These include Renegade, River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball, Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge and Nintendo World Cup, which are heavily "Americanized" versions of the Kunio-kun games.

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.

Many of the later games in the Kunio-kun series, particularly those under the Downtown Nekketsu moniker, were the handiwork of two men: Mitsuhiro "Yoshimitsu" Yoshida and Hiroyuki "Mokeke" Sekimoto.

Renegade, the Western localization of Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, spawned its own separate spin-off series developed by British company Ocean Software for home computers.

The Sanwakai (三和会) are a ruthless Yakuza gang that serve as the series antagonists: A gag manga based on the video games was produced titled Ore wa Otoko Da!