River City Saga: Three Kingdoms

River City Saga: Three Kingdoms is a vibrant and engaging beat-’em-up that blends the classic River City franchise’s charm with the epic narrative and characters of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. The game successfully captures the nostalgic side-scrolling brawler gameplay that longtime fans adore while infusing it with fresh elements that help it stand out in a crowded genre. With its colorful pixel art, energetic combat, and a surprisingly deep storyline, it manages to appeal both to retro enthusiasts and players new to the series. The gameplay centers around fast-paced, side-scrolling action where players control a variety of characters drawn from the Three Kingdoms saga, each with their own distinct movesets and fighting styles. Combat is intuitive and satisfying, featuring a range of punches, kicks, throws, and special attacks that become more complex as the game progresses. The ability to switch between multiple characters on the fly adds a layer of strategy, allowing players to adapt to different enemy types and situations. Moreover, the cooperative multiplayer mode shines, offering a fun, chaotic experience when playing with friends, which stays true to the s…

Great River City game. Fun combat.

[h1]Rumbling to the red cliff![/h1] Ever heard of the River City franchise? No? Well, neither have I. But it turned out to be a long-lived beat-em-up adventure franchise that even branched out to a Saga spin-off and has two titles retell the Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". RCS: Three Kingdoms tells the first part of the novel (from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the Battle of Red Cliff). The Kunio characters play the roles of the historical people and add their own flair to the storytelling, as well as the fighting. There's plenty of customization for choosing your fight style, let alone weapons, (spectacular) tactics and moves to pick between as you go along with the story. When I got over the starting bump and got some moves that enhanced my character, the progress gains its flow but will still leave room for some challenges up ahead. River City Saga appears to deliver on its formula that's been built on its decades long existence and fits well with the Three Kingdoms interpretation, coming off as an entertaining parody TV show in 2D fighting format. (My favorite take-away is learning about how Zhang Fei lost to Lu Bu in a duel contest)

I got to play the game once. Then loaded it a second time and got stuck at a "New galleries unlocked" screen that I could not get past. I love the River City games from NES. But if I cant play it due to a prompt at the beginning of the game, then why even get it? Controller usage is very clunky. I'm 44 and raised with Keyboard and mouse supremacy, but its painful on these types of games. The configuration screen might as well be from the NES game as its outdated and useless to fix screen resolution issues. The game felt rushed to build and the studio was probably crunched to death. I would of expected a game of this polish released in the DOS days, not TODAY.

If you're a fan of the River City Ransom series you'll like this game. Plenty of action and quests to do.

bad control