River City Girls Reviews

River City Girls is ranked in the 75th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9.5 / 10.0
Sep 18, 2019

While it’s gameplay may not stand out as anything unique, it’s a lot of fun. Learning how to pull off a one-two-three punch/kick combo, allotted with an awesome finisher is such a gratifying feat that ultimately displays how a combo string should really be delivered. River City Girls is unmissable, and is one of the best arcade based experiences this year.

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9.4 / 10.0
Sep 5, 2019

River City Girls has a ton of nostalgic love, and is done incredible favors by updated sprites, a great cast, and wonderfully varied environments.

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92%
Sep 22, 2019

River City Girls is a 16bit beat’em up à la Streets of Rage, Final Fight where players roam around levels beating up enemies to earn money and XP. The latter differentiates it from other beat’em ups as most games of the genre do not feature levelling up features.

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9 / 10.0
Sep 5, 2019

A smashingly great side-scrolling battler that is overflowing with charm, stuff to do and faces to wreck, River City Girls is utterly essential for fans of the genre.

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9 / 10
Sep 4, 2019

Not since Scott Pilgrim vs The World was released nine years ago have we played such an entertaining, satisfying beat 'em up. Whether you're playing alone or teaming up with a friend in co-op mode, River City Girls is a visually superb, aurally fantastic, out-and-out love letter to the genre. Fans of River City Ransom and other Kunio-kun games will adore how it respects the past but makes it relevant today, while those new to the series will simply find a hugely enjoyable and infectiously cheerful scrapper.

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Atomix
Sebastian Quiroz
Top Critic
90 / 100
Sep 12, 2019

River City Girls is one of the most beautiful beat'em up in recent years, and one of the best experiences of the genre, achieves an evolution within the Kunio-kun series, although it can be repetitive, it is an experience that any fan of the genre can not miss.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Sep 6, 2019

One of the original beat 'em up franchises is back and it hasn't felt this good to knuckle up in quite a while. As with the games that came before it, River City Girls is a brawler and RPG spliced together to create an amazing and silly adventure that provides a ton of fun.

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9 / 10.0
Sep 9, 2019

River City Girls really did impress me but how polished of an experience it ended up being while staying faithful to the Kunio-kun world. The minor annoyances we had throughout the game and headaches from moving to areas during combat were quickly forgotten about anytime combat initiated because the gameplay was just so much fun. And when it all boils down, that’s truly what matters in a side scrolling beat-em-up, is it not? Fans of the genre, purchase this game.

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9 / 10.0
Sep 2, 2019

River City Girls is easily one of my new favorite games in the Kunio franchise, right behind Super Dodge Ball. Made great thanks to an outstanding variety of battle moves, good level design, clever pattern-based boss battles and an outstanding co-op experience, this is one of the best belt scrollers in recent memory, and considering how many of them fall into the same trap of being a repetitive bore nowadays, it’s very refreshing to see a new one that nails all the right notes that make a belt scroller addicting to begin with.

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9 / 10.0
Sep 5, 2019

While the beat-em-up genre was absolutely a staple of both the arcades and the early console days more recently titles have been few and far between...

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85 / 100
Feb 10, 2022

While it was a slow start I enjoyed my time in River City with Misako and Kyoko. The hand drawn art is incredible and the song list adds to the pacing and overall vibe. The move list eventually gets into enough depth to feel like a new addition to the genre. I’m eager for River City Girls 2. We’ll see how Wayforward changes up an already strong entry on the next go-round.

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85 / 100
Sep 12, 2019

River City Girls is a delight to play and to watch, one of the most fun games from this genre in this generation.

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8.5 / 10.0
Jan 28, 2020

Smash through hordes of enemies in a stylish beat'em up, where getting in the way of two cheeky teenagers is really not a good idea.

Review in Slovak | Read full review

8.5 / 10.0
Apr 27, 2020

I'd classify River City Girls as a fun, anime-inspired romp that's worth the time if you're looking for a balance between the visceral satisfaction you get from pummeling enemies on-screen and some of the off-center humor one can find in pieces like "Scott Pilgrim vs The World." It has that kind of vibe, and it's a great change of pace from the more heavy-handed stuff out there.

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8.5 / 10.0
Oct 2, 2019

Old school game in terms of graphics and mechanics, but that has adapted very well to the new times, bringing freshness to the genre with its humor and its rpg touches.

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85 / 100
Sep 11, 2019

River City Girls will invite you to visit River City with Kyoko and Misako in search of their boyfriends Riki and Kunio. If you accept the challenge, a nice, fun and complete beat'm up awaits you, with a non-linear progress and quite backtracking, which has some mismatch in the economy of the game and its RPG elements, but that is still totally enjoyable. WayForward has managed to give a new style to the classic Kunio-Kun and has sat down deadly to the hot bloody tough boy franchise.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8.5 / 10.0
Sep 6, 2019

River City Girls’ energetic storyline may falter near the end but this beat’em up is a prime example of what the genre is capable of as it delivers some great combat set in a fantastic world that thrives in its uniqueness. These girls are ready to kick butt in the name of love and those that take that journey with them are in for an amazing game.

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83 / 100
Sep 13, 2019

Fans of brawlers and badass girls alike won’t wanna miss River City Girls.

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82 / 100
Sep 3, 2019

Arc System Works and Wayforward found the perfect balance between nostalgic elements and new mechanics. River City Girls pays perfect homage to the brawler genre, incredibly fun to play (especially in couch co-op multiplayer).

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8.2 / 10.0
Sep 5, 2019

As a huge fan of all things Kunio-kun, I must say that I'm extremely impressed with River City Girls.

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