"Updated review of this River City Ransom port"

If you ever play River City Ransom for the Nintendo Entertaiment System, give yourself 20 Hardcore Gamer points. If you know about the Kunio-kun series, you're either: Japanese or a really hardcore gamer. In America, River City Ransom, while a good game, was overshadowed due to American Technos' bad timing, since the game was released around the same time Acclaim release Double Dragon II in America (ironically, since both were made by Technos Japan) and as a result, River City Ransom, while forgotten by the general public, the few people that played it also loved it and River City Ransom gained cult status in America. In Japan on the other hand, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (Monogatari=Story), which was the sequel to Renegade and Super Dodge Ball in Japan, was a smash hit in Japan, spawning several spinoffs and sequels with the characters. Downtown Nekketsu Story was eventually ported to two systems, an X68000 version by Sharp (which I never played) and a PC Engine Super CD-Rom port by Naxat Soft. This review deals with the latter.

Up until now, Reihou Gakuen was a respectable high school. Everythings changed when two brothers named Ryuuichi and Ryuuji, also known as the Double Dragon Twins, joined that school, everything started to change. They gained absolute power over all the students in Reihou, turning the school into a big militia and eventually gaining the trust of several other high school gangs. Riki, the senior guardian of Hanazono Koukou, refused to join forces with Reihou. As a result, his girlfriend Mami is kidnapped by Reihou. This leaves Riki with no other options but to team up with his eternal rival, Kunio from Nekketsu Koukou, to attack Reihou head on. Eventually, Kunio is reunited with his childhood friend, Hasebe, who tells our heroes the whereabouts of Riki's girlfriend. It is hinted in the very beggining however, that the true mastermind behind Reihou's corruption is not the Double Dragon Twins, but a former friend of Kunio's.

In the beggining you get to choose your character, the number of players (2P Mode B removes the ability to hit the other player), the difficulty and the message speed. The game itself is a basic Double Dragon-style beat-em-up. The kind where you get beat every henchmen, steal their weapons (which can be use and throw) fight a boss or two once in a while. At first sight, DNM doesn't seem to have any variety (every game character uses the same body, only they're pallette swapped), but that's where you're wrong. What seperates DNM from the rest of the beat-em-up genre is the fact that you buy items. In several occasions, you'll enter a shopping district with Bakeries, Bookstore, Sushi Grills, Fast Food chains and other kind of shops and you buy stuff like food and equipment that will increase your status and replenish your energy and books that teach you new techniques by using money taken from dead enemies. The setting of the game is very straight forward and you only have to backtrack once to confront a boss. If you lose all your HP, you will be bought back to the last shopping district you went with half of your money, so essentially there is no Game Over unless you declare it yourself.

From the sissies of Senridai High School to the maniacs of the Reihou Academy, all the enemies in the game are color-coded. The wussies of Senridai wears Light Blue, while Hakutaka wears Grey and Reihou wears the color of blood, red. All the gangs also have their own distinct personality. The pink wearing sissies of Sakajuku has a tendecy to throw their weapons at you, but when they're armless, they usually run away. The Dark Green-clad members of Houryou has really high punching power and the black wearing Tanibana Killlers are Boujutsu masters. The bosses are usually from Reihou, but there are also other bosses from other schools as well (i.e: Gouda, Godai, Nishimura). Most of them aren't really tough, except the Dragon Twins, who are near impossible if your stats are low and you don't have the Maha Punch or Kick. The final boss is anti-climatic and can easily be beaten with little skill required.

This game is a port of the Famicom version, and although there is very little differences between the two, there is a couple of differences between the Famicom version of DMN and it's American counterpart, River City Ransom. The story was changed a bit for the American version (DMN starts with a conversation with Kunio and Riki, while RCR starts with a Ransom note instead) and all the names were Americanized. In DMN, you fought agaisnt high school students, while in RCR, you fight gang members wearing color-code shirts and blue jeans. DNM has three difficulty levels, while RCR only has two. That's pretty much it.

The graphics has been improved somewhat from the Famicom version. There is more shading and everything is more detailed. Backgrounds were added to several place like in the intro and during the character select screen. And there's new animation added to the shops. Kunio and Riki now actually drink their drinks instead of eating them and they also use their forks and spoons with table food. Minor stuff, nothing to get excited.

The Music is now done in Redbook format and let me say this once, the music is amazing. Naxat Soft has turn the music from the Famicom version to real music. While most of it guitar heavy, it's really good stuff, especially the Double Dragon theme. The dialogue is digitizied in this game and sounds kinda garbled. This was probably done to save time and space. Thankfully, the important dialogue is done with Redbook Audio.

Update:Disregard my previous comments about the SFX, there is SFX in this game, though there aren't really that great. I was playing the game on Magic Engine using their custom System Card and it doesn't emulate it very well. I played it using an Emulated System Card 3 Rom and the SFX works great. Still, there is some glitches with the audio I forgot to mention before (like playing the wrong track on the wrong scene) and other non-audio glitches, but that's probably an emulation problem. Once I find a real Duo, I'll probably may judged the game and see whether it has glitches or not.

Other than that and the fact that the game is now saved using the system card's RAM (instead of passwords), the game is a straight port of the Famicom game, with minor loading times. Though, I really feel somewhat dissapointed at the end. Sure it's still River City Ransom, but after Naxat Soft's previous PC Engine ports of Technos games, I really expected them to outdo themselves with this one. Their previous ports of Technos always had something extra that their original counterparts didn't have. Naxat's Hu-Card version of Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-Bu was an adequate port of the Arcade game with an extra Quest Mode. The Hu-Card and Super CD versions of Kunio's Soccer has animated opening, ending and voices (CD-only) and additional teams not found in the original Famicom game. Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku has small extras like interludes, events previews, new scenes and even a demostration of all four teams doing their special moves, which is not inclunded in the Famicom version. Double Dragon II also have Animated Interludes with voices, new music and multiple endings. What extras does DNM besides enhanced graphics and redbook audio? Small loading times and garbled voices. They should had added some of the stuff Technos planned to add to the Famicom version like unused graphics (e.g: individual sprites and animations for Mami and Hasebe, mugshots of Kunio and Riki at the selection screen and other cool stuff) and a real ending.

Maybe I expected too much of this PC Engine port of a Famicom classic, especially considering how long it took me to get it for a reasonable price. But if Naxat Soft's previous ports of Technos games had extras, why not DMN? It's still a fine game, but you shouldn't really expect much. It's still River City Ransom/Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari and it's a fine port of a proven classic. Just don't expect a Director's Cut or something.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/21/00, Updated 09/21/00