River City: Rival Showdown

[b]Merits:[/b] ▪ A decent story, good humour and good localisation ▪ RPG mechanics with various stats to improve and a ton of moves to unlock ▪ High quality pixelated 3D backgrounds that work well with the original sprites ▪ Extra traditional 1v1 fighting game mode, Double Dragon Duel included ▪ The ability to play the game in co-op mode [b]Flaws:[/b] ▪ It gets tedious and grindy ▪ Requires multiple playthroughs to unlock everything [b]Verdict:[/b] The definitive version of the classic Kunio-kun story, following shortly after Tokyo Rumble. It is still fun today, the sprites look just as funny, with plenty of moves and things to do. If you like beat 'em ups, or you have nostalgia for the original, I can easily recommend it. [b]Rating:[/b] ★★★★☆ - Great

If you’ve been on the fence about River City: Rival Showdown, now is the perfect time to jump in. The biggest issue people had at launch—controller compatibility—has already been fixed, and it works much better now. Seriously, you can safely ignore the older negative reviews that mention it. What you’re left with is a really fun, modern take on the classic beat ’em up formula. Fans of the original River City Ransom from the NES era will feel right at home here. The familiar style, humor, and RPG elements are all intact, but with enough updates to keep things feeling fresh. Combat is satisfying, exploration is rewarding, and the branching story paths add replay value that wasn’t present in the original. It’s clear the developers understood what made the classic so special and built on it in a meaningful way. If you grew up with River City Ransom or just enjoy old-school brawlers with personality, this is absolutely worth your time now that the technical issues have been addressed.

I give this my *wholehearted* recommendation as an entry point to the Kunio-kun franchise, if one isn't opting for the much more modern and sensible River City Girls. Heck I ESPECIALLY recommend this one if River City Girls was your entry point but you'd like to see everything "from the beginning". This is effectively a remake of the original River City Ransom (Downtown Nekketsu). But what's REALLY interesting about it is that instead of just being a series of boss flags you bounce between while figuring where to go, it borrows from Majora's Mask. You have three days to stop the bad guys. If you enter the fourth day without foiling the antagonist's main plot, you're forced into a BRUTAL and overwhelming boss fight against basically all of the bad guys at once. One that on paper you're not supposed to win, but feels amazing to win anyway. But you can reset time at any point and keep your levels/items/etc., just story progress resets so the fail state big brawl isn't a mandatory event. So instead of just exploring to find the story flags, you're also accounting for character schedules and events temporally. I will say that the battle system feels VERY stiff and 1980's and... that's …

I've played this on the 2DS, hesitated too much to buy this because it is overpriced in my region (LatAm), but... It's a good remake of River City Ransom, has an interesting story, and you could see it as "Yakuza's 2D grandfather", it's similar enough to it. If I'd have one complaint... Well, two: The UI doesn't look as neat as it does on the 3DS, and a way to pull an overlay map or minimap would be better than having to pause to check. Here's some heads ups for those starting: 1. Don't run away from fights. If you do, you'll be underlevel, and will inevitably be wiped out sooner or later. 2. Focus on Endurance, Punch and Kick when leveling up, then after those are capped in Beginner difficulty (15 pts in each), focus on Luck. Then focus on whatever you'd like. 3. Buy the Stone Hands and Dragon Kicks as early as possible. They give you a nice way to deal damage early on and can be mastered into stronger versions of it, including an ultimate move for each. 4. Do not neglected Dash (LB), it's faster than getting a taxi unless you are literally going to opposing corners of the town. 5. Even though there IS a time limit and things happens on schedule, there is no actual game over, onl…

Controller worked for me, so I guess the patches fixed that issue. I'm only leaving this review because that seems to be the only reason this game is mixed. It's total remake of the Japanese version (Kunio kun?) of River City Ransom; I didn't play much of this and I'll get back to it another time.

Great Game For 2 Players!