Karnov

BIO:

Karnov originally starred in his own arcade game (titled Karnov) which was developed and published by Data East in 1987. He later became a "mascot" for Data East, appearing in several other Data East titles. Karnov appears as the first boss character the player fights against in Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja. Karnov later made his fighting game debut in the Fighter's History series.

Karnov's full name is Jinborov Karnovski. Karnov, although popularly illustrated as an Eastern European or a Slav, is actually from Central Asia, the former Soviet Union as shown on the original arcade flyer and again in Karnov's Revenge.

Karnov's Fighters History storyline is as follows: Karnov is a feared and wealthy man of power. He is a known collector of ancient and powerful artifacts, most of which were either earned as awards or gained through theft. Bored of his life of peace and wanting to find a new challenge, he hosts the "Great Grapple" tournament for the world's fighters and offers his fortune as the prize.
 
              karnov1.jpg (54252 bytes)              karnov-artwork-white.jpg (98963 bytes)              karnov-grab.jpg (14981 bytes)              karnov-goofy.jpg (33335 bytes)
 

FIGHTING GAME ORIGIN:
Fighter's History

  

  

OTHER APPEARANCES:
Fighter's History Dynamite

  
karnov-fly2.jpg (105226 bytes)             karnovfly.png (65037 bytes)                         


                          karnov-concept-art.jpg (303238 bytes)             karnov-face.png (26622 bytes)
 

Page Updated:  Sep. 3rd, 2022

Bad Dudes struck a chord with me as a kid in the late 80's. I must've beat the game 100+ times. While other beat-em-up characters eventually made it to fighting games, Bad Dudes doesn't have much to show for it in the fighting genre... but this one guy... Karnov exists. And for his connection to Bad Dudes, I'm glad he exists. I have just one question... what happened to ol' Karnov in the SF2 rip-off: Fighter's History? In Bad Dudes, Karnov was super swole and a force to be reckoned with. In the first Fighter's History, he looks like a midget. His 2D sprite looks like it's from a different game compared to other characters in the game. Karnov also had cool metal gauntlets in Bad Dudes and seemed like a "giant". Then in the sequel, Dynamite... it was sad to see Karnov completely let himself go. He got FAAAAT and particularly flabby. I worry for his health. #NotMyKarnov

Now, onto the subject of that interesting concept art above? I didn't really get that impression when I first played Dynamite. But if that's really part of his design, I'm onboard. (For that concept art, I raised his score a few points.)

Fighting  Style  /  Moveset
Personality  /  Charisma
Outfit(s)  /  Appearance
Effectiveness  in  series
Overall Score