Abobo

Abobo (アボボ) is a recurring enemy character throughout the Double Dragon series, usually serving as a boss character. He is normally depicted a tall bald-head strongman, although some variants of the character sport a mohawk.

Appearances

Double Dragon

Arcade version

Abobo is a recurring sub-boss in the arcade version of the first Double Dragon, first appearing near the end of Mission 1, making his entrance breaking through a wall. A bald strongman with a horseshoe mustache, Abobo is tougher than the other grunts in the game thanks to his monstrous size. Due to his large stature, his punches and kicks have a better reach than the other minor enemies. His signature technique is the Atomic Throw, in which he picks up and tosses the player to his back. He is the only male enemy in the game who cannot be grabbed by the player. After the initial encounter, Abobo appears again a few times throughout Mission 3 (including twin versions before arriving at the enemy's gate) and one last time as part of the final set of enemies prior to the final battle with Willy in Mission 4. Like Roper, Abobo has the ability to pick and toss large objects like oil drums, but he only has the opportunity to use this ability in Mission 3.

In addition to the standard bald Abobo, the arcade version also features a head swapped variant who serves as the boss of Mission 1. This version of Abobo bears a bit of a resemblance to the actor Mr. T due to his black skin, mohawk hairstyle and full beard; his eyes are also a bit larger than the standard Abobo. This character has no official name, but is colloquially known as the "mohawked Abobo". The mohawked Abobo has the same techniques as the bald Abobo, but performs a two-handed slap in addition to his other moves. He cannot lift heavy objects like bald Abobo though. The mohawked Abobo appears a second time as the boss of Mission 3 (where he has green skin) and as a twin sub-boss near the end of Mission 4 prior to reaching the final hall where Willy awaits. The mohawked Abobo can be seen on the wanted poster in the background at the beginning of Mission 1.

NES version

The NES version of Double Dragon only features the bald Abobo, where he serves as the end boss of Mission 1. The player fights him inside a warehouse with a conveyor belt. He has a palette similar to the mohawked Abobo from the arcade version (i.e. dark skin and blue pants). His moves consists of standard punches and kicks and a hand slap to the face. He later appears a few more times in Mission 3 and 4. One variant has white skin and wears green pants, while another variant has green skin and white pants (the same color scheme as the Mission 3 boss in the arcade version). All the Abobos after the initial one fight in pairs, although only the white ones will fight the player together at the same time, while the black and green Abobos will take turn.

Abobo is also a playable fighter in the "Mode B" versus game. Unlike the other fighters in Mode B, his sprite is almost unchanged from the main game, aside from the addition of a running animation and other new moves. Moves exclusive to Mode B include a two handed slap (similar to the one the mohawked Abobo used in the arcade game), a running punch, a knee kick and a shoulder tackle performed by pressing A and B simultaneously. The Abobo controlled by Player 1 has light skin and blue pants, while the one controlled by Player 2 has dark skin and purple pants.

Other versions

Most of the console adaptations cut the mohawked Abobo from the roster and only featured the bald Abobo, often using him to substitute for the mohawked Abobo (as was the case in the Master System and Genesis versions).

Double Dragon II: The Revenge

In Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Abobo is replaced by a similar enemy named Bolo, who resembles the bald Abobo, but has long mop hair. In the Mega Drive port of the arcade game, this character is actually identified as Abobo in the manual, but it is unknown whether this was the intention of the arcade game's developers or merely a misprint. Bolo's head swapped counterpart is named O'Hara in the same version of the game.

Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team

He' big, he's bad and he's really MAD! You're intruders in his territory, and he won't rest until he's pounded you into the ground. - Official description from the manual.

In Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, Abobo serves as the end boss of the very first stage, where he guards the entrance to the Dark Queen's Ratship. He is one of the few Double Dragon villains who is relatively close to his design in the original Technos games, the other being Linda Lash. In this game, Abobo has a speech mannerism similar to the Marvel superhero The Hulk where he refers to himself in the third person in a crude matter (e.g. "Abobo not like intruders"). He fights by pounding the player into the ground.

Double Dragon (Neo-Geo)

File:CharneoAbobo.gif

Abobo's portrait in the Neo-Geo game

Data

Voice: Daisuke Gouri

Birthplace: New York

Height: 7'2"

Weight: 336 lbs.

Fighting Style: Street fighting

Hobbies: Body building, fighting

Story

The New York city fighters fear him as "the strongest man." At times, his opponents lose just from being frightened by his size. With his superhuman strength as his weapon, it is nothing for him to bring down any number of enemies, left and right. He is currently Koga Shuko's right hand man, but he is always getting his victories stolen by Burnov, also of the organization, so these two get along very poorly. - Official description from the manual.

Abobo is a playable fighter in the Neo-Geo Double Dragon game. His background and occupation as a henchmen of Koga Shuko is very similar to his live-action incarnation from the Double Dragon movie. Despite working for Shuko, he seems to be on friendly terms with the Lee brothers and Marian. He has three special moves (the Hammer Punch, the Hyper Bomb and the Giant Swing), as well as two super moves (the Grand Smash and the Pressure Bomb). When performing one of his super moves, Abobo briefly resembles his mutated form from the movie.

Double Dragon Advance

A member of the Shadow Warriors who possesses extreme superhuman strength. Having strengthen his body as a living weapon with his experience in street fighting and playing football, he has been put in charge of expanding the Shadow Warriors' territory, punishing those who oppose the gang. He is very loyal to Willy. - Translated description from the Japanese manual.

Since Double Dragon Advance is a remake of the original, his role in the game is not much different. However, his fighting style is a bit more refined, with the double-handed slap he had in the original game being replaced with a Hammer Punch similar to one of he used in the Neo-Geo fighting game called "the Abobo Hammer." In addition to the bald and mohawked variants, this version also introduced a third variant of the character that has an afro hairstyle. Unlike the original arcade game, all three head swaps of Abobo have the same face. In addition to the standard black and white skin tones, Double Dragon Advance introduces an entire army of Abobos with all sorts of weird skin colors such as blue, silver, gold and charcoal black. The green version of Abobo appears as the boss of Mission 5, where he is given the name of Mibobo (a combination of the Japanese word Midori, for green, and Abobo's name).

Double Dragon Neon

Brick-Busting Bruiser - Official description from Double Dragon Neon

Abobo, along with Williams and Linda, are the only classic villains to appear in Double Dragon Neon. All three bad guys appear in the very first stage of the game. His techniques include a headbutt, an uppercut, a kick, a powerful throw, and a two-directional punch that he uses as a counterattack. He's resistant to stuns and knockdowns, and can't be grabbed.

In other media

Animated series

In the animated series, Abobo (voiced by Blu Mankuma) is one of two main henchmen of the Shadow Boss (along with Wild Willy) who appear in the show's pilot episode "The Shadow Falls". He is shown to be fairly intelligent to the point that he knows to fear both the Shadow Boss and the Shadow Master. He's certainly smarter than Willy and derides Willy for being a reckless idiot. In the show's second episode ("The Legend Continues"), he and Willy are absorbed into the Shadow Master's Shadow Mural as punishment for their failure and are only seen for the remainder of the series as images in the mural.

Film

In the Double Dragon movie, Bo Abobo (played by Nils Allen Stewart) is the leader of the Mohawks, one of the many gangs under the employ of Koga Shuko. He is tasked with recovering the missing half of the Double Dragon medallion in possession of the Lee brothers, but after failing to accomplish this task, he is punished by Shuko and is mutated into a hulking monster (played in costume by Henry Kingi). He later reforms and helps the Lee brothers fight Shuko, exposing his weakness.

Trivia

In the video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, there's a reference to Abobo in the Hospital's morgue computer. When players check the cadavers' names, the name Abobo G. is at the top of the list. When they check the history of the body it will say, "This patient was beaten to death with a baseball bat", a reference to one of the weapons that can be used in Double Dragon.
Abobo is also featured as the main protagonist for Abobo's Big Adventure, an unofficial flash game which pays tribute to many popular NES games.