A singular 2D fighter from Konami in which children's drawings come to life. Eight characters with unique visual styles clash on crayoned-paper arenas. The handling is surprisingly precise, the humour very particular and the art direction makes for a genuinely successful curio.
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Category
Fighting1 player3+
Description
Original fighting game featuring crayon-drawn child characters come to life to battle each other. Published by Konami, released in 1998 in Europe and North America. Eight characters with unique childlike visual styles, exuberant special moves, quirky humor, and 2-player versus multiplayer.
Konami European April 1998 pressing of Rakugakids, which stands as the sole Western localization of this childish fighting game, since the American version never materialized. The PAL cartridge is in effect the only legitimate way to play Rakugakids in English and keeps a multilingual manual with original Konami drawings. Its double rarity, PAL exclusivity and limited run, makes it one of the most contested Konami N64 cartridges in the European catalogue.
An underrated gem
Children's drawings coming to life to fight: this Konami fighter brims with personality thanks to its crayon aesthetic and wacky characters. Its tiny distribution doomed it to obscurity, never giving it time to find an audience. Colourful and accessible, it'll hit home with fans of original, good-natured versus.
Is Rakugakids still worth playing in 2026?
Rakugakids is a singular 2D fighter from Konami in which children's drawings come to life across pencil-paper backdrops. Eight characters in radically different visual styles clash across arenas textured like notebooks, with surprisingly precise controls for an N64 effort. The humour runs eccentric, the art direction overflows with personality and the controls remain approachable. For offbeat fighter fans and N64 oddity hunters, it stands today as a genuine gem to discover, especially in local multiplayer with curious friends.
