River City Ransom EX

August 4, 2013 /

river-city-ransom-ex

If there’s one series that has a really convoluted history when it comes to American translations, it’s got to be the Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun [“Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio”] games. Broken up by several American publishers, it serves as the root for such NES classics as Renegade, Super Dodge Ball, Nintendo World Cup and my personal favorite of the games, River City Ransom: a cult classic and arguably one of the – if not THE – best beat-‘em-ups ever conceived for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. So, imagine my surprise when I heard the game was being remade for the Game Boy Advance. Does that last line seem familiar? Well, unlike that other remake, this one left me pleasantly surprised.

The story behind this one is fairly simple: players take on the role of one of two High School students, Ryan and Alex, who are for the fight of their lives, as they cross through River City and try to rescue River City High. Ryan’s doing it to save his girlfriend Cindy from the ringleader of the takeover, a young punk known simply as “Slick”, while Alex is simply in it to help his best friend (not to mention the fact that he gets to beat the crap out of people). Yeah, it’s not exactly Final Fantasy VII in terms of storyline, but hey, it’s a fun game and besides, it was the 80’s – they didn’t really NEED good storylines back then, all it took was great gameplay – well, that or a tie-in to a popular property, a sterling review in Nintendo Power or an intensive ad campaign – to sell.

In simplest terms, River City Ransom can be best described as a cross between a standard beat-‘em-up and an RPG. Of course, combining RPG elements into other genres wasn’t exactly uncommon in the heyday of the NES, but oddly enough, unlike most of these attempts – the second Castlevania and Legend of Zelda games come quickly to mind – RCR actually ended up working, at least in my opinion.

Basically, the core gameplay is pure beat-‘em-up action, allowing players to traverse throughout all of River City, beating the crap out of any low-level thugs that come their way, and once they’ve sorted through the cronies, the leader of the area’s gang shows up, offering a tougher fight. Of course, as I said before, there are some RPG elements. For example, while most beat-‘em-ups generally act on a stage-by-stage set-up, RCR has an overworld set-up, allowing players to roam throughout the entirety of River City and even revisit earlier areas. Another unique feature to the game would be the shop system. When most enemies are defeated, they drop coins (each representing a random amount of money) and in certain areas of the game, there are strip malls filled with various shops. While most are restaurants – which offer food as both a health and stat boost – there were also some magazine shops, some of which offering new powerful techniques, like Stone Fists (a quick flurry of punches) or Aero Circus (a powerful jumping somersault). The final difference is the fact that players are only allowed one life in the game, and if they are to die, they respawn at the last checkpoint they reached (which is generally one of the shopping areas), with their stats intact, but with only a fraction of their money.

Of course, there have been a few changes from the original, most for the better. For starters, there’s a single-player co-op mode, where the player can team up with a CPU-controlled ally to do double damage. Also, the cast of characters has expanded vastly, adding never before seen gangs to the game, as well as a few additional cameos – including a certain set of twins with nigh-identical names and a deep-rooted place in beat-‘em-up history. Players can also unlock additional allies and team up with up to 4 allies at a time. Alex and Ryan’s repertoire has also been expanded, giving the duo new techniques, not to mention the fact that each of them start with one of those aforementioned special techniques – Ryan wielding the Stone Fists and Alex kicking butt with the Dragon Feet. There are also additional weapons, such as ladders and poles. Of course, there is one unwelcome change: the true co-op mode – which allowed two players to team up – has been removed. In exchange, players can save their own character data and trade them with their friends, though that’s barely a consolation.

Moving on, I have to admit: I like the graphics in RCREX. It’s kind of a throwback style, not unlike the one found in Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES: it retains much of the look of the original NES game, while significantly increasing the color palette and making other additional tweaks to improve the overall look of the game. Of course, I guess the reason I liked this style so much is that it echoed the game’s own tone: it was the original game, with its own additions to make the GBA port a unique experience.

The same goes for the sound. All of the classic songs from the original have been recreated on the GBA, with a noticeable amount of added quality due to the GBA’s superior sound card. That’s just making a good thing better, considering the classic songs found in the game – the main city and shop themes especially – though, I’ll admit, the original NES versions had that 8-bit charm that wasn’t quite recreated. Sound effects are average: better than the NES version for sure, but nothing worth talking about.

As for the replay, well, it’s got its ups and downs. On one hand, there are numerous collectables in the game, such as those special techniques and secret allies I mentioned earlier. Besides, due to the save feature, players can play the game over and over with their same character, constantly improving them…well, that or constantly start over with new characters. Of course, there is one thing that really detracts from the game’s replay value: the lack of a true 2-player mode. One of the best parts of any beat-‘em-up is teaming up with a friend and kicking ass together, and in the original RCR’s case, that was no exception. It’s just a void that the character data and its trading functionality tries to fill, but doesn’t succeed. Oh well.

Of course, in spite of my constant bemoaning over that missing functionality, RCREX is a fantastic port of a classic NES beat-‘em-up that defied conventions in its day and implements several new features to give the game a fresh new look and feel. It’s a solid addition to any serious GBA fan’s collection, let alone a beat-‘em-up fan. So, if you see it lying around in a used pile at your local Gamestop or even floating around on Amazon, eBay, or whatever your favorite online retailer is, do yourself a favor and pick up River City Ransom EX.

-Originally Posted by Wolfdogg

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