In the grand history of video games, there are few things as satifying as smashing a trashcan on someone's head in River City Ransom. While by no means a perfect game (not by a longshot), it can be a deliciously fun game to play, and my brother and I spent long hours kicking ass in it in our youth.
It's definitely a step above the Double Dragon games in complexity, with roleplaying elements and more complex, almost open world design. But sometimes these added features get a bit confusing when all you want to do is beat dudes up.
Still, it can be very fun, and insanely chaotic sometimes. Plus it's got grest music.
The RPG elements were lost on my brother and I as kids, and as a result the game was too tough in the endgame. Not only that, but in the last level (a high school), there's a bottomless pit that will end your game real quick if both players fall into it.
Nevertheless, I did have a great time playing this game on the NES when I was a kid.
I really dig the music in the game, especially when you enter a shop. sometimes, I'd just let the game sit there on that screen so I could listed to music on a loop a few minutes.
I also liked how smooth the fighting felt on the NES. Defiitely a step up from the slightly stiffer controls of Double Dragon.
Yeah the music is great. And you’re right, the combat is pretty fluid. God have mercy on you though if you accidentally punch the other player though! Ha ha.
Is this on any PC collections/Steam?
I don’t think it is, but there is a sort-of official, maybe unofficial sequel on Steam that I hear is pretty good.
This is a very cool game. I never got very far in it but it was clear it was way ahead of its time. I like going into shops and buying foods that give you power-ups, and kicking a ball around in some park, if I remember rightly.
It was ahead of its time definitely.
You know that Double Dragon and River City Ransom were made by the same folks?
Also, did you know that River City Ransom is a sequel to an arcade game called Renegade? In Japan, both games star the same high school thug named Kunio-kun. Kunio has had TONS of games in Japan. When Kunio isn't beating up bad guys, he likes to play sports, so a lot of Kunio games are sports spin-offs. My favorite is Super Dodge Ball on the NES. In fact, that was my favorite sports game of all time until Wii Sports came along.
I never got into the NES River City Ransom game too much but I appreciated its style. I did enjoy a 3DS River City remake that Natsume published a while back.
I didn't know any of that! Japan is crazy!
Hey River City Ransom! Funny thing about this game is that I never played it on the NES. Thanks to playing it on emulators years later I liked it, and I think I have an actual classic plastic copy.