A newer series in the Kunio franchise that has some elements and characters from the SNES beat em up Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (or River City Girls 0 being the name for its recent English release). This time starring only Misako and Kyoko until you finish the game and unlock Kunio and Riki. Each character has their own animations and moves to unlock but the gameplay between the remains similar with a block and parry button, dash attacks, light and heavy attack, jump attacks, and a variety of special moves that lower your special meter that recharges on its own fairly rapidly. You can also find a variety of weapons lying around. While it is a linear game plot wise there are RPG elements where you can go back and forth between areas fighting random enemies on the map for XP and money. As you level up stats will increase and you can learn or have access to new moves you can buy at a dojo, money can also be spent on food items that can be stored in your inventory for healing, and you can buy mostly near useless accessories that you can equip two of for barely noticeable passive benefits. Like some of the old Kunio games, like River City Ransom/Street Gangs outside of Japan, the first time you eat a new food item you will also increase your stats.

It's a fun, responsive, well animated beat em up with some good music, funny story moments that reference older titles, and can be good for co-op. Though it doesn't do anything too interesting for the genre and with a lot of palette swapped enemies it can last a bit too long for a beat em up. One somewhat interesting feature is that the last enemy in a wave can surrender to you and you can then recruit and summon them to perform an attack when a meter charges, after the attack they will either leave or take a hit from an enemy. They can withstand three hits before you have to recruit a new ally or you can replace them when another person surrenders. The actual attack they do tends to not be that useful and be a bit awkward to aim since they need to jump on screen and do their attack in time to connect with someone. Not really that well implemented but something different.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1741715555562963064

I'm not a beat 'em up player so I can't really compare this game to others of the same genre, since this is really my first time on one of them, but in terms of narrative and presentation, this game does wonders.

The story is short simple, but the characters of the game have a lot of moments where they can shine and show their personalities and charisma, to the point that even some RPG main characters feel underdeveloped when compared to them.

Mechanically, the game uses some stat system that I'm not a fan of, that's because you level up your stats when you use healing items for the first time, which is an awful idea when one of those stats it's your movement speed, which translates on a really slow walking speed on the early parts of the game.

Another of my concerns is that enemies have too many invulnerable frames, when they attack with a full combo, they'll receive no damage until they finish the whole combo, which feels cheap to play against.

Each character has a similar moveset, but they have some minor differences that make them play a bit different and differenciate from each other enough to have some strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, which I played on co-op, which is always a bonus, but I felt like it has some unpolished parts that needed some refinement, which I hope the sequel has improved on to make it even more enjoyable.

You really can't go wrong with a game about two badass girls who hit as hard as the absolutely incredible OST does. River City Girls adds light RPG elements and a more simplified combo system to make this a very entertaining brawl.

There are four characters you can play as. Two at the start and two additional unlocked once you beat the game. Fully playable in co-op and each character has their own unique visual flair to their moves. You and your buddy may be performing the same action, but only one of you is dabbing a man to death.

The game rides the line of difficulty very well. Never frustrating but fair and challenging. Enemies were well defined, they telegraphed their moves and I was always prepared to satisfyingly kick an enemy in the nuts so hard he'd fly through the air.

Visually the game packs a lot of style. From its anime inspired character designs to its arcade style art this game was never visually dull. Lots of fun background details in the environment as well.

To note a losing point for some people is possibly the ending. I won't spoil anything but I will warn that it is....abrupt and odd if you aren't familiar with the River City series of games. As this was my introduction I wasn't sure how to peg the ending at first. But After a bit of time in New Game Plus and a quick google I began to appreciate it more. It's one of those endings that is built off in the background if you are paying attention to the little details. But if the ending isn't your thing I think that is completely understandable.

Bosses are also kind of meh. Aside from the final 2 they don't really stand out to me aside from their quirky character dialogue.

Despite those two issues this is a pretty safe game to recommend. It's got likeable characters, a who's who of youtubers/content creators voicing the cast, energetic combat and again, that OST is superb. If this genre of game interests you in the slightest or you just want an anime girl to step on you I would recommend it.

TLDR: I wish I was an enemy in this game so I could get stepped on.

El juego es un spin off de la saga Kunio-Kun (aquí conocida como River City), la cual era originalmente de Technos Japan, pero hoy en día la lleva Arc System Works. La historia trata de que Misako y Kyoko se enteran de que sus novios Kunio y Riki han sido secuestrados, y no dudan en salir a las peligrosas calles de River City para rescatarlos.
Si os preguntáis de donde viene este juego, resulta que sería la secuela de “Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka” el primer juego de la saga en la que Kyoko y Misako tienen un papel protagonista y que fue lanzado solo en Japón para la Super Famicom en 1994. Por suerte este juego ha sido relanzado y relocalizado como River City Girls Zero este mismo 2022 en consolas.
Volviendo al juego que nos interesa, River City Grils nos ofrece un gameplay muy pulido y diversión asegurada desde el minuto 1 si es que te gustan este tipo de juegos (o incluso si aún no has probado el género).
El gameplay por supuesto trata de repartir tortas a diestro y siniestro por las calles de la ciudad y aunque al principio tendremos pocos movimientos, en seguida podemos ir desbloqueando más. Al principio puede llamar la atención lo lentos que se mueven los personajes, pero una vez te acostumbras no resulta ningún problema. El abanico final de movimientos me ha parecido bastante amplio y divertido.
También me gustaría mencionar los escenarios, que generalmente están muy detallados y no son demasiado estáticos a pesar de ser todo pixel art. Tendemos bastante libertad de movimiento para subirnos a distintos sitios y en general da gusto ver las calles de River City.
Llegamos al apartado sonoro, el cual es sencillamente genial. El 90% de los temas encajan a la perfección con el nivel actual y se encargan de mantenerte motivado de seguir repartiendo tortas. Para mí ha sido todo un descubrimiento, ya que no esperaba tanta dedicación a este apartado más allá del tema principal.
La historia se cuenta usando algunas cinemáticas animadas, con cinemáticas estilo comic y con diálogos in game con ates de los personajes. Todo el arte está generalmente muy bien dibujado pero la guinda del pastel es que todos los diálogos están doblados (al inglés por lo menos). La combinación de artes con diálogos enérgicos es un plus para la historia, que sin ser profunda ni nada, está muy bien contada.
La única parte mala que le he encontrado al juego sería quizá el menú in game, que en ocasiones no va muy fluido y las explicaciones de las técnicas que podrían ser algo más claras.
Por lo demás River City Girls es un juego con el que te lo puedes pasar muy bien, terminarlo en menos de 10 horas y regarlo con los extras si te apetece. Aunque no seas fan del género, recomiendo probarlo.