The Female of The Species

When you think of the Beat’ em up genre, the names that typically come up are the likes of Blaze Fielding, Mike Haggar, and The Lee brothers. But most, if not all of them, have one character to thank for their creation. A young boy by the name of Kunio was off punching thugs until they “BARF” in a little town known as River City. I am sure that name rings a bell for many of you readers, and most of us played the first beat’ em up ever created. The River City franchise has been woven into the colorful history of video games under several different genres and titles such as Super Dodge Ball and Renegade. As it turns out, the people at Way Forward are just nostalgic as a fair amount of the gaming fan base because first, they released Double Dragon Neon in 2017, and then added a new title to The River City franchise named River City Girls.

River City Girls follows two feisty delinquents known as Misako and Kyoko. Both were featured in previous River City titles, but their backstory and design were both reworked for this title. While the two were sitting in detention, Misako was anyway, Kyoko just snuck into her friend’s school to hang out. While listening to a boring lecture about math, Kyoko gets a mysterious image of Kunio and his rival turned friend Riki entering a suspicious black van. In a panic, the duo breaks out of school to aid their apparently abducted boyfriends. As you play through, you run into several colorful characters such as Godai, Misuzu, Hasebe, and Mami, all characters who have appeared in various titles with Kunio over the years.

The developers kept true to the spirit of River City Ransom, having players travel around the city fighting enemies. But unlike the more traditional beat’ em up, River City Ransom would piece their areas together, similar to how the first Legend of Zelda was designed and placing several shops where you can be health items and equipment. This combined with a leveling system that allows you to learn new attacks really gives River City Girls more of an RPG element, a component that has been around since the franchise’s 3rd title. The skills your characters can learn are a combination of karate strikes, outlandish attacks, and wrestling holds. Each one has their own unique move set, and on a personal note, I haven’t had as much fun in years as I did playing Misako and hitting everyone with a Stone-Cold Stunner.

The enemies are plentiful and each one has their own unique look and attacks, with the exception of color variations. You will encounter students, cheerleaders, dirty cops, a dominatrix, some rather familiar-looking Austrian robots, and King from Tekken if he were ordered off of wish. A function I should mention now is that if you beat up an enemy enough, they will plead for mercy and then join your team. You can only have one at a time, and it is more like an assist from a fighting game, but they have their uses.

A fun feature, and one of my favorites, is the interaction between characters. As you travel through River City searching for clues to the fate of Kunio and Riki, Misako and Kyoko will have conversations with one another discussing things like their next plan, or why the people in this town are so violent. The icons in the Heads-up display, the area where you see things like your health and level, will actually become animated and start interacting with one another. Of course, this is a beat’ em up, so there will naturally be points you can’t progress until you clear the area of its enemies. They indicate this by having a chain border around the screen with a lock in the middle. As you defeat more foes, the lock will slowly become beaten until it breaks, giving you the freedom to roam once more.

This is not a title to take seriously, and the writers knew this, but I promise it does not take away from the experience. Way Forward paid tribute to several nerd culture icons in this title such as the wrestling moves, I mentioned earlier, and several unforgettable characters from The Double Dragon series. The soundtrack also has a synth 80’s feel to compliment the game and features several vocal tracks by the exceptionally talented Megan McDuffee. Honestly, I found myself revisiting certain places just to brawl to her music, if you were like me, I would highly suggest either the beach or the school gym. The controls are simple, you have a block, three types of attacks, and a jump. This makes the combo system real simple and fun, allowing an almost endless supply of chain strikes you can think of.

In terms of combat, once I reached level 12 and had access to all my skills, became much easier. However, there were two boss battles I encountered that were just a major pain in the ass. The first was Hasibi, a crazed fashion designer who apparently can fly. And Noize, a musician so beloved that she could kill someone on stage and not suffer any consequences, not to say our heroines are any better. By the end of the adventure, both Kyoko and Misako should have been arrested for trespassing, theft, threats, and a laundry list of assault charges which would include cops.

All in all, my only real issues with River City Girls are the fact it doesn’t support online play, and it can be a bit too short in terms of completing it. But there is plenty to warrant a second playthrough. For example, you can unlock two more characters to play. Not to mention trying to collect all the allies, a hidden shop, and a hidden boss battle will keep you fully engaged for at least a weekend. I should know, when I first played this title, I spent an entire weekend gaming until I managed 100% on my achievements. So, odds are, I will go back and revisit River City at some point, fighting my heart out while Way Forward finishes its sequel.