River City Ransom EX

"River City's in trouble once again.."

Summary
Once again, Million has another remake of a NES game but this time it is the cult classic River City Ransom. It's basically the same thing as the NES original, minus and plus a few things(big or small, depending on how you feel), yet it still remains a blast to play after all these years.

Storyline
The story revolves around Alex and Ryan, two rivals that are seniors at the two schools in the game, River City High and Cross Town High respectively. Ryan finds a note on his locker from someone called Slick, who has kidnapped his girlfriend and has let the school's gangs on the loose to fight him. On the other hand, Alex is trying to find out who is ruling over the Dragon Twins which brought all the violence to River City High, so he goes to get Ryan for help. Overall, it's not a great story, but it sets it up so you can fight your way through a variety of gangs.

Gameplay - 9
For the most part, the game is fairly straight forward and the controls are set up just like an NES game. You press A to punch, B to kick, and A+B to Jump. Along the way of beating down fellow students, you come across a wide variety of weapons that are good for one thing: beating down gangs. Some weapons include trash cans, rocks, tires, chains, and brass knuckles, among others. Don't take it wrong however, Alex and Ryan are perfectly capable with their fists and feet. Alex now starts the game with Dragon Feet (4-hit kick combo) and Ryan starts with Mach Punch, which is the same as Dragon Feet only with fists, among other hidden skills that you can discover, such as a jumping uppercut. The only enemies you beat up throughout the game are gangs of school students. The gangs are pretty humorous, most notably, in my opinion, The Home Boys with names like Slim, Dre, Snoop, and Dawg. They'll also shout out BizARF when you defeat them.

RCR isn't exactly a run of the mill beat 'em up in the sense that there are RPG elements. As you defeat gangs, they drop money which you can buy food and various other items with that either increase your stats or teach you new techniques. The downsides to the game include items that cost a fortune (some techniques are $300+) and the exclusion of the Co-Op mode from the NES version. RCR still remains a highly enjoyable game however. On the note of saving, it only saves your character and his stats, it does not save your location in the story. This isn't that big of a deal however, as the game is pretty short as is.

Graphics - 8
The graphics have received a face lift since the NES days, and Alex and Ryan now sport their traditional Japanese uniforms. The game is nicely animated and you can easily identify the items when you seem them. The animation is very nice as well, especially when you use Dragon Feet and see the enemy spin in circles on his way to the ground.

Sound - 8
The music is the same as the original, just redone in 16-bit instead of 8-bit, so it is sort of like a remix of sorts, and the songs are good and never get annoying. The sounds of the punches and kicks are almost the same as the original, yet the weapon sounds have been bumped up. Overall, the game sounds nice as well.

Replay - 9
The replay value of the game is really high, where you can max out your stats and learn all the techniques and recruit various other people (sadly, it doesn't save this). Once you beat the game, you can also go and buy an item which lets you design your own character. Despite the exclusion of a two player mode and a slightly bad menu set up, the game is worth $30 and is a blast to play through again and again.

Final Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/28/04