River City Girls is a part of the Kunio-Kun series, which is comprised of different types of beat-em-up games (many of which were only released in Japan) featuring a character named Kunio, with one of the series’ most notable entries being the iconic River City Ransom on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s an understatement to say that River City Girls and developer WayForward put a lot on their plate by attempting to build something for fans of the expansive Kunio-Kun series, fans who only know of River City Ransom (and/or its sequel, River City Ransom: Underground), and people like me who are coming in knowing almost nothing about any of that beyond a faint memory of playing something similar on the NES once upon a time. River City Girls delivers against all odds, though, effortlessly blending WayForward’s charming storytelling with oodles of references that aren’t distracting to those who don’t “get” them. It’s only when you dig into the mechanics and stories of previous games that you get a sense of how much effort was put into making River City Girls a familiar trip without sacrificing its unique voice or accessibility in the process.

River City Girls thrusts a pair of secondary characters into the spotlight

You play as Misako and/or Kyoko, a pair of high school girls who receive a text during detention that appears to show their boyfriends—series mainstays Kunio and Riki—being kidnapped. With little information to go off of, the pair engage in a single-minded pursuit that requires chasing down every lead and punching their way through numerous obstacles, many of which are only obstacles because of the pair’s blunt approach to interpersonal dynamics. Misako has an attitude while Kyoko is more of a head-in-the-clouds type, and their personalities allow for some truly inspired moments of impatience, misunderstanding, and fourth wall breaks. WayForward’s fingerprints are all over the writing, so it might come as a surprise to discover that Misako and Kyoko originated in a 1994 Super Famicom game called Shin Nekketsu Kouha – Kunio-tachi no Banka.

This is just one of many ways that River City Girls pays homage to other games in the Kunio-Kun series, and yet that’s not information you’re expected or required to have; I played through the entire game without knowing any of this stuff and never felt disadvantaged by that lack of familiarity, and it was actually an innocuous remark after a hidden boss fight that inspired me to look into the series’ history in the first place.

River City Girls‘ writing works because its entertainment is derived from Misako and Kyoko’s personalities and the absurdity of the series’ premise rather than building off of existing relationships between the cast of characters. Kunio and Riki fulfill the “kidnapped princess” role of MacGuffin, while other characters either explain their backstories outright or play a minor role that renders their histories irrelevant.

That having been said, the ending left me a little cold when I first finished River City Girls. I did eventually come around to it, especially after a cathartic optional boss fight that requires beating the game and destroying a bunch of statues hidden throughout the city, but not everyone is going to respond to the playful and somewhat unfulfilling way that everything shakes out. Die-hard fans of the series will find a lot to love about the ending (in particular, the optional boss fight variant) because of how it ties into the series’ history, but for those lacking the experience required to frame what’s happening properly, the ending will likely come across as unexpectedly mean-spirited and anticlimactic. That’s easily remedied by wiki-hopping to learn more about the characters’ past appearances and localized River City Ransom names, however.

The gameplay has some quirks to adjust to, but River City Girls plays well

River City Girls is a beat-em-up with a deep combo system in addition to level-ups, so while you only have access to a small number of moves when you first begin playing, you’ll eventually have a wealth of normal and special attacks that can be chained together in satisfying ways. As Misako and Kyoko obtain information and push the story forward, new area transitions unlock and allow them to explore deeper into the city, with each area being broken up into several interconnected rooms. These rooms sometimes become “locked,” forcing you to defeat several waves of enemies before you can move on, but you’re otherwise free to ignore combat and run to your destination if you don’t care about level-ups.

You have a light attack, a heavy attack, and a special attack, and the specific moves that result depend on whether you’re playing as Misako or Kyoko (who have different attacks) and what’s happening in the fight. For example, using your strong attack while standing over a knocked-down enemy results in a stomp attack. Your inputs have different results based on whether you’re jumping, running, grappling a stunned enemy, standing over an enemy on the ground, or holding a weapon. Once you’ve unlocked additional moves, you can also press up and down while attacking for different types of moves.

There are a few quirks that many people will have to acclimate to, though. Enemies often attack the moment they get up, and their punches and kicks tend to override even your most powerful attacks in ways that feel slightly unfair at first. Once you get into the habit of circling behind enemies to get out of the way after 2-3 stomps, however, it’s fine for the most part.

There are also a lot of enemies and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by their sheer numbers when you’re starting out—especially given some opponents’ penchant for Golden Axe-style lunges that are incredibly difficult to avoid or block in the heat of the moment—but you’ll quickly piece together a go-to combo or two and begin tearing through mobs of high schoolers, zombies, terminators, and dominatrices with relative impunity. The only thing I never got used to was Kyoko’s dab attack, which has an input close enough to her normal strong attack that I found myself accidentally using it. That became a problem since it also left her vulnerable to attacks for a second or so. While I enjoyed using Kyoko in my initial playthrough (and New Game + run on the Hard difficulty), Misako’s probably the better choice for beginners and those with controller stick drift.

Boss fights and some hair-pulling mechanics drag down your early runs

On my first playthrough, I tried alternating between Misako and Kyoko, but quickly discovered that this isn’t viable; enemies become increasingly tough as the story moves along and only one character levels up at a time in single-player, so switching midway through the game means throwing a level 1 character to the wolves. River City Girls saves at every screen transition and the penalty for death is a percentage of your current money, with that money largely being earned from the game’s limited number of main quests and sidequests, so you can potentially lose huge chunks of cash that aren’t easily recouped. Each character has their own wallet, luckily, but it’s obvious that River City Girls is a game where you’re meant to stick with whatever character you start out using. On the bright side, there’s no need to grind so long as you use a single character throughout the story—main missions will provide enough experience to give you a chance against bosses (provided that you bring along a few of the better healing items), and I just completed a non-NG+ playthrough of River City Girls without grinding or dying to make sure that it’s possible.

I do have some criticisms about the boss fight design, however, namely that there’s no indication of when they’re vulnerable and invulnerable. Sometimes you’ll attack a boss and go right through them. You also don’t have invincibility frames when damaged until you hit the ground, so one boss has the ability to chain together a ton of attacks in a split-second and kill you instantly if you’re standing in the wrong position. These aren’t difficulty spikes that you can get past by playing River City Girls with a high degree of skill. Instead, you have to learn about these cheap shots through trial and error, and losing tons of money to the unfair instant-death boss and some occasionally questionable hitboxes isn’t a fun process.

Context-sensitivity also rears its ugly head at times—picking up weapons is accomplished with the same button as your light attack, and that button also activates level transitions. You’ll encounter situations where you keep picking up a weapon (which tends to be more dangerous to you than enemies while you’re getting used to River City Girls‘ physics) and having it knocked away from you instead of attacking a nearby enemy. Even when you’re successfully winning a fight, it’s not uncommon to move to the next area accidentally and reset the entire room before obtaining their experience and money. River City Girls isn’t the first beat-em-up to suffer from these issues, with Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and numerous others similarly mapping item pickup to the normal attack button, but its ubiquitousness doesn’t make it feel any less clumsy.

River City Girls‘ art and music are fantastic, with a single minor caveat

In much the same way as context-sensitive buttons are an inherited sin, so too is my one problem with the art style: distracting foreground objects that block your view of the action. I’ve noticed this being a problem in multiple Kunio-Kun games, and in fairness, River City Girls uses transparency in most cases to reduce the number of issues that arise from your view being blocked. That transparency could stand to be a little more transparent, though, and you’re simply out of luck if you’re fighting at the bottom of a “locked” screen. Outside of that, River City Girls has amazing sprite art that imbues each area with so much personality that areas can be recognized at a glance. There are also animated cutscenes before bosses that are nothing short of amazing, comic book-styled story sequences that add a welcome amount of attitude to the exposition, and detailed art for River City’s many shops. WayForward has an eye for aesthetics, so it’s hardly a surprise that everything looks fantastic. Finally, there’s the music, which blends upbeat synth music with vocal tracks by Megan McDuffee that play in areas with boomboxes present. The contrast between the two styles causes both to stand out and shine, though McDuffee’s boombox tracks (and the title song featuring vocals from Cristina Vee) steal the show in a big way. It’s an unusual approach to a game soundtrack, but the risk has resulted in one of 2019’s best.

Story: 3/3 Gameplay: 1.5/3 Visuals: 1.5/2 Music: 2/2 ★★★★★★★★☆☆ – 8/10
*Click here and scroll to the bottom for a detailed explanation of what these numbers mean

River City Girls Review Screenshots

*A Steam key was provided for this River City Girls review. It took me about 7 hours to reach the end, and around 15 hours to beat it a second time in NG+ and find its collectibles.

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