The Kunio Kun series is a beloved franchise consisting of beat em ups, mini game collections, sports titles and more. From the localization of River City Ransom for the NES onward, fans in the west were hooked. We didn’t get all the games in the series, but what we did get was truly amazing and continued the fandom’s desire for more. Now franchise owner Arc System Works has teamed with WayForward have teamed for a spinoff title that takes things in a different direction.
In River City Girls, rather than playing as Kunio and Rikki, you play as their girlfriends Kyoko and Misako, who must rescue their boyfriends after they are kidnapped. The girls are more than up to the task and they go though all sorts of enemies to get back their boys. The combat is anything but basic here, and you will need to learn exactly what move to use and when. Moves fall into light and heavy attacks but can be used in a variety of ways. You will find the basic punches and kicks, but also headbutts, tackles, and even dabbing as an attack. It all works great, and the fighting never feels like a chore, which is something that happened with many earlier beat em ups.
You can even make allies with some of the enemies by choosing to spare them if they plead. If you choose to spare them and they became an ally, then you can summon them a few times for a quick attack on other foes. Sometimes this can be very helpful and other times not. Each enemy has their own style of attack, so some will be more helpful as allies then others. Of course, their helpfulness also depends on what foes you go up against, as well as bosses.
The one thing I didn’t like were occasional platforming segments, but they were not too common at all. The boss fights were intense, but that just means you need to consider how to attack, both in single player and co op mode. I didn’t test out the co-op mode, but the single player mode was incredibly fun in its own right. I got a lot of satisfaction from the action parts of the game, and they more than made up for the shortcomings.
In addition to fighting, there are a lot of open world elements to the game (as befitting a River City game) and interacting with others is fun. Seeing the comments by your enemies when you beat them into the ground has always been a fun part of the series and WayForward did not disappoint here. I will also note that the writing is some of the funniest I have ever witnessed in a game, and WayForward definitely brought their A game to this. River City Girls feels over the top with absurdity, yet it all works wonderfully in a great experience.
I highly recommend River City Girls, as it is an ideal game to play. I daresay other beat em up revivals like Streets of Rage 4 have their work cut out for them, if they are going to top this.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided