scott cawthon best amateur 3d artist ever this game just looks too good no matter how busted it is.
very short very fun stages, not hard at all in the grand scheme of twin-stick bullet hells but decently challenging to me as a newcomer, mostly just that damn true final boss tho
my only criticism would be how long it takes to get points to buy ammo but the c key will just give you 500 points whenever you want so it invalidates itself

good :D

Titles like Streets of Rage 4, Shredder's Revenge, Fight n' Rage, and River City Girls have been responsible for a beat 'em up renaissance in recent years. That last one is notable, because two years prior to its release a different River City/Kunio-Kun revival was released! It's... uh... the game I'm reviewing. This game seems to fly under most people's radar, which sucks, because I find it to be a pretty good game, albeit one with a few flaws that keep it from greatness.

One interesting note is that this game follows the western canon of River City Ransom instead of the Japanese canon of Kunio-Kun. Instead of Kunio and Riki, we have Alex and Ryan. This makes Provie and other characters from this game showing up in River City Girls 2 completely nonsensical since those games follow the Kunio-Kun canon but I'll discuss the plot of that game at a later date. For now, I need to discuss the plot of this game. Uh... A gang of teenagers is framed for taking a business tycoon's family member hostage, so the gang teams up with Alex and Ryan from the first game to beat up the bad guys. Some other stuff happens with the military-industrial complex and kittens and stuff, but story really isn't the main draw here. I do think the game can be funny occasionally, and it's less obnoxious as the River City Girls games can occasionally be, but I still wouldn't say it's a strength here.

Instead, the strength is the gameplay. In my opinion, this game has done the best job at combining the Beat 'em Up and RPG mechanics in a satisfying way. I know RPG mechanics seeping into pretty much every genre has been the ire of many gamers (Including me, in many cases), but it does offer a lot of strengths. This game starts you off with enough tools so that gameplay doesn't feel boring, and you unlock moves from there. Personally, it felt like I was being eased into a pretty expansive moveset. Most moves don't feel extraneous and redundant either, which is a common pitfall with this progression style. Pulling off combos takes a bit of effort and you're forced to be varied in the moves you use, which makes linking a string of moves super fun. Although, I never felt like I was rewarded for going above and beyond. To my knowledge, longer combos don't really result in higher rewards. I wish that they implemented a system where longer combos resulted in more money or experience.

There's also a lot of characters here, and many of them play very different. You start off with only 4 characters, but can earn many more as you play the game. I stuck to Glen for the most part, but after playing a bit of the other guys, I can confidently say that most are pretty distinct. Unfortunately, If you want to switch to a different character mid-playthrough, you're going to be underleveled. I'm sure they could've implemented a way to distribute experience to every character or something.

I think playing this and River City Girls 2 back to back made me realize that exploration is often the most fun with a very simple map. When everything's just laid out for you, it's harder to say that you're truly exploring. In this game though, you'll often be told where to go a la A Link to the Past, where you're given a general direction on a pretty simple map and have to find the specific route yourself. I honestly rather enjoyed this element.

Honestly, most of my issues are due to a lack of polish and a few rough patches. Finding bosses can sometimes be cryptic, the game could be a bit more up-front about how different stats work, There's a few big difficulty spikes, and while the exploration was fun, I wish the map was a bit more compact and interconnected. However, it's a really good game aside from those issues, and a sequel could be great. I hope that Provie being in River City Girls 2 will drum up some interest in a sequel, or at least a port to other consoles. For now, 7/10.