art styles from around the world (several of whom are based on real-life martial artists) participating.
Unlike most 2D fighting games at the time, which utilize elaborate inputs for special moves, Battle K-Road is known for using a universal command input system where all fighters have the same series of commands for their attacks (with each attack button having their own neutral, forward, crouch, and air attack) and have ten "Lethal Attacks" each (done by holding down one of the hardest-hitting buttons before their command input).
Unlike most of Psikyo's other games, Battle K-Road has seen no home release nor inclusion in later Psikyo compilations.
Gameplay
Battle K-Road is a six-button fighting game similar to Street Fighter II, with three Punch buttons of different strengths and three Kick buttons of different strengths (both of which are known in the service manual as Light, Strong, and Heavy). There are very few elaborate command inputs for the game, with the only special movement command being a quarter-circle forward for large forward dashes.
Rather than elaborate special moves, the game makes heavy use of command attacks (with each attack button having their own normal, forward, crouch, and air attack). Both Heavy Punch and Heavy Kick can be charged up for their own unique powerful attacks for each of the four command inputs, sometimes known as "Lethal Attacks".
The game is known for its unique knockdown rule similar to some real-life combat sports, where when one fighter hits the mat but have vitality left, the round pauses and both players move back to their starting position. Only certain Heavy attacks and throws can knock opponents down to the ground. Repeat Light and Strong attacks can leave the opponent dizzied instead.
Grappling is also unique in this game as it is a multi-step process. First, the player has to successfully grab the opponent (by pressing forward and either Strong Punch or Heavy Punch), then perform one of four follow-up attacks (either any Punch, any Kick, a charged Heavy Punch, or a charged Heavy Kick). Some of these attacks knock the opponent down, while some can leave the opponent standing for mix-ups.
Characters
The game includes 14 playable fighters, each split into 7 fighting styles. As both players cannot pick the same character, the game utilizes mirror matches by having both fighters in each fighting style nearly identical (although some have one or two different special attacks).
After winning each match against all seven fighting styles in single-player mode, players must fight a large black bear (known as Mr. Bear, or Kumachan) to get their ending. It is sometimes seen as a joke battle, as some of Mr. Bear's special attacks are based on Ryu and Ken's special attacks in the Street Fighter series. Afterwards, the player attempts a tougher three-match series of fights ("Return Match"), where they then face off against a more powerful brown bear (also known as Mr. Bear, or Kumasama).
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