River City Ransom (1990)

Beat on Advanced in slow motion mode. Not sure if I played this back in the day. I played as Ryan because he had better colors, missed a couple early bosses and bought food that I would want to eat. At first I was getting my ass kicked until I looked up the controls and seen that jumping on top of platforms was the way of cheese. I later bought triple punch and triple kick, and made it to the school only to have to backtrack to the beginning to get those bosses. Before that though I bought triple weapon, which was definitely overpowered. On the way back I bought Texas boots and used a walkthrough to know what items improved which stats. I ended up with max kick, defense and weapon, moderate str, low will and the others not improved at all. It was kinda fun to imagine eating the tasty foods but it was tedious to grind out stats, especially how the most efficient items went directly into the inventory rather than being ate right away. The books, boots and probably other stuff worked like equipment, taking up an inventory slot.

I felt strength was the most important stat because of how often the enemies blocked. I could spend minutes wailing away at an enemy with no one able to land a blow, which made me wonder if there was a system of alternating between kicks and punches to break defense. Didnt seem to be. The enemies were vicious, doing very difficult to avoid running charges the second I turned my back (and from off screen), dodging around, and flanking. They could deplete my hp shockingly fast given the chance. My tactic was to stand still holding turbo attack with a weapon, which countered being charged due to its longer reach. Without doing that there was very little time to react to a guy coming from off screen because it did not scroll until the player was about 75% across the screen, a mechanic that I loathe. Most enemies could not stand up to the weapon onslaught, with even the final boss going down in seconds without getting a single attack off. Other times when they made me drop the weapon it was better to go unarmed rather than go for the weapon. I often used weapons on the ground as traps as I camped them. It was usually enough to move slightly up or down to get through blocking or avoid attacks. Rarely I did my own charge attacks but this game had that stupid double press direction to run. Probably would have been better to put punch/kick to the same button and use the 2nd for run mode or jump. It was hilarious how often the enemies did friendly fire with weapons but annoying when I smacked a crate into an enemy only for it to bounce back and hit me, making me drop my weapon. I also died a couple times from running into walls. Could have used more varied enemies, especially for the bosses.

Definitely one of the best nes games with very user friendly features, other than some of the food tedium.

8.2/10

Preliminary: I'm loving the idea of the RPG elements, the open world aspect, and what I consider an Earthbound-esque mentality to the RPG elements. But I'm a bit nervous since I haven't really clicked much with NES brawlers for the most part. Well, after a brief playtest, I definitely see how it's related to the Double Dragons. And tho I wish there were a jump and whatnot, it feels a bit more fluid and forgiving than most its contemporary brawlers so that's good.

The action elements seem very basic, the sprites moving and turning in odd ways, but I love the faces you and the enemies make when you're hit :-p I'm having fun, enjoying the Mall shopping, the world doesn't feel all that open-world yet heh, and I don't like the way the screen scrolls and enemies are BAM there. But it's fun so far and has that action-adventure hook I can't deny!

Oh wait you can jump. Nice. And I am liking the Moves you learn from Books. And I like that enemies have friendly fire among themselves :-p Love dodging and an enemy gets hit instead :-p I think if it weren't for the RPG and adventure elements, I wouldn't push through the somewhat clunky controls and usual issues I have with console brawlers like picking up an object instead of attacking etc.

Day 1

Great music at the Bridge. And I love the colors of the warehouse. The coin bouncing sound effect is a bit annoying tho. And the action elements really are just a mess imo, I can't love the brawler genre it seems. The way the objects damage you even if they're just sorta landing on the ground by you, the "3d"/up-down aspect that I didn't like discerning in Double Dragon either, the slow turnaround that should be fast and tight like in many action platformers for the NES

As I got to the boss in the park (I have the original Japanese version fan-translated so the names are a bit different, but the guy you meet at the park after beating the warehouse boss haha), I was noticing little quirks to make up for some of its action faults, namely dashing at an enemy then attacking real quick. Especially when they're cowering/dodging you :-p

Day 2

I'm enjoying the controls more now that I am used to them and got the dash down. But the platforming is atrocious, mostly related to that issue I have with the attempt at depth/3d in Double Dragon games etc. Cute secret shop and nice music for it (most of the Sound has been meh so far)

Welllllp, I can't seem to make the 2nd boss in the warehouse appear and I'm quite positive I defeated the other bosses so not sure what I did wrong. I was enjoying myself, but the fact I don't want to go back through all those brawler segments (as small as the "open world" really is) isn't so good. The action-adventure elements were fun but yeah. I then went to the high school to see if I could enter it, thinking maybe a glitch, and alas, seems I missed a boss (tho I know I defeated all of them) so maybe I left one before he could say his thing or something? Moving on.

Look: 7.5/10 Cute, classic NES look, and some great colors at parts.

Sound: 7.5/10 Mostly just NES-functional, but some great parts in it.

Play: 7/10 I couldn't deny the action-adventure hook. It was like a brawlervania :-p But like usual, couldn't stick with the brawler gameplay when the going got tough.

Feel: 8/10 Neat idea, great stores and Earthbound-esque names for items. If only I could engage with brawlers the same degree I do with platformers.

Attachment: 7.5/10 I want to give it another try, since I really didn't mind the brawler gameplay, but for now moving on.

Overall: 7.5/10

Completion: 2nd Warehouse battle but apparently I missed a boss?

Playtime: 1 hr

History:

I know, blasphemy, but I've definitely never played this game. In fact, I only heard about it recently in the wake of a possible remake of the game for the 3DS!

Expectations:

I don't like beat 'em ups. I didn't care for Double Dragon II, or Ninja Turtles II, and I don't dream of anthropomorphic toads when I sleep... which is probably healthy. Still, I've heard nothing but praise for this game so I'm hoping this will be the game that might change my outlook on the genre.

Day 1:

See that? That's how I knew I was going to love this game.

The first thing I found when starting the game, well aside from how great it looked, was how badly playing Double Dragon had damaged me. Throughout my entire play session with RCR I would catch myself trying to push B to attack left and A to attack right. This was mostly not an issue as I'd naturally press the D-pad in the corresponding direction at the same time, but it's still something I wish my brain would just stop doing!

The of the game was amazing, it had me hooked from the start. I can't say the game's deep at all but the beatings are just SO satisfying, especially how they added the little blocking mechanic to make your brawls more exciting. I also couldn't help but mentally replace Alex and Ryan with Yusuke and Kuwabara though...

The towns are a bit odd for me, in the sense that while I find them extremely charming, I don't understand them. That is to say, I get that I eat food to gain stats, but aside from the really obvious ones I don't quite understand the stats I'm gaining. I kind of would prefer a more direct leveling system, maybe EXP based, rather than buying your stats. Still, these breaks only add to the game, and I love it.

Did I mention this game's gives me a huge case of the happy's? It does. It only got crazier when I had my wife join in. She was able to pick up on the game immediately and we spent most of the night laughing and yelling at each other. This was mostly because the game has friendly fire... and it's hilarious...

"Okay I'm throwing a rock!"
"NOOOOOO!!!!!"
"Duck!"
thwack!
"You hit me with a rock!"
"Yeah well you bashed me over the head with a hubcap like four times!"

It's going to be an interesting meeting with the divorce lawyer...

Not everthing is awesome though. Adding a second player cranked the lag up to 11, and there was already some decent lag playing solo. Also, the game doesn't seem to be very good with direction. Bosses seem to spawn randomly, and at different locations, and at the very least a map would have been very helpful. We eventually got lost and beaten repeatedly, and decided to call it.

In bed I fired up a speedrun which shed a lot of light on my points of confusion. Certain requirements need to be met for bosses to appear, what items are worth taking, and giving me a general sense of where to go. I'm pretty sure I can beat this game next time I play now.

In the meantime I'm going to enjoy a tasty Merv Burger...

Day 2:

You can't see it in the screenshot, 'cause I'm too fast, but I just kicked this dude three times!

So yeah, turns out this game gets a lot easier when I actually buy those upgrade abilities. I came up with the money for the triple kick pretty quickly, then farmed for just a little bit for the triple punch.

After reading into it, and noticing that the bosses often give clues as to where I need to go next, I was able to wrap my head around how the game worked and it really wasn't so bad. The map is actually fairly small and the random gang system was actually pretty neat! I was eventually able to afford the triple weapon attack upgrade which, frankly, felt like it trivialized the rest of the game.

I finally reached River City High School where I proceeded to get lost for a good 20 minutes. I know the school's small, but I didn't realize there was a boss in the gym... Once he was taken care of I saved my girlfriend who didn't even stick around long enough for me to get a picture, so, that was cool.

Ha! Check it out, it's the Lee brothers, Ug and Home!

...

...That was from a really bad move...

Anyway the Dragon Twins took two tries after they got me in a corner and stun-locked me the first go around. After a successful attempt, it was off to take down Slick once and for all.

Conclusion:

I really liked this game! I was a bit concerned at first about not being able to figure out where to go or what to do but it was all actually fairly simple. The controls felt really good, though more than a couple deaths came from me sprinting into a wall. The music was forgettable, but the art was fantastic.

The one issue I can think of was the addition of RPG elements. This feature is something that people widely praise about this game, but I personally found it superfluous. I didn't get a single stat aside from Max HP over 18, and all that really mattered was me saving enough money for the three "correct" upgrades. The shop scenes were great, but it ultimately felt like a distraction rather than a key element of the game.

All that said, easily my favorite beat 'am for the console, and possible my favorite console beat 'em up period!

Liked:

- Tight controls and fun weapons made combat a blast.
- Art and animation was fantastic.
- The game was short enough to never feel like it was droning on for too long, but long enough to be satisfying.
- The story was simple, but the context made it a lot of fun.
- Co-op play leads to hilarious situations, and often violence.
- Merv Burger.

Disliked:

- Solo play lagged occasionally, and co-op play lagged badly.
- Music was fine but forgettable.
- RPG elements were great in concept, but could have been executed better.
- Case in point: Buy Grand Slam for $57, find a pipe or chain, proceed to faceroll game.

Personal Score:

Day 1:

See that? That's how I knew I was going to love this game.

The first thing I found when starting the game, well aside from how great it looked, was how badly playing Double Dragon had damaged me. Throughout my entire play session with RCR I would catch myself trying to push B to attack left and A to attack right. This was mostly not an issue as I'd naturally press the D-pad in the corresponding direction at the same time, but it's still something I wish my brain would just stop doing!

The of the game was amazing, it had me hooked from the start. I can't say the game's deep at all but the beatings are just SO satisfying, especially how they added the little blocking mechanic to make your brawls more exciting. I also couldn't help but mentally replace Alex and Ryan with Yusuke and Kuwabara though...

The towns are a bit odd for me, in the sense that while I find them extremely charming, I don't understand them. That is to say, I get that I eat food to gain stats, but aside from the really obvious ones I don't quite understand the stats I'm gaining. I kind of would prefer a more direct leveling system, maybe EXP based, rather than buying your stats. Still, these breaks only add to the game, and I love it.

Did I mention this game's gives me a huge case of the happy's? It does. It only got crazier when I had my wife join in. She was able to pick up on the game immediately and we spent most of the night laughing and yelling at each other. This was mostly because the game has friendly fire... and it's hilarious...

"Okay I'm throwing a rock!"
"NOOOOOO!!!!!"
"Duck!"
thwack!
"You hit me with a rock!"
"Yeah well you bashed me over the head with a hubcap like four times!"

It's going to be an interesting meeting with the divorce lawyer...

Not everthing is awesome though. Adding a second player cranked the lag up to 11, and there was already some decent lag playing solo. Also, the game doesn't seem to be very good with direction. Bosses seem to spawn randomly, and at different locations, and at the very least a map would have been very helpful. We eventually got lost and beaten repeatedly, and decided to call it.

In bed I fired up a speedrun which shed a lot of light on my points of confusion. Certain requirements need to be met for bosses to appear, what items are worth taking, and giving me a general sense of where to go. I'm pretty sure I can beat this game next time I play now.

In the meantime I'm going to enjoy a tasty Merv Burger...