History VideoGame / KinnikuBanzukeKongouKunNoDaibouken

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: You can summon a bunch of men in the hidden cave to access bonus features, who are a bunch of Kongoh variants and Nise-Kane (False-Kane), a Kane impersonator.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Team Dark Muscle weren't aware of the air duct trap used against Team Kongou during the Struck Out match but afterwards they ''do'' start using tools under Dark Muscle's orders to cheat on Power Force. However, Kongou influences Randoru into competing fairly during Monster Box and both Pencil and Taziki follow his wish. Taziki also relents after realizing how much fun his partners were having despite failing the challenge.

** Stages after the first third of the game introduce environmental hazards that not only make it difficult to clear tasks but [[FakeDifficulty also]] make some of them ''[[UnwinnableByDesign IMPOSSIBLE]]'' even if you were to play this on an emulator with auto-fire functions. To nullify those hazards (which makes the stages play the exact same as the normal ones) you must buy a few of 4 types of gem items. They cost a currency you can only get by playing the challenges at the dojo over and over.

* DeadlyGame: Dark Muscle changes the Muscle Stadium's challenges into gimmicky death matches between groups of four. The announcer initially protests to this but is quickly intimidated by security guards into carrying on. Interestingly, nobody else dies after a man falls into a bottomless pit during the first Struck Out match. In fact, the ''only'' deadly games shown were just that and the Power Force match between Team Kongou and Team Dark Muscle over a field of spikes.
* DefeatEqualsFriendship: The good guys befriend Team Dark Muscle after beating them in Monster Box and escaping from the stadium.

* EliteFour: Randoru, Jyogi, Pencil and Taziki are smug kid athletes who work for Dark Muscle.

* PermenentlyMissableContent: Kane will disappear from the story either if you completely ignore him on Sasuke's Mountain or get him to appear at the Dojo just to repeatedly reject him. Without him you can't unlock the pendant that lets you continue after losing in any of the inhumanly difficult final 9 challenges of the main route, ''so don't let that happen''.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: After you meet a group of jolly rival kids, the BigBad brainwashes them into crazy blank-eyed lackeys. On top of that they get turned into animals after [[YouHaveFailedMe the hero defeats them]].

* SaveTheVillain: Yuka and Kongou prevent Pencil and Randoru from falling into SpikesOfDoom after beating them in a tug of war. In contrast, Taziki previously left Sasuke to die and the boy only survived by pulling a grappling hook claw from out of nowhere.

** Kane and Naoki do not exist in this version.

** Sasuke, Yuka and Habato are all minor characters in the GBA game (you don't even need to interact with Yuka) but cooperate with Kongou full-time in this version.

* DeadlyGame: Dark Muscle changes the Muscle Stadium's challenges into gimmicky death matches between groups of four. The announcer initially protests to this but is quickly intimidated by security guards into carrying on. Interestingly, nobody else dies after a man falls into a bottomless pit during the first Struck Out match.

* DeadlyGame: Dark Muscle changes the Muscle Stadium's challenges into gimmicky death matches between groups of four. The announcer initially protests to this but is quickly intimidated by security guards into carrying on.

* SupervillainLair: Dark Muscle's castle with the Spider-and-Rope-Climb tower is seen when the Four Emperors are reporting to him in the throne room, but only for that scene as the tournament takes place on a remote island. It is never specified if the castle is located in another dimension like in the game.

** Gymnast Iketani Naoki plays a villain role as the fifth member and leader of Dark Muscle's Four Emperors.

** Kane Kosugi and Naoki do not exist in this version.

* AscendedExtra: Sasuke, Yuka and Habato are all minor characters in the GBA game but cooperate with Kongou full-time in this version.

* StealthPrequel: The anime seems set in its own continuity with no mentions of Kongou's family or anything supernatural about Dark Muscle until the very final shot where his mask fades away in a mystical way and he says it's not over yet. Was this a prequel to the game the whole time?

''Kinniku Banzuke: Kongou-Kun no Daibouken!'' is a Japan-exclusive Sports game developed by KCE Studios and published by Konami for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2001. It is loosely based on the 3 episodes long anime series of the same name which is in turn based on the ''Series/UnbeatableBanzuke'' sports show ''Series/NinjaWarrior'' is derived from.

The game is made up of 7 reflex-based challenge minigames based on athletics competitions, like in Konami's own ''VideoGame/TrackAndField'' series. Those are wrapped up in a story about Kongou, a young monk training to defeat a demon overlord from another world.

!!This game contains the following tropes:
* AdaptedOut: Out of 4 ''Sasuke'' stages only the final one, Spider and Rope Climb, is featured in the game.

* AsHimself: Kane Kosugi, an actor also known for challenging ''Unbeatable Banzuke'' and ''Sasuke'' several times, appears as a (much younger) playable character in the game. He also appeared in other games in the series at the time, complete with an impersonator called Nise-Kane.

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: Towards the end of the game an unique challenge is presented: the wall-and-rope climbing tower from the ''Sasuke[=/=]Ninja Warrior'' show.

* EpicFail: It's possible to crash face-first into the titular Monster Box either by messing up the angle of your jump after hopping on the trampoiline or ''by missing the trampoline altogether''.

* AsHimself: Kane Kosugi, an actor also known for challenging ''Unbeatable Banzuke'' and ''Sasuke'' several times, appears as a (much younger) playable character in the game.

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: If you unlock Cain's route, he decides to look after Kongou's mother and find a cure for her illness while Kongou goes on with his journey offscreen. On the other hand, if you play normally as Kongou with Cain tagging along, Cain never comes up with that idea and does nothing special in the story other than handing out a Continue Pendant even after Kongou enters Dark Muscle's world.

** To clear Cain's story route you just need to clear Struck Out ''Bingo'' 5 times with higher plate requirements every time. It's still a very demanding task and for every attempt you'll need to grind money to buy multiple gems requested by a mountain hermit as food ingredients before he'll allow the boy to attempt each challenge. The needed gems are different every time as if it added depth, when in truth they're all obtained the same way for 30 money each.
* GameOver: Normally you'll get kicked back to the title screen if you lose at any point during the final gauntlet of the story. But if you befriend Cain and set records on the Dojo, he gives you a special trinket that grants infinite continues.
* GameOverMan: Cain, should you befriend him, encourages you to try again if you lose during the final part of the story.

** There's a bonus room in the game that asks for passwords that came with a trading card bundled with ''Kinniku Banzuke [=GB3=]''. Thanks to the game's obscurity, those were only listed online in ''2022''. Some of those passwords unlock in-game hints about either the gameplay or the secret events involving Cain.
** It is possible to befriend Cain and play as him by talking to him in a sequence of places once he shows up. If he's rejected on the last meeting, [[PermanentlyMissableContent he disappears from the game instead]]. He only makes the continue function available at the final gauntlet if you made some high score on the Dojo (such as 14m on Shotgun Touch), but there's more: if you happen to clear the 4 initial elemental challenges as Cain in Sasuke's Mountain ''the plot switches to his viewpoint'' and leads into a Struck Out Bingo challenge and an unique ending where he heals Kongou-kun's sickly mother.

* HeroicMime: Subverted. The protagonist speaks very little throughout the game, but he does speak. In fact, it is right before the route where he passes the PlayerCharacter role to Cain that Kongou-kun speaks a full line, complete with a screen-filling portrait for him.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: You can summon a bunch of men in the hidden cave to access bonus features, who are a bunch of Kongoh variants and Nise-Kane, a Cain impersonator.

* MultipleEndings: The game normally ends with Kongou and his father coming back from the underworld and reuniting with Kongou's sickly mother. However, it is possible to unlock a story branch focused on Cain, where he earns medicine for Kongou's mom until she's healthy. An [[GoldenEnding alternate ending]] plays where the heroes shake hands after Kongou and his father arrive.

** If you unlock Cain's story route, it becomes impossible to play as Kongou-kun again because he leaves for the demon world.

* StoryBranching: If you clear the first four Sasuke's Mountain challenges as Cain, the story's perspective changes to him as he's tasked with looking after Kongou's mother while the boy is off at the demon world.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: On Cain's scenario, the main plot happens offscreen until Kongou and Gantetsu just show up in the very end. The rival children are written out of the plot in this take, not even appearing to attack Kongou's mother for her magatama jewel like they do on the normal story route.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: On Cain's scenario, the main plot happens offscreen until Kongou and Gantetsu just show up in the very end. The foreign rival children are pretty much written out of the plot in this take, not even appearing to attack Kongou's mother for her magatama jewel like they do on the normal story route.

** Stages after the first third of the game introduce environmental hazards that not only make it difficult to clear tasks but [[FakeDifficulty also]] make some of them ''[[UnwinnableByDesign IMPOSSIBLE]]'' even if you were to play this on an emulator with auto-fire functions. To nullify those hazards (which makes them the same as the normal challenges) you must buy a few of 4 types of gem items. They cost a currency you can only get by playing the challenges at the dojo over and over.

** There's a bonus room in the game that asks for passwords that came with a trading card bundled with ''Kinniku Banzuke [=GB3=]''. Thanks to the game's obscurity, those were only listed online in ''2022''. Some of those passwords unlock in-game hints about how certain challenges work and the secret events involving Cain.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The ''protagonist'' becomes this if you unlock Cain's route, as he goes on with his journey offscreen. On the other hand, if you play normally as Kongou with Cain tagging along, Cain will do nothing special in the story other than handing out a Continue Pendant even after Kongou enters Dark Muscle's world.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: After you meet a group of jolly high school rival kids, the BigBad brainwashes them into crazy blank-eyed lackeys. On top of that they get turned into animals after [[YouHaveFailedMe the hero defeats them]].

** It is possible to befriend Cain and play as him by talking to him in a sequence of places once he shows up. If he's rejected on the last meeting, [[PermanentlyMissableContent he disappears from the game instead]]. He only makes the continue function available at the final gauntlet if you made some high score on the Dojo (such as 14m on Shotgun Touch), but there's more -- if you clear the 4 initial elemental challenges as Cain in Sasuke's Mountain ''the plot switches to his viewpoint'' and leads into a Struck Out Bingo challenge and an unique ending where he heals Kongou-kun's sickly mother.

* DisappearedDad: The protagonist's father went off to fight an evil demon overlord and never returned. The protagonist finds him by the villain's doorstep at the end.

* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Played with. In previous games Kongou is presented as either a realistic muscular man or as a chibi kid. This game [[DecompositeCharacter features both versions]] as father and son.

** Cain's story route likewise involves grinding money to buy multiple gems requested by a mountain hermit as food ingredients before he'll allow the boy to attempt his challenges.

* FakeLongevity: Stages after the first third of the game introduce environmental hazards that not only make it difficult to clear tasks but [[FakeDifficulty also]] make some of them ''[[UnwinnableByDesign IMPOSSIBLE]]'' even if you were to play this on an emulator with auto-fire functions. To nullify those hazards (which makes them the same as the normal challenges) you must buy a few of 4 types of gem items. They cost a currency you can only get by playing the challenges at the dojo over and over.

* Playing Struck Out involves pressing the A button when the back-and-forth strength bar is on the value you desire. This triggers the accuracy gauge and you must then release the A button at just the right time or the pitch will stray from the target. Kick Target works similarly, but now you must press L and R to determine vertical and horizontal aim and then hold and release both at the same time juuuuust right to ensure the ball will knock a plate off. Nine Hoops and the running challenges are somewhat easy by comparison.
* The Spider And Rope Climbing challenge at the end, ''oh God''. In the first part you have to press L and R at the same time, hold them for ''just'' the right amount of time, release both at the same time and ''then repeat it several dozens more''. Once you get to the rope, you have to tap L and R alternately at break-neck speeds. The icing in the cake is that [[DamnYouMuscleMemory those inputs are different]] from the (just as complicated) ones on the other GBA ''Kinniku Banzuke'' game released in the same year.

''Kinniku Banzuke: Kongou-Kun no Daibouken!'' is a Japan-exclusive Sports game developed by KCE Studios and published by Konami for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance in 2001. It is based on the short anime series of the same name which is in turn based on the ''Series/UnbeatableBanzuke'' sports show ''Series/NinjaWarrior'' is derived from.

* FakeLongevity: Stages after the first third of the game introduce environmental hazards that not only make it difficult to clear tasks but [[FakeDifficulty also]] make some of them ''[[UnwinnableByDesign IMPOSSIBLE]]'' even if you were to play this on an emulator with auto-fire functions. To nullify those hazards you must buy a few of 4 types of gem items. They cost a currency you can only get by playing the challenges at the dojo over and over.
* GameOver: Normally you get kicked back to the title screen if you lose at any point during the final gauntlet of the story. But if you befriend Cain, he gives you a special trinket that grants infinite continues.

** It is possible to befriend Cain and play as him, but by making the wrong choices [[PermanentlyMissableContent he disappears from the game instead]]. He makes the continue function available at the final gauntlet, but there's more -- by setting enough records with him at Sasuke Mountain ''the plot switches to his viewpoint'' and leads into a Struck Out Bingo challenge and an unique ending where he earns some blessed food to heal Kongou-kun's mother with.
* HeroicMime: Subverted. The protagonist speaks very little throughout the game, but he does speak. In fact, it is right before the route where he passes the PlayerCharacter role to the black-haired boy that Kongou-kun speaks a full line, complete with a screen-filling portrait for him.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Towards the end, Kongou fights demons by pitching baseballs, kicking soccer balls and tossing basketballs. All in a very ordinary way.

* SomeDexterityRequired: The Spider And Rope Climbing challenge at the end, ''oh God''. In the first part you have to press L and R at the same time, hold them for ''just'' the right amount of time, release both at the same time and then repeat it several dozens more. Once you get to the rope, you have to tap L and R alternately at break-neck speeds. The icing in the cake is that [[DamnYouMuscleMemory those inputs are different]] from the (just as complicated) ones on the other GBA ''Kinniku Banzuke'' game released in the same year.
* StoryBranching: If you clear all the mountain challenges as Cain, the story's perspective changes to him as he's tasked with looking after Kongou's mother while the boy is off at the demon world.

** There's a bonus room in the game that asks for passwords that came with a trading card bundled with ''Kinniku Banzuke [=GB3=]''. As of this writing there is no list or any information ''anywhere'' online about what those passwords are and what they unlock.
** It is possible to befriend the black-haired boy who appears from a certain point on, but by making the wrong choices [[PermanentlyMissableContent he disappears from the game instead]]. He makes the continue function available at the final gauntlet, but there's more -- by setting enough records with him ''the plot switches to his viewpoint'' and leads into a Struck Out Bingo challenge and an unique ending where he earns some blessed food to heal Kongou-kun's mother with.

* MultipleEndings: The game normally ends with Kongou and his father coming back from the underworld and reuniting with Kongou's sickly mother. However, it is possible to unlock a story branch focused on the Cain, where he earns medicine for Kongou's mom until she's healthy. An alternate ending plays where the heroes shake hands after Kongou and his father arrive.

* PointOfNoReturn: Once you enter the underworld, you cannot go back and you cannot save. For a string of 9 bloody hard minigames...