River City Ransom was a game I missed out on during the age of the NES, so with the following the game has among gamers, I thought I should experience it with the GBA release of River City Ransom EX. The closest game I can liken it to in my experience is Double Dragon. Like Double Dragon, its a side scrolling beatem-up where you punch and kick your way through groups of enemies while picking up weapons along the way. But where Double Dragon was staged based, River City Ransom lets the player roam from area to area, fighting a fresh gang each time an area is entered. The main goal is to enter River City High, which is closed until all of the gang leader bosses are defeated, and is where the girlfirend of Alex’s rival, Ryan, is being held by River City’s new boss, Slick. The bosses are found in certain areas, but to get them to appear you have to clear an area of enemies, while also fighting them in a certain order. Most of the bosses that you defeat will come back if you clear the area again, itching for another fight and giving you a chance to get higer funding for raising your character’s stats.
The weapons you can pick up may include tires, cones, sticks, chains, ladders, and even trash cans. Weapons can be discarded by using B to throw it at an enemy although it will bounce off and inflict minor damage should your character be too close. It’s possible to prevent this by punching or kicking the object before it hits, which can also be done to block hits from enemies. Sometimes when the trash can is thrown at enemies, it’ll get stuck on their head, preventing them from attacking, and the same goes for the player. You’ll have to run around with a trash can on your head unless you ram into the side of the screen to knock it off.
The original NES version apparently had a 2player mode, but this GBA version’s only game link function is to trade stats/characters. If they were going to go through trouble of including a trading function, why only tease us, and exclude a 2 player mode? You can however have the second character, Ryan, be controlled by the computer, and as a single player game, it makes it less lonely to fight the groups with the CPU player at least. The CPU usually does a good job of taking care of itself and gives you some breathing room, although its occasionally annoying when your “buddy” throws his weapon right at you.
One of the notable aspects of the game is the text displayed that the enemies give off when defeated, usually to do with the theme of the gang, as well as the bosses who will curse you for hitting them while doing their introduction speech, which adds a lot of personality to the game. I noticed the Gamer’s say “Who are you?”, probably referencing Nintendo’s current ad campaign. This adds to the already comical nature of the gamewith its cartoonish graphics and silly nature of fighting groups of school gangs and the expressions they give when hit or thrown.
You’ve got to play and play to get any kind of money in the game, and if you die, while returning the last town you were in, you loose half of what you earned. Making mistakes like jumping in a pit because you misjudged a jump in a fight and dieing makes me want to pull my hair out at my carelessness. Beyond the simple kick, punch, and jumping + kicking/punch, you can buy techiques at the local stores. The latest technique I obtained is the “Killer Kick”, which is used by double tapping forward to run while holding B and then pressing A, launching Alex into a jump kick that propels him halfway across the area and knocks down any thugs that should get in the way. It was so fast and effective in how much ground Alex covered and the look of him slamming into enemies that it had me laughing out loud. One of the coolest things to do is to knock an enemy down, and then pick them up and plow through the other enemies using that punk as a
weapon. Fighting all of the gangs requires nurishment, so eating or using various items at stores, including a fast food resturants, will increase your stats to make your character more stronger and deal more damage to enemies. The top bar on the screen represents your life, while the bottom represents your willpower, the higher your willpower, the more damage you’ll deal.
If the fact that this was originally an NES game and its gameplay doesn’t make it feel like an old NES game, then its lack of a save feature and even a sleep mode will, because there is none. To get through this GBA game, you’ll have to either play for hours or leave your GBA (or GC GB Player) on for a long time just like the good ole days. Thankfully you can save your character data, so each time you play, you can get your character stronger and stronger, and amass more money and get through parts you’ve played quicker. It’s nice that the story progresses a little with certain character’s speech, but its ashame you have to sit through Roxy’s “long” speech about being on your side every time you start the game again.
The stats on the left are the default stats the game starts with, and on the right are my current stats from when this screen was taken. If that giant number is the time spent playing/leaving the GB running then I’ve spent about… 23 days playing this game/leaving it on…?! After about a month of playing, I almost got to the end after I entered River City High and took out the Dragon Twins after 4 or so previous rematches. The last battle with Slick took place on the roof of the school with several weapons on the ground that I thought nothing of but as weapons to use in the fight. So I was in for a shock when Slick’s crazy telekinesis powers are revealed and the ladders and other weapons are flying all around the place attacking me! So close to saving Cyndi.
River City Ransom is just plain fun. Beating up high school gangs in an all out brawl never gets old, and neither does the main theme music of the game, keeping an upbeat tone throughout the game. RCREX is a fun game to pick up and play again and again because of its great action beatem-up gameplay and I recommend checking it out.
For more info on RCR, check out 1up.com’s review of the original game, and for a great rendition of the RCR main theme check out Magfest 2.0′s concert music by The Smash Bros. on their site.
The weapons you can pick up may include tires, cones, sticks, chains, ladders, and even trash cans. Weapons can be discarded by using B to throw it at an enemy although it will bounce off and inflict minor damage should your character be too close. It’s possible to prevent this by punching or kicking the object before it hits, which can also be done to block hits from enemies. Sometimes when the trash can is thrown at enemies, it’ll get stuck on their head, preventing them from attacking, and the same goes for the player. You’ll have to run around with a trash can on your head unless you ram into the side of the screen to knock it off.
The original NES version apparently had a 2player mode, but this GBA version’s only game link function is to trade stats/characters. If they were going to go through trouble of including a trading function, why only tease us, and exclude a 2 player mode? You can however have the second character, Ryan, be controlled by the computer, and as a single player game, it makes it less lonely to fight the groups with the CPU player at least. The CPU usually does a good job of taking care of itself and gives you some breathing room, although its occasionally annoying when your “buddy” throws his weapon right at you.
One of the notable aspects of the game is the text displayed that the enemies give off when defeated, usually to do with the theme of the gang, as well as the bosses who will curse you for hitting them while doing their introduction speech, which adds a lot of personality to the game. I noticed the Gamer’s say “Who are you?”, probably referencing Nintendo’s current ad campaign. This adds to the already comical nature of the gamewith its cartoonish graphics and silly nature of fighting groups of school gangs and the expressions they give when hit or thrown.
You’ve got to play and play to get any kind of money in the game, and if you die, while returning the last town you were in, you loose half of what you earned. Making mistakes like jumping in a pit because you misjudged a jump in a fight and dieing makes me want to pull my hair out at my carelessness. Beyond the simple kick, punch, and jumping + kicking/punch, you can buy techiques at the local stores. The latest technique I obtained is the “Killer Kick”, which is used by double tapping forward to run while holding B and then pressing A, launching Alex into a jump kick that propels him halfway across the area and knocks down any thugs that should get in the way. It was so fast and effective in how much ground Alex covered and the look of him slamming into enemies that it had me laughing out loud. One of the coolest things to do is to knock an enemy down, and then pick them up and plow through the other enemies using that punk as a
weapon. Fighting all of the gangs requires nurishment, so eating or using various items at stores, including a fast food resturants, will increase your stats to make your character more stronger and deal more damage to enemies. The top bar on the screen represents your life, while the bottom represents your willpower, the higher your willpower, the more damage you’ll deal.
If the fact that this was originally an NES game and its gameplay doesn’t make it feel like an old NES game, then its lack of a save feature and even a sleep mode will, because there is none. To get through this GBA game, you’ll have to either play for hours or leave your GBA (or GC GB Player) on for a long time just like the good ole days. Thankfully you can save your character data, so each time you play, you can get your character stronger and stronger, and amass more money and get through parts you’ve played quicker. It’s nice that the story progresses a little with certain character’s speech, but its ashame you have to sit through Roxy’s “long” speech about being on your side every time you start the game again.
The stats on the left are the default stats the game starts with, and on the right are my current stats from when this screen was taken. If that giant number is the time spent playing/leaving the GB running then I’ve spent about… 23 days playing this game/leaving it on…?! After about a month of playing, I almost got to the end after I entered River City High and took out the Dragon Twins after 4 or so previous rematches. The last battle with Slick took place on the roof of the school with several weapons on the ground that I thought nothing of but as weapons to use in the fight. So I was in for a shock when Slick’s crazy telekinesis powers are revealed and the ladders and other weapons are flying all around the place attacking me! So close to saving Cyndi.
River City Ransom is just plain fun. Beating up high school gangs in an all out brawl never gets old, and neither does the main theme music of the game, keeping an upbeat tone throughout the game. RCREX is a fun game to pick up and play again and again because of its great action beatem-up gameplay and I recommend checking it out.
For more info on RCR, check out 1up.com’s review of the original game, and for a great rendition of the RCR main theme check out Magfest 2.0′s concert music by The Smash Bros. on their site.
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