Developed by Technos Japan/I.T.L., Inc.
Published by Arc System Works
Released for Xbox One (4/16/2020)
Also on GBA/NES/PS4/Switch/X68000
Before we look at the Xbox One port of River City Ransom, I'd like to take a look back at the history of the game and its various releases. River City Ransom, aka Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari in Japan or Street Gangs in PAL territories, was originally released for the Famicom in April 1989 and later for the NES in January 1990. Also in 1990, the Sharp X68000 (Japanese home-computer) would receive a port in taking advantage of the computers beefy hardware, featuring better graphics, improved music, more enemies on screen at once and various other improvements. There would be yet another enhanced port released in December 1993 for the PC-Engine CD, this one built from the ground up. The 4th port was released in May 2004 for the GameBoy Advance and was titled River City Ransom EX. This one packs enough new features that it's technically not a remake, with tons of new moves and animations to make the fighting more interesting. It's a bit of a bummer that the only version included is the NES/Famicom and they didn't include some of the other versions of the game, but I suppose this would have taken a lot of effort since only the NES and GameBoy Advance ports were translated to English. Enough about the ports of the past already, let's talk about the Xbox One port of the game...
The Xbox One port of River City Ransom contains the Famicom/NES version of the game, which was developed by Technos Japan. Technos has a rich history with the brawler genre, having also developed Renegade and Double Dragon, really helping to lay down the framework for games to come. River City Ransom feels like a natural progression of the genre, adding in the ability to explore, character stats with the ability to level up and shops where you can use money to purchase items. These features had all been seen in other types of games, but this was the first time we'd seen them in a beat 'em up before.
The story involves our two main characters, Alex and Ryan (which can be renamed to your liking at the start of the game), who were going about business as usual when one day the evil Slick and his gangs took over the city and are holding Ryan's girlfriend, Cyndi, hostage. Now it's up to our heroes to beat down the scum and restore peace to River City and rescue Cyndi. It's a simple story and a bit cliche, but it gives you more than enough reason to pulverize every thug you come across.
Back in its time, River City Ransom was a truly unique beat 'em up, allowing players to level up stats and learn new moves to give a sense of progression. This was a natural step from what Technos Japan had done with NES Double Dragon, which allowed you to unlock new moves as you hit certain point milestones. Rather than acquiring new moves via points, in River City Ransom you'll have to purchase books using your money. Every thug you beat up will leave behind some money and there are several shopping centers throughout the city that you can purchase various items. Another unique aspect to River City Ransom was that the game allowed you to travel back to screens you'd been to before, where any other beat 'em up would simply have you progress in a single direction.
The art style is simple, yet Technos managed to pack a lot of character into these sprites and they will instantly look familiar to anybody who played Super Dodge Ball or Nintendo World Cup. The punches and kicks sound good, but the sound of the coins clanging against the ground will quickly become an annoyance, though I suppose this works as a good motivator to ensure you pick them up. The music is well composed and highly memorable, with standout tracks being the mysterious warehouse music, the intense boss theme and the tranquil shop music.
Since the Famicom/NES only had 2 buttons on the controller, River City Ransom has an extremely simple control scheme, making it easy to pick up and play. One button punches and the other kicks, which pressing both buttons together will jump. The game allows you to map out the controls to your liking, so you can assign a button for the jump. Tapping forward twice will run in that direction. When an enemy drops a weapon, use the punch button to pick it up and also swing the weapon. The weapons can also be thrown at the enemies using the kick button. Hitting the select button (or "Option" on the Xbox One controller) will allow you to access your belongings, view your character stats and obtain a password. Thankfully you don't have to deal with the lengthy passwords since you have the handy save-system present in the Xbox One port.
As you enter an area, there is a crawler at the bottom that will tell you the name of the location and which gang inhabits that region. Speech will also appear down in the lower portion of the screen, where the enemies will exclaim stuff like "Barf!" or "Mommy!" after taking a beat-down. The backgrounds are simple, but detailed enough that each area feels a bit different. There are quite a few screens to explore and unlike most beat 'em ups you don't just go straight through, as beating the game will require at least a little backtracking (for a handy guide, check here). Your character will start out weak so be prepared for some grinding at certain points to get your stats up. So long as you enjoy the combat in River City Ransom, which still holds up quite well, the gameplay loop is fun but like all beat 'em up games it can get repetitive.
The emulation of the game here is excellent and while there's not a whole lot when it comes to extras, what's here is nice. First of all, you can play the game as it was on the original NES hardware or you can play with the "Quality Up" feature, which reduces the sprite flicker and slowdown that were caused due to the limitations of the NES, making quite the positive impact on the gameplay. This is a great feature that I really wish more of these old NES/Famicom re-releases would include.
The original Famicom/NES was developed by Technos Japan, the same folks who brought us Double Dragon and quite a few other notable games from the '80s and '90s both for arcade and home consoles. They shut down shop in 1996, but some former members would form a new dev team with Miracle Kidz, who released Downtown Smash Dodgeball for XBLIG on the Xbox 360. The Xbox One port of River City Ransom was handled by Imaginative Technology Land, or I.T.L., a company that has been developing games for the Japanese market since the '80s for a ton of different platforms. I.T.L. did a great job with this port and while there aren't a whole lot of extras, the game plays great and the "quality up" feature makes it even better than playing it on NES.
In December 2018, Japan would receive Kunio-kun: The World Classics Collection. This was a compilation featuring 11 titles and was released for the PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One and PC. This collection never made it to the US stores, so if you want to play it you'll have to change the region setting on your system and purchase currency in whatever country you've changed your region to (it seems like it'd be a pain in the butt so I haven't tried it yet). A 2nd collection featuring the River City/Kunio-kun games came out less than 2 years after the Classics Collection. In February 2020, Arc System Works released the Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle for the Switch and PlayStation 4, a compilation which featured a whopping 18 games. As a long-time fan of both River City Ransom and the Double Dragon games, I was devastated that neither of these came out for the Xbox One, but at least we got a decent amount of these titles released individually, which is better than nothing.
Xbox One users in the US, along with all other markets, would finally see a proper release for River City Ransom in April 2020. This release was sold as a standalone title and retailed for $4.99 and contains a port of the NES version of River City Ransom. Changing your region to Japan will allow you to play the Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari. It's a rather basic port, but the emulation is spot-on and the quality-up feature is excellent, making the game perform better than it did on its native hardware. If there was one thing I could complain about, it's that the achievement list is strictly by-the-books and quite boring, where this is a game where the devs could have really had some fun with original achievements. If you're a fan of the old title or just love beat 'em ups, River City Ransom is highly recommended.
Final Verdict: River City Ransom is a classic beat 'em up from the NES/Famicom that still holds up quite well and is easily worth the $5 for brawler fans. If you have nostalgia for the old game, you'll absolutely love this one.
Purchase Links:
Buy River City Ransom - Microsoft Store
Related Links:
The Bosses of River City Ransom - Xbox Overview
Downtown Smash Dodgeball - Xbox Overview
Beat 'em Ups - Xbox Overview
Imaginative Technology Land - Game Developer Research Institute
Imaginative Technology Land - Official Site (Japanese)
Technos Japan - Wikipedia
Arc System Works - Official Site
River City Ransom - Metacritic
River City Ransom - GameFAQs
River City Ransom - True Achievements
River City Ransom - Xbox Achievements
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