Double Dragon was a bit hit in arcades (and home consoles) but it wasn’t until Final Fight was released that every development studio and their mother tried their hand at the genre. The 8-bit hardware of the time struggled to showcase several enemies on-screen at once, and most of the titles of this type felt a bit limited compared to their arcade counterparts to be honest. The few clones we did get were just that with few new features to call their own. This is where River City Ransom comes in to play. This title (released as Downtown Nekketsu Story in Japan) was quite different from the rest of the pack. While it was a big hit in its homeland the title was doomed to obscurity in the rest of the world because of how unusual it was. To call it a Double Dragon clone is a huge disservice because River City Ransom is a breed entirely its own. I didn’t have a chance to play it at the time of release, but was made aware of it because of its huge fanbase and widespread legacy. As a fan of the beat ‘em up genre I just had to give it a shot, and I’m thankful I did because I absolutely loved it. River City Ransom is a real riot, and it’s also a lot of fun!
The story here is quite simple. River City has is in a state of turmoil. This once peaceful metropolis has been taken over by various gangs of thugs, and things have become worse as a student named ‘Slick’ has risen to power. This teen has managed to take over River City and has taken our protagonist Ryan’s girlfriend captive. The scenario is told through a still screen of text at the beginning warning the two heroes Alex and Ryan that should they interfere they will be in for ‘the fight of their lives.’ It’s corny but in the best way possible. Upon starting the game you’re given your choice between the two characters (though they’re identical in terms of play), the number of players (you can fight your way through the story with a buddy should you choose to) as well as the difficulty level. River City Ransom at first appears to be your typical beat ‘em up game. You’re given a side view of the action and can move your characters up, down, left and right. You can punch, kick and jump. You can pick up items to use as weapons such as tires, pipes, chains, baseballs and more. Unlike most games of this kind however your progression is not linear. You’re given access to the whole city right from the start making this one of the early high profile sandbox games!
That’s all well and fine, but the immediate problem I had is that you’re not given a whole lot of hints as to where you need to go in the beginning. Thankfully your progression isn’t stopped until you defeat all of the enemies in an area; you can completely bypass most of them should you so choose to do. This is how I played the game in the beginning, but it’s a mistake to pass on defeating your foes. Defeating enemies results in them leaving behind coins, and this money is very important to your progression. Several areas of River City (the malls and shopping centers in particular) feature various shops with a wide array of items that you can buy. Believe me when I say that this game is chock full of purchase options. This is also where the RPG elements come in to play. Food items generally increase your stats making you more powerful against the army of thugs you’ll be facing off against, books teach your characters new fighting techniques to make you more versatile in combat, and you can even shop for accessories for a quick stat boost. You can even visit saunas to increase other statistics. My only real complaint about this is the fact that you’re given so many options, and there are no in-game explanations for what benefits they offer. This is especially true for the variety of foods you can eat. Using a FAQ is by no means out of the question.
River City Ransom is not an easy game by any means. Enemies frequently gang up on you, and you’ll end up fighting boss characters more than once. This is why I found myself ‘grinding’ as you would in a traditional RPG to gain money to upgrade my abilities in order to stand a chance against some of the more difficult foes and areas. Unfortunately the save system uses passwords, and because of how detailed the game is these are long and take a while to write down. Also, as I mentioned earlier the game is a bit unfocused as far as progression goes. Some bosses will give you clues, but by and large I found myself kind of just wandering around until I wound up at the right place. This would be more of an issue if I didn’t appreciate this game’s charm as much as I do. River City Ransom is downright hilarious in the cheesiest way possible with a lot of 80’s attitude. Each enemy you defeat spouts off a line of written dialogue and these include such statements as “BARF” “BIFF” and many other equally weird things. I really appreciate the game’s sense of humor and it’s half of what makes the experience so memorable. The excellent gameplay and co-op certainly don’t hurt either, but it’s really the atmosphere that hooked me.
Chances are if you’ve played a lot of Nintendo games then you’re familiar with the character ‘Kunio-kun.’ Right away I recognized the protagonists from such classics as Renegade, Super Dodgeball, Nintendo World Cup and a few others. I found this endearing, and had no previous idea that there was any connection whatsoever. River City Ransom isn’t super impressive by NES standards, but the graphics are more than adequate. The backgrounds change frequently and are rarely recycled despite how many different areas there are to explore. Furthermore there are a bunch of different enemy designs which I thought was cool. Different areas are run by different gangs (indicated when you enter a new area) and there are a variety of different character models to indicate this. What’s interesting is the fact that the publisher changed the designs to make them more American. The Japanese version featured a host of different school kids in separate uniforms, but here most of the enemies wear jeans and T-shirts. It shows that some effort was put into the localization which is nice. The soundtrack, while adequate, is not one of my favorite aspects of this game. It’s your usual high tempo rock sounded bleeps and blips but nothing really stands out in my head to be honest. At least everything fits and nothing is grating.
I don’t know what I was expecting with River City Ransom to be honest. The game is held in high regards in certain retro circles, but what I was sure would be a simple beat ‘em up title was far from it. The RPG elements tack on a lot of depth to the experience, but at the same time they slow down the pace a bit as you defeat thug after thug to save up enough money for the next upgrade. Still, the game is an absolute blast despite being on the difficult side and is all the more fun when you bring a friend along for the ride. River City Ransom really got the short end of the stick because it’s better than Double Dragon.
