River City Ransom EX

"A decent port of an awesome classic."

Game Review: River City Ransom EX: River City Ransom

Overview:
For a long time, the very essence of Gameboy has been platformers. And the GBA has managed to crank out some really really good platformers among the hoards of under average licensed platformers that sadly make it to shelves. A surprisingly large amount of these games have been ports. Of course you have stuff like the Mario titles which are big name revivals, but then you have more low key stuff like this being released, and that makes me very happy. This game is a port of the original River City Ransom for NES, but with slew of improvements. Yes, you have to keep in mind today's expectations of games when considering scores, but for the breed of players this is geared towards, the fact that we finally have a new title on shelves is great! Yes, some people may have wanted a sequel more, but as far as a port goes, this is very good, with only a few flaws which can be worked out easily.

Storyline: 8/10
The entire premise of this game is nothing short of classic. In many ways, this is the quintessential hero story, even reminiscent of games like classic Mario games in many ways. Two heroes set out to rescue the chick and face tough guys along the way. It's just classic. And that never gets old.

More specifically, the story of River City Ransom is actually more interesting than the core concepts that it draws from. The game takes place in River City, presumably in Japan, where you typically see things you would in any other town. Martial arts and fighting is all the rage, but academics are also a focus, apparently. But lately, fighting has become much more common, and in a violent explosion, the entire cities high school population has been snowballed into the fray, and just about everyone is a member of a gang. Fighting runs rampant, and even the towns biggest High School has been taken over by gangs. No police are doing anything about all this.

Enter Alex and Ryan, two very successful high school students, who just happen to be rivals. Ryans girlfriend has recently been captured and is rumored to be held at River City High, and he knows he has to do something about it. Alex is there to help too, and because he is clearly the most good natured and popular of the two, he is the obvious choice for the main character of the game.

This is a port of the original game for NES, so there are no huge changes in the main story, but there is one big, big focal difference in the games nature. Instead of being able to play with two players, other players can be recruited. This means there is going to be a lot of text. And the new text is well crafted, and stays pretty true to the game. Also fortunately, the famous text of the old game stays in tact. Each gang you meet in battle has several members with funny names (many times that are directly related to the gang name. And of course, while you are fighting each person, they will say things depending on the situation. Taunts, yelps of fear, etc. And yes, we still have the classic death line "BARF!" every once and a while.

Because the game is a port, the text is going to make some new players confused and even put off. But once you get used to the games off-key and classic nature, you will realize that things haven't been changed to appease any new audiences. Which may be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. So while that little lift may not be present, it's not present so that the port can stay true, which is fine.

Gameplay: 8/10
Oh... This is a tough one. Once again, the company who made this game has clearly made some interesting choices. Some good, some bad. Yes, there are many aspects of the game that have been kept the same for the sake of the port. But the one thing that made the first title so great and fun is no longer here. The approach to replace the loss is actually interesting, and while the new system has problems, it also has it's very good points.

The focal concepts in the game are still around. It's built as a platforming beat 'em up with almost RPG like detailing. You zip around River City with only your fists and feet at first, but soon you can make things more interesting. You can start the game with Alex or Ryan, or a combination of both while you play one of the characters and the other follows. The main choice is playing Alex with Ryan as an ally.

The game is actually very deep for a beat 'em up. The game takes place in a very 2D setting, but you can move up and down on the screen, as well as left and right. As I said before, there are many RPG elements here, and while the fusing of two seemingly completely unrelated genres like these usually don't work out too well, this result is amazing. At first, your punches and kicks will do little damage. And you don't have many options while fighting, except maybe for the one technique you start out with, Dragon Kick. But for every enemy you defeat, you get money. Generally the way it works is less money for weaker gangs, and more money for stronger gangs. So at first, you will be gaining money little by little, but by the end of the game, your strength is rewarded by piles of cash which you can use in malls in between fighting.

Such malls have a lot of different stores which sell slews of different things. There is of course the obvious health and willpower (your ability to recover from attacks that knock you over) recovering items which come at pretty much any price you would EVER want them to come in. And then there are techniques that you can buy for larger sums of money. While such purchases are true investments, they pay off greatly, because new attacks in battle means new levels of effectiveness. And naturally, new levels of variety and fun too. Also, there are the items you will probably be buying most, stat increasing items. There are cheap ones and expensive ones, and depending on the item, they can raise different stats, like your maximum health, power of your punches or kicks, defense, etc. And then there are other kinds of items that can do various things, but those are the main ones. And the system works out very well. The way things work is enough to make fans of platformers, RPGs, and just flat out good games happy.

And fans of the old game need to realize something right off the bat... YOU CAN NO LONGER PLAY WITH TWO PEOPLE. Yes, this is very unfortunate. And a lot of that classic fun is gone. But at the same time, it is understandable that this kind of gameplay almost certainly could not have been possible on the GBA. Linking is already very unwieldy and difficult. And two player games are more for consoles, so old fans who already have the original can still quench their thirst with that. To replace this is a new ally system, which in some ways works out. As you go along, you can recruit up to four allies to fight alongside you, and they are run on AI. However, this AI is much like the enemy AI, if not exactly the same. And the enemy AI is not good, mostly because it is not supposed to be. But hey, it's still a one up on your enemies either way, and they can be VERY helpful, while you are still the main attacker in the group.

But recruiting these allies can be a hassle sometimes. You have a reputation meter that helps to impact whether or not some people will join you. This is a focal system throughout the game, but for how focal it is, it is very hard to manage. Getting rep points can be tough, and keeping them can be tougher. But if you are really willing to play this game to it's full potential or if you are a war scarred River City Ransom veteran, you won't have too much trouble picking up on the new system, getting rep points, and finding comrades to join with you. One thing that definitely could have been changed is the fact that you cannot even see your Rep Meter. This would have been a very welcome detail.

There are some other troublesome details that apply to people who are new to the game, such as misleading menu options, no real explanation of the file loading system, and the inability to judge how good a given item or technique is. The only remedies for these problems are time, practice, and experimentation. But given enough of all of these, problems can be eased. One other problem that unassuming new players will face is the fact that you have to start the game over each time you play. The save files remember what items you had, your techniques, and your stats, but your position in the game and your allies are gone each time you turn the game off. This may put off a lot of people, but try to get used to it and save a lot so that you can be less frustrated and get the swing of classic RCR action. Another thing I would like to note in this game is one of the more spectacular secrets I have seen in any game. If you can accumulate a large sum of money and find a certain shop, you can buy a certain item which lets you fully customize how you look. Yes, getting this takes some work (or a secret), but once you get it, you have a great new reason to play through the game again, or just keep on playing and fooling around with your own
character.

Another thing worth noting is the games enormous amount of customization that is initially available to you. Some of these aspects are quite unnecessary, but they can never really hurt. You can customize simple things like the amount of enemies and allies, what things in the environment count as obstacles, and many more things. And then there are more specific things, like how much damage you can do, gravity effects, your own speed, crazy stuff like that. These kind of bonuses make this game very much a game for the fans, which is great, considering that this re-release is not just geared towards new players, but people who remember the original as well.

Beyond that, there are not too many twists and turns here. The game progresses like you would expect it to. Gangs, bosses, malls, etc. Once again, this will appeal to anyone who is a fan of the series especially. If you ever enjoyed the old game, this is for you. New players may be put off at first, but bear with it, because great rewards can be yielded once you get used to the game.

Graphics: 9/10
Really very good considering the GBAs power. Fans of the old game will find the improvements very satisfying. Characters now dress in robes instead of simple jeans and t-shirts, which I guess some purists might find a little bit strange. But hey, the new outfits look great. Everything looks great. The backgrounds especially boast suprising detail. Trees, buildings, clouds, it all looks very enjoyable. You at least feel like you are in a big city while you are playing. Also, any fans of Atlus will recognize some of the graphical aspects of things. Great, great graphics for a Gameboy Advance game.

Sound: 8/10
Very good. All of the music is taken from the NES game (from what I have heard of the NES version) and remixed to be more up to date. Even the sound details are nice. And there are no more blips and bloops that the NES produced. Now everything is smooth and easy to listen to. And catchy too. Whats the problem then, atm? Why only an 8? Because there isn't enough music. That's why. After a while, that main theme gets tiring, and while the composers did an amazing job redoing everything, I almost wouldn't have minded some more original music to be added to the game here and there. But once again, the tracks in this game are great. And if the only flaw is that the composers are so good that I want more of what they have to give... Then they are doing pretty good already.

The sound effects are also great. But not stand out amazing or anything. A lot of sound effects are kept. Swishes of fists in the air, the pinging of coins on pavement, etc. Very smooth in this category too.

Controls: 7/10
Simple at first, but once you get involved with techniques, things get tricky. A is to punch, B is to kick. Pressing both A and B at once makes you jump. If there is a weapon on the ground, you can pick it up with B, and from there, press A to swing it, or B to throw it forward. The control pad is used to move around, and if you tap either left or right twice quickly, you can run in that direction. While you are doing this, you can punch, kick, jump, use a weapon, etc. And then there are a few other little things you get right off the bat, like the ability to charge attacks by holding A or B, or two special combos you can initiate by pressing B for a little bit and then tapping A, or vice versa.

But then of course, we have a gigantic catalogue of techniques you can perform. Highlighting a technique in the menu lets you see a very brief description of how that technique can be performed. Some of them are easy to pull off, and can be initiated by just pressing a button or holding it for a while. But then there are other ones which require certain circumstances, like holding an enemy, and then pressing down twice. But if this was the case, the prompt would only say "Down, down." So you really left to figure out that one on your own, huh? Once again, the result of an extremely direct port.

But it's not unbearably hard to figure out all of these moves. It just takes a while, and can be a pain. And the basic controls are still fantastic.

Difficulty: 9/10

This plays just like an RPG by terms of difficulty. You start out weak, and by fighting, getting money, buying items, and raising your stats, you can progressively get stronger and more able to take later levels on. This works out great, because as the game goes on, the bosses and gangs get stronger very evenly and smoothly. I can see one problem though. When an enemy is on the ground, you can hit him over and over again, and stop him from getting up without some trouble. This can cause a little bit of ease for some boss fights. However, doing this is severely detrimental to your reputation. So if you plan on gaining allies or just not being cheap, you are forced to be fair in these situations, which only come around every once and a while anyway. And technically, you can just run through the game and get to the end, but you need to defeat many bosses to actually progress, which requires you beating gangs and doing things in order.

Replayability: 8/10
All things considered, there is not a huge amount of unlockables here, but money is always going to be an issue in the game. And things can get expensive, leaving you unable to buy everything without spending a ludicrous amount of time getting money. So with that, it is not too hard to pick up the game after the long time period it will take to beat it, and still go through and beat people up, get money, and try to gain allies, which is a challenge anyway. And also keep in mind the hidden character customization trick/code I mentioned before... It doesn't give you anything statistically over your enemy, but it's really really fun to create your own character and play through the game several times.

Overall: 9/10
Yeah, the creators intentions may be called into question here, but despite the fact that this game is confusing and less enjoyable to new players, it is very much geared towards specific audiences. Old fans of the original classic, patient people, and fans of RPGs and Platformers will absolutely eat this up. Anyone else should be cautioned to the shakey bits, but still encouraged, because no matter the quality of the port (which is actually pretty good considering it's intentions), this is still a great game. It has been one for many years, and it will always be one.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/06, Updated 05/14/06