Taito's bonkers beat 'em up Runark (also known as Growl) was released on Nintendo Switch and PS4 yesterday (July 27th) as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives range. So, to celebrate, Hamster has shared a bunch of amazing early design materials from the game as part of a recent livestream (as spotted by gosokkyu).
Some of the materials shown off during the stream include early concept images, illustrations of the 2 playable characters, and keyframe sketches for some of the moves that ended up in the finished game.
Perhaps the most interesting document for us, though, was a list of potential alternative names for the game in Japan — some of which are frankly incredible.
The most bizarre options featured on this list include The Fung, Big Guys, and Mustin, while we personally don't mind the sound of some of them like Savanna, Silver Tusk, and Radical Arms. The chosen name Runark also appears near the top of this list, with some explanatory text revealing it to be a cross between the words Rune + Ark.
Here's a full list of all the names considered:
- Runark (spelt "Runeark")
- Junglade (spelt "Janglade")
- Balrowg
- Mustin
- Grand
- Psyker
- Tregend
- Wilderness
- Vagrand
- The Fung
- Flaming
- Savanna
- Silver Tusk
- Nice Guys
- Big Guys
- Visious (sic)
- Radical Arms
If you want to take a look at more of these materials, we recommend checking out the livestream (though do bear in mind, it's only available in Japanese).