I didn't know this game existed until I saw it in that NSO addition video, and it was something I was curious about since.

The concept is great, a multiplayer party style game with the River City Ransom engine, unfortunately it's an NES game though so there's only two players. I imagine with 4 players this would be a lot more hectic but in an NES game, you gotta take what you can get sometimes.

The story is simple, to make up for the events of River City Ransom, the new president organizes a sports festival...but in reality, it's an attempt to get back at the Nekketsu High School! You and your gang have to win the events, but with how hectic the events are and the weapons to use, they're not gonna make it easy!

The first event I chose was Cross Country, which has the best music track in the game. I loved the music in River City Ransom, and this is just as good! The graphics are very nice too of course, with the excellent shading and clear sprites. The event is just as hectic to boot, running through unexpected places got a chuckle out of me the first time around. Unfortunately this is where the difficulty, the one thing holding this game back, rears its ugly head: The AI is brutal, and double tapping to run every time while the AI just always runs makes things extra tricky and hard to keep up. Rather than just win the race, it's divided into individual screens that you have to win, with the winning players of that screen spawning first on the next in order, until the end of the race. This means 1st place is likely going to stay there for a chunk of the race, and if it's AI, good luck catching up with the late spawn time! The winner of the event is the one who has won the most screens, not just the race, so you have to keep that in mind too!

If you aren't winning by the end of an event, back the the title screen. Brutal.

The next event is Obstacle Course, which is more of the same with a focus on hazards. Protip which is vital to winning this: While if you move forward too much before the starting gun you'll be faulted, but there's no fault for moving up or down. Move up to help you enter the building first! The AI can break during this event, leading to waiting for the timer to run out before you can advance to the next screen. It helps us, at least.

Third event is Ball Breaker, where you must climb one of two poles and break the ball on top open. This feels mostly luck based on if the AI feels like letting you just break it or knocking you off the pole, be it from the pole you're on or atop the pole next door, but at least you can do the same. It's fairly basic.

Final event is Chance, which is a free for all death match. This is where the combat comes into play most, the strategy for this one is to either throw the players off the edge, stand near the edge and hope they willingly jump off, but this is a suitable climax to finally beat the snot out of these guys, so I encourage taking this one on last.

The game is by no means easy, but it is by all means an alright time that would be better with friends!

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

Technos? Hell yeah, people. Yet another in the huuuuuuuuge series of Technos Nekketsu games, this one involves you racing against three other people. There’s weapons strewn all about the course, so fair play is definitely not encouraged here. I think there’s some other events, but damned if I know what they are. And how come I’m always slower than the other guys? Am I unable to dash here or what?

(editor's note: this game received an official translation in Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle)