El juego original salió para Super Famicom solo en Japón con el nombre de Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka. En realidad, es un juego de la saga Kunio-Kun en toda regla, pero es el primero en el que nuestras protagonistas Misako y Kyoko son jugables (junto con Riki y Kunio por supuesto).
En 2022 Arc System Works y Way Forward aunaron fuerzas junto con Limited Run games para relanzar el juego con varios añadidos.
Para empezar el juego ha sido localizado por primera vez a varios idiomas incluyendo el castellano. Además de localizaciones fieles al juego original, hay una segunda versión de la localización inglesa adaptada al estilo moderno de River City Girls, la cual recomiendo mucho.
Para seguir, contamos con un escaneado de alta calidad del manual de instrucciones original, el cual está en japones y contiene un montón de artes de la época 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽. Además, también tenemos modelos en 3D de lo que sería el cartucho original y la caja del juego.
Por último y no menos importante tenemos una intro espectacular (que no me canso de ver), un par de cinemáticas estilo cómic contándonos cómo encaja este juego en la nueva saga River City y unos créditos finales. Todo acompañado de temazos hechos para la ocasión.
Por supuesto también tendremos puntos de guardado, por que el juego original cuenta con un sistema de códigos.
El juego en sí es un brawler que no es que sea la panacea de la época de 16-bits, pero cumple su cometido y te da algunas sorpresas. Los controles desde luego no responden tan rápido como en River City Girls pero sirven. También mencionar que es un juego con bastante texto, nos contarán la historia si prisas.
La música en cambio es sorprendentemente buena.
Nunca hay más de 2 enemigos en pantalla, porque en este juego es muy importante cuando hacemos cada ataque o movimiento. No nos dejará cancelar apenas los movimientos y nos penalizará si lo hacemos muy mal.
Aunque al principio serán peleas callejeras de toda la vida, a partir del segundo jefe empezaremos a luchar en otras localizaciones como una noria, una discoteca, peleas en moto etc. Algo no muy típico de este género.
Volviendo a la historia, esta tiene un papel muy importante, más quizá que en el propio River City Girls original.
River City Girls Zero es lo que yo llamaría un port retro ejemplar. El Carbon Egine desarrollado por Dimitris Giannakis de Modern Vintage Gamer hace una emulación 1:1 de lo que era el juego original, nos ofrece puntos de guardado y varios métodos de reescalado nearest neighbour de la imagen original (X1, X2, hasta llegar a uno de los bordes o hasta llenar ambos bordes) para preservar lo máximo posible los pixeles originales. Tan solo he echado en falta una opción de rebobinado.
Pero además del juego base River City Girls Zero nos ofrece todo ese contenido adicional que rodea al juego y que hace un gran aporte a la experiencia. No creo que sea un juego para todo el mundo, pero a mí me ha gustado y creo que poco más se le puede pedir a un proyecto como este.

Took a while to actually finish this game but overall it's pretty alright and has a fun little story. Can't say I agree altogether with the name change here as it really isn't about Kyōko and Misako and more about Kunio and Riki getting out of jail to clear their name.

Though hey you got better translations and it's easier for most people to get a hold of. I will say the game has stiff controls and the enemies can be some real bullshit- more so bosses with how much recovery they have vs how much time you have to well react to them.

Outside of that it's a rad little time and worth getting simply for having an official version Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka.

I think this game would have done well here back then but hey better late then never. Oh and no fishing at all and that's just plain ol' punk if you ask me (which isn't cool)!

I'm sorry but this is not a good game which is a shame cause it has a lot going for it. The ost and sprite work is pretty good. The game offers a lot more story than you expect outta a 90s beat-em-up game which is rather neat. Meanwhile the added animated opening and manga segments are a nice highlight of the game.

What ruins the game is well the actual game play. The combat is just god awful it's feels stiff, slow, and just overall clunky and not very fun to play. It also doesn't help that the game makes enemies hit like a truck and also have more a lot more health you'd expect. This game also doesn't have any rpg elements so it's harder to cheese tougher segments. So this is a game beat-em-up in which the act of beat them up feels horrid to play, making the game surprisingly kinda a slog to get through. I think having some sort of rewind feature would have helped this game be more fun but it does not. There is a save state but that's it.

I got this game on sale for 10 dollars and now I will dearly miss those dollars. Just because a game is old doesn't make it bad. It's bad because it's bad. Even at the time of the original Japanese release the game had generally mixed reviews. As a fan of River City Girls and Kyoko and Misako I really wanted to enjoy this game but sadly it's a bit to dated for my tastes. Streets of Rage this anit.

If you've seen my reviews of other games, you'll know they are usually pretty long most of the time, but I don't think this one will be.

River City Girls Zero is a pretty good way of how you set up a past game that was never localized and bringing it over into the side series that is now well known. As a game this was a decent of not repetitive time, like the story stood out to me as you using Kunio and Riki and learning more about them if you aren't familiar with the River City Ransom game and only played River City Girls then this will be interesting, but you played River City Ransom, this kinda feels like a sort of sequel to that game, but tied into the River City Girls series. it's weird to explain.

Basically it's an okay old beat'em up, wish it did a little more but it is a faithful port of an old game, the best part of it is the River City Girls cutscenes and tie-ins that made it worth it in the end. If you can find it cheap and like old school beat em ups then go for it, it's good for that, if you just want to see the link between the River City series to the Girls then you can likely just watch the cutscenes on Youtube or read the story and be fine and not miss much.

If you're a fan of classic beat em ups, particularly from the SNES era, then this one... won't exactly light the world on fire. Speaking from a strictly objective point of view, it's more of a 2.5 stars but I can put myself in the era pretty well. The pros of the game are good music and sound design, plus pretty decent visuals. It has an actual plot, which is a novelty for the genre. The game is also not overly difficult on the whole, generally enemies only come 2 at a time. On the downside, the controls are a little stiff and combat relies heavily on knowing which moves can loop the enemies. As well, while the game is not too hard, there are sections that WILL kill you a lot until you figure them out, particularly the bike sections and the final bosses. Still, it's cool to see a game of yesteryear that never got a chance in America officially finally see the light of day on Western shores. The framing story tying in to River City Girls 2 and the retro style themed music are a nice treat on top. If you're eager to scratch an itch for more River City Girls while waiting for 2, then give it a shot. If you're not that desperate, I'd definitely wait for a sale instead or get it at a reduced price via Switch gold coins.