River City Ransom was a fantastic NES brawler that - in many ways - was a pioneer for the then-fledgling genre, and has gone on to achieve something of a cult following. It was actually part of the much larger Kunio-kun series, though this perhaps wasn't so easy to keep track of due to spotty localization and a lack of similarity between the various games. Now that the Kunio-kun series is hitting its 30th anniversary this year, Natsume thought it'd be appropriate to release a sequel to the NES hit. River City: Tokyo Rumble is everything that you loved about the original, though it runs into some issues with repetitive gameplay that may struggle against modern-day expectations.
The story of the game is simple and unintrusive. You play as Kunio, a scrappy high school student who is feared and respected by all the kids in the various local gangs. After being manipulated into fighting with a fellow rival, Kunio learns of a new gang that's completely taken over local suburbs and is looking to extend its reach into Tokyo as well. It's up to Kunio and his friends to repel them, and they'll of course do most of the talking with their fists. It's not a story that'll win any points for its depth or emotional impact, but it does its job and introduces some likable characters. Though dialogue can get a bit campy at times, there's plenty of humour and lightheartedness to keep you interested.
Gameplay is typical of a brawler, but it's greatest strength and weakness is how simplistic it can be at times. Walking onto a new screen is almost certain to trigger an ambush by some local punks, who you fend off by using a series of punches, kicks, and jump attacks. Trashing loads of gang members can be great fun and the controls are extremely easy to pick up, but the action tends to plateau fairly early on. Kunio always seems to be far more powerful than his adversaries, and this becomes even more pronounced the more you level him up and once he can have an ally follow along who is of comparable strength.
Environmental weapons like pipes and trash cans help mix things up, and you can eventually buy scrolls in shops that help to add some powerful new moves and diversity to your moveset, but it tends to become a bit of a grind when you keep using the same attacks over and over to fight off the endless tides of faceless grunts. After a certain point it becomes an exercise in patience as you fight through yet another screen of generic enemies while on your way to the next objective.
The overworld is fairly deep, and the story will take you all over the various districts of Tokyo. Along the way, you'll encounter new gangs depending on which neighborhood you're in, though they all tend to blend together after a while. Each district also has a shop area where you can stock up on status items and equipment that boosts various stats, which adds a bit of customization and strategy to the otherwise one-note gameplay.
The main campaign can be beaten in a matter of hours, but it can be extended a little by the new job system. Kunio can take up to three jobs at once, and these range from beating up X number of enemies in a certain district, defeating a certain rare mini-boss that seldom appears in a particular area, or searching for a lost item for someone. While these jobs reward you with money and powerful loot that you otherwise couldn't get, it feels like unnecessary padding and can quickly become tedious. Still, it's a nice way to extend your playtime and make Kunio and friends even more overpowered.
Once you tire of the main solo campaign, you can back out and also choose to play in the Dodgeball or Rumble modes. Progression in the story unlocks new characters, stages and music tracks in these, so there's always good reason to keep checking back. Rumble plays a lot like the main mode, where up to four players duke it out in a street fight and the last man standing wins. Dodgeball is a bit different in that there are two dodgeballs, and they're the only means of harming your opponents. Each of these two modes has support for up to four players locally – including Download Play – though the absence of an online mode does hinder their longevity. Still, it can be great fun to play through these games with some friends, and they also serve as a nice distraction form the main game every now and then.
In terms of presentation, River City: Tokyo Rumble fails to impress, but it nonetheless gets the job done adequately. The game was built to look quite similar to the NES original, though the environments are rendered in 3D while 2D sprites move over them. The problem with the visuals is that they're a tad too simple for their own good. Although the sprites have plenty of character, the environments have a plastic, lifeless quality to them, and it feels like more effort could've been placed into making them more interesting. The soundtrack is similar. It's there, and the main theme is particularly catchy, but most of it is rather forgettable.
Conclusion
River City: Tokyo Rumble is the epitome of a 'safe' game. While the core mechanics of the gameplay are solid and the graphics are unintrusive, there's little here that stands out as being particularly exceptional. This is the kind of game that's fun to play every once in a while, but doesn't have any characteristics or memorable traits that'll keep you coming back again and again. We certainly give River City: Tokyo Rumble a modest recommendation, but only to fans of the genre or franchise that are looking to get a nostalgic fix. If you're new or indifferent towards brawlers, perhaps less expensive options like the excellent 3D Streets of Rage 2 might be a more fitting purchase.
Comments 56
A fighting game based on the Glaswegian Soap Opera 'River City' would have had more action, more intrigue, and more weird looking people.
A missed opportunity.
Surprised by the score. The guys over at IGN were talking about this game in the latest NVC and they said it's great. Sounded like a 9/10 game to me.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I stopped using IGN after they changed the format for phones? It was unusable after that for me. Tbh I was already looking for an excuse to stop using their site. I can't say I miss it.
Didn't expect a 6, to be honest. Most reviews I've seen are very positive. It scored a 9.3 in MyGamer, for example. I'm guessing the disparity comes from the niche appeal of the game, but I still find it a bit surprising.
In any case, I find the amalgamation of genres in this series to make the games greater than the sum of their parts. Been playing a lot of River City Ransom EX in anticipation for this. There's not a lot of games like these on the market, both in gameplay and aesthetics, which why the sentence about it lacking any memorable traits strikes me as odd.
Sounds like a 8 or 9 out of ten for me, they didn't ruin the gameplay to attract new players.
Most of the negatives in the review are what made the first great so this seems like it will be a highly divisive game.
I still want this but I guess not right away. With all I have to play it can wait till the price comes down.
I really craved for this game. But no physical release in Europe just means i will skip. House policy.
"Gameplay is typical of a brawler, but it's greatest strength and weakness is how simplistic it can be at times."
sigh "Its", not "it's".
The gripes you guys have sound like you expected more out of it. It's river city ransom with a new coat of paint with a few bells and whistles added in. Nothing much has changed. This to me is purely for the nostalgia crowd and expecting it to be "modernized" is a bit of a stretch. Like the tag line says, straight outta the 80s. Faults and all. Score shouldn't be affected by 80s shortcomings. Then again, it's my opinion and I'm not the reviewer, so to each their own.
I think it's great, but I was a fan of the series who grinded money like it was the first title again, so I understand the complaint of feeling overpowered in this game. The New Game + feature after you beat it which allows you to switch your main character adds replay value.
Managed to grab one of the physical copies with the bundled keychain, so that was my little victory for the month.
Love it, love it, love it! 8/10 from me.
@ekreig NSMB2 isn't trying to be retro in aesthetics, it's just a very safe entry in a very stagnated genre. This game is more Mega Man 9/10 than NSMB2, if you ask me.
@ekreig Just seconding this. I think games should stop getting a free pass because they're nostalgic (and also that they should stop being unfairly rated for not living up to nostalgia, but that's not the case here).
Anyway, although I love the Kunio sports titles, I don't do beat 'em ups so I'll be skipping this one! I wondered if I'd get it anyway, but the review suggests I probably wouldn't like it.
I was interested in this until they condemned Europe (and in turn Australia) to download-only hell. They're dreaming if they think we'll be paying $50 for a download-only game that looks like Urban Champion Deluxe. Wake me up when it drops to $10 and then we'll talk business.
Awaiting my copy from play asia... I'm mildly annoyed that I had to import a domestic game though.
I was excited about this game, but those graphics look like some fan made it for their college programming class. The screenshots in the eShop look even worse.
Maybe I'll grab it if it ever has a really cheap sale, but it doesn't look very professional.
@HappyMaskedGuy I stopped reading IGN when they gave WCW Mayhem a great review...and then I quickly learned that you can't return games after you open them =|
I'll wait for a sale.
@MegaMari0 There's a fine line, and I think more could've been done here. 30 bucks is a bit steep for what's really being offered. There's games that are nostalgic and then there's games that are outdated. This is an example of the latter.
@HappyMaskedGuy I don't like IGN either most of the time, but I recently found NVC channel on youtube and the guys do a very good job actually. I can easily recommend that one.
I was abel to snag a copy from Amazon a day early and I would say 7.5 . It's a fun game but the $30 asking price is a tad to costly, $15-$20 would've been an easier pill to swallow. I hope that due to the success of selling out within hours they consider another game in the series, and build upon what they have at the moment.
I'll just stick the with 80's original.
If this ever makes it to a home console, I will buy it, until then I'm gonna pass
While I wouldnt recommend to buy this off the eShop (especially since this title most likely will go up in value in its physical form) and you can easily get any 3DS to play any region games, this cant be a 6 out of 10 when the same site rates these garbage sonic games a 6 out of 10. If the ultimate NES remix was a 7 out of 10 .. then this should be 12 out of 10.
Apart that, for everyone who knows the river city series, this is an 8-9 out of 10 ... for everyone who never played it, i guess 6 out of 10 makes sense (but then lower sonic down to 3 out of 10).
Yeah, while I guess it's not a bad review (in that I can at least understand where you're coming from), I'm gonna need a second opinion or 3, seeing as most of your complaints boil down to "It's exactly what it said it would be, but I wanted something else instead." I'm not much of a Beat 'em up fan, but River City Random is one of the few I can enjoy.
@Vader_MIB That just makes future releases less likely. If you like games like this you've got to try to support them and show that there's a demand.
I saw that this wasn't getting great reviews on Metacritic but figured it was probably still worth picking up given my love of scrolling beat 'em ups. Then I saw the price. £25? They're having a laugh.
This is a franchise I have ment to check out for a while, so will import the American retailrelease sometime down the road when I have more cash.
@CanisWolfred After playing newer brawlers like Scott Pilgrim, this one feels like a bit of a step back. It's not that this is an unenjoyable or bad game, but it's not up to the standards that modern brawlers have set. There's nothing wrong with throwback games like this, but as a reviewer, I can't give outdated gameplay a pass simply because it's intentionally made to be outdated.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE The game is great. Reviewer completely misunderstood the game, which seems to happen quite often on this site. I've been playing it for the past 3 days and haven't been able to put it down.
@MitchVogel Scott Pilgrim was a complete copy of River City Ransom in every way but with faux 16 bit graphics. What about the gameplay is outdated that modern brawlers do better?
@tobibra Do that sooner rather than later. I just checked the gba version and its $100 on Amazon. Was $50 just 3 months ago. I think this is a game that is going to be quite difficult to obtain the longer you wait.
For some reason this game holds little appeal for me. It could be because I am not particularly wowed by the aesthetic of the game when you have games like Streets of Rage 2 that still hold up incredibly well even today. Add in the fact that it is thirty bucks and I personally can't find enough value to justify a purchase. Judging by the comments this game definitely has its fans though.
@MitchVogel I'd argue that It's intended for fans of the NES-era Kunio-kun games. It doesn't have to follow the standards of the almost-extinct genre, it just has to be up to the standards of the series.
However, I understand that you don't have to limit your perspective just because it's purposely driving itself into a niche. It does, however, make it difficult for me to understand whether or not I'd enjoy it based on your review, because you went in with very different expectations.
By my measure, everything you described makes River City: Tokyo Rumble out to be a perfect game. I find that kind of hard to believe - even RCR had its flaws. Hence the need for a second opinion I mentioned earlier.
As somebody said, this game in its physical form is highly likely to rise in value over time. Anybody on the fence needs to grab a copy now if possible.
@CanisWolfred I haven't beaten it yet but have played for a dozen or so hours on Hard mode and have been having a blast. I don't understand in the slightest what Mitch means by "outdated" in that I find the RPG level up systems, hidden skills, purposefully cheesy dialogue, and just the pure joy of giving someone a running haymaker to be fully worth the time of a game enthusiast in 2016. Combat is two buttons (3 if you count jumping) but gets incredible mileage out of those inputs when you combine it with jumping, running, weapons, grounded enemies, or those who are staggered once you get a couple towns in and start to discover new abilities that make fighting mobs exciting.
The shops are a bit of a let down however. No longer are there items that give you stat boosts so much as each level has a dedicated restaurant for dine-in stamina and willpower regen, a Tech Burger for takeout stamina and willpower regen(smiles are still free), a bookstore for obtaining new abilities, a gear shop for stat boosting equippable items, and a secret hidden shop with new abilities and game breaking equipment items. The Job (quest) system keeps you busy as they give you money toward your next upgrade that you're trying to buy and encourage you to try all of the game's combat options and explore every hidden nook of each level.
@DatFunkySmell I don't get it, either, but the word "outdated" in terms of game mechanics is misused so often that I've given up arguing over it.
@CanisWolfred For me, this game is just short of perfect. Could be a little more non linear like the original, but each major mission starting with Kunio in class disrespecting his teacher is quite comical and keeps me entertained.
@MitchVogel I apparently missed the $30 asking price. I honestly thought it would have been 10 bucks or less. 80s nostalgia out the window for 30 bucks hahaha.
Is the main game multiplayer or only the the extra modes? - "Each of these two modes has support for up to four players locally – including Download Play – "
I'd give the game an 8/10 - yes, nostalgia played a factor, but it's also fun. I had a big smile on my face playing this game since I got it and I haven't even tried the dodgeball mode yet either.
What's also neat is that you can control the camera angles slightly and zoom in on your character, I enjoyed doing that quite often just to jazz up my playing experience. I would pay the $30 asking price all day long.
@CanisWolfred It's especially depressing when meaningless terms like that come out of people who have the power to influence others decision making because of their profession. That's like saying Street Fighter V is outdated because it has the same mechanics from SF2 or A Link Between Worlds has outdated design. Is painting outdated since digital artistry exists now?
@Ryu_Niiyama Not sure which region your 3DS is of, but Natsume is actually doing a second run of the Amazon US print of the keychain edition, as the first run sold out within a day... http://nintendoeverything.com/river-city-tokyo-rumble-sold-out-on-natsumes-amazon-store-but-will-return-exceeding-expectations/
@Gauchorino Hey thanks for the heads up but I've already imported the game. Should be here in a few days.
The lack of co-op--even just locally--is a deal-killer, especially when the 3D Classics SOR2 managed to have it and at a quarter of the price! They made the same 'mistake' with RCREX, which makes one wonder why Million insists on omitting it.
Will buy when it hits $15 or less on eShop.
@Ryu_Niiyama Np. Hope you enjoy it!
Sounds like sales have been good, so if you're a fan, cross your fingers that Natsume also ports River City Ransom SP. That game was just released in Japan and isn't the same as this game (Tokyo Rumble was originally released in 2013, under the title Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun SP).
@DatFunkySmell Exactly. And in the context of a game, so long as it plays to a game's strengths, it's rare that a game mechanic can be truly called "outdated". Limited lives are one of the few that immediately come to mind, and even that doesn't have to be bad by default, it's just really tricky to make them fair, or even useful. In a game like Sonic or Super Mario, they can be used as rewards for playing well, but the games themselves aren't so super challenging that the limit feels oppressive.
For beat 'em ups, I can't really think of anything. Games like Scott Pilgrim or Castle Crashers didn't really change up the genre in anyway, as far as I can tell, they were just really good, and usually had more varied content where possible.
...which, I guess is why he said Tokyo Rumble was "outdated" in that it could've offered more considering the price, but then that's simply a misgnomer, and he explained it better the first time.
I don't mind repetition very much in my beat-'em-ups, so if it had online play or was a console game with local multiplayer then I'd consider it, but being a mostly single player game (with nothing especially excellent about the gameplay) kills most of my interest in this. I'll pass.
@CanisWolfred When his go to is Scott Pilgrim, there is truly no argument you can make that River City is outdated. Scott Pilgrim follows the exact same formula except it's a bit more dated in that it's levels are done on a SMB3 map and there's no point or reward in backtracking.
I remember playing the NES/Nintendo game with a friend... so they simply decided to "remove" the co-operation mode when they made this sequel/remake?
@Hey-Cha-La I'm a little lost. How many Kunio games werepublished for the 3DS, in wich genre and how many are remakes?
@Rei It's easy to get lost, there are five 3DS games!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunio-kun
Also consider Swords & Darkness on the eShop, it is super similar to Kunio-kun games, but with a medieval theme. I love that little gem.
Also, a new Kunio-Kun collection is coming out for 3DS as well, collects 11 of the earlier games.
Brian Altano said on NVC that this game is apparently amazing.
Just like the old school game, but much better.
I downloaded it but haven't had time to play it yet, but I am pretty sure it's more than a 6 and closer to an 8 based on what I've seen on YouTube and heard from other sources.
The score is fair when you consider the price. You can get what is basically the same game (NES RCR) for 5 bucks on the 3DS Virtual Console. The new stuff here can't really be worth 25 extra bucks. 10 to 15 bucks less at launch and you'd have seen a higher score by a point or two.
@Hey-Cha-La Thank you. The list still needs some more infos to clarify everything (like genre) because all those long titles aren't very transparent. If I got it, we just got the 3rd game released for 3DS. I actually thought it was the anniversary remake of the old game (I had seen it on some webpage a few years ago)
PS: does Hey-Cha-La come from HEAD-CHA-LA?
@Rei Smart cookie, you're right about my nickname!
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