If you’re a fan of beat 'em ups then there's a likely chance that you’ve heard of Way Forward’s River City Girls.
River City Girls is a spin-off title from the Kunio-Kun series that focuses on the protagonist's girlfriends Kyoko and Misako.
In anticipation of the sequel, developers Way Forward are treating fans with the rerelease of the classic title River City Girls Zero, which will be playable outside of Japan for the first time.
Acting as a prequel to the series, River City Girls Zero was originally launched in 1994 on the Super Nintendo under the name of Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-Tachi no Banka.
The game was the first time that Kunio and Riki girlfriends were playable. It also featured a much more dramatic storyline and replaced its usual super-deformed style with a more serious design.
The plot kicks off when Kunio and Riki are convicted for a hit and run and are sent to prison.
While claiming their innocence the pair are visited by Kunio's friend Hiroshi who informs them about suspicious occurrences around their high school.
Suspecting that they might have been framed, the pair break out of prison and are joined by their girlfriends Kyoko and Misako to prove their innocence.
River City Girls Zero has a really engaging story that feels like a 90s action movie. The plot flows well with great dialogue and amazing interactions between the four characters.
The game retains its 16 bit graphic and vibrant colour palette, which really pops off the screen, especially on the Switch OLED. I really enjoy these character designs over the original super-deformed look as it gives each of the characters much more personality.
The game has several different resolution options, it even offers a widescreen aspect ratio.
Although I would suggest playing in the original 4:3 or square aspect ratio as the game looks like it has just been stretched in the widescreen option.
River City Girls Zero does feature some brand new elements that make it feel more like a prequel. The game includes new manga-style cutscenes, which are fully acted with English and Japanese voiceovers.
The developers have also included a new anime opening sequence that looks very reminiscent of shows from the 90s.
These new elements really help to elevate the game's overall experience. The game retains the original soundtrack but features a new song from composer Megan McDuffee and rapper DEMONDICE.
Gameplay-wise each level is pretty linear, players will control one of the four characters while fighting their way to the stage's boss.
Controls are the same as they were in the original game and are easy for anyone to pick up and play.
Players will be able to switch between any of the four characters on the fly. They each have their health bar which is a great feature, however, the game will end if any of the characters die regardless of how much health your other characters have.
This was probably done to tie in with the story, but there should be an option to allow players to continue after one character dies, just to make things slightly easier for newcomers.
Other than brawling there will be stages that feature motorcycle battles.
It is nice to see that this is a mostly straight port, however, the game can feel really sluggish at times with the extra frustration of your characters moves not landing for some reason, while the enemies attacks will always connect.
Single-player can be very challenging with the audacious difficulty spike, so I would recommend playing with a friend in co-op mode, to progress a lot quicker.
As this is a straight port and its first time outside of Japan it makes sense for the developers to not touch the gameplay at all.
But I would love to have seen maybe some character customisation of some kind like in the more recent games
Verdict
River City Girls Zero is a charming prequel that fans of the series should add to their collection. However, as the game is almost thirty years old players shouldn’t expect the fast pace action from the more recent games.
But nevertheless River City Girls Zero is a fun but tough port that deserves your attention after taking so long to be released outside of Japan.
River City Girls Zero is out now the Nintendo Switch
