River City Girls Reviews
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.
Tiresome combat scenarios, tedious backtracking, and a lack of transparency with consumables, accessories, and moves undermine its potential, but strong momentary gameplay and extraordinary production values help buoy the experience.
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.
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.
River City Girls is one of the best experiences I’ve had with a beat em up and if it has more time to iron out a few kinks, I think it could be one of the best the genre has to offer. The gameplay excels at being entertaining no matter whether you’re playing alone, or with a friend. There’s a significant amount of different moves to test out, along with a simply stunning visual design. It’s a shame that the RPG mechanics couldn’t have been better implemented. Having a feeling of meaningful progression and knowing the difference in damage output between different moves would have been really nice. If you’re a fan of beat em up’s you’re most likely going to enjoy your time with River City Girls. These two girls definitely pack a punch.
River City Girls has a ton of nostalgic love, and is done incredible favors by updated sprites, a great cast, and wonderfully varied environments.
River City Girls is the brawler that the series needed to spark new interest in the franchise. WayForward took this classic IP and made something truly unique, yet still recognizable to long-time fans.
River City Girls might not have the surest footing, but it still hits hard and looks cute doing it.
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.
It’s fantastic to have a couch co-op game that takes all of the classic elements of beat-’em-ups and gives them an upgrade that feels modern and fresh.
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.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
Before long, you will notice that the sweat you once poured trying to get through brawlers like Streets of Rage and Final Fight is absent here.
River City Girls is like a sweet treat of the beat 'em up standard and does not overstay its welcome.
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
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.
River City Girls may have been full of walls for me but I can still wholeheartedly recommend it to just about any player, especially those fond of the beat-em-up genre. Just be warned that going without help is a lot tougher than expected.
I’m not the only one disappointed in this ending. It was the topic of discussion shortly after the game launched on message boards and on Twitter. Many people have had very colorful things to say about Wayforward when it comes to this ending and their portrayal of female characters. Despite my last two paragraphs, I’m not here to attack Wayforward or Arc System Works for this. I think they made an excellent game that hits almost all the right notes but just couldn’t fully nail the landing. I encourage them to revisit and expand on this story in a sequel, because I think the biggest reason the ending doesn’t make a lot of sense to me is that it’s very abrupt. It feels like there was more story to be told about these characters and I would love to hear and see it. Also I just want to play more River City Girls! Some of you might think the $29.99 price tag for the digital release is a bit high, but aside from the ending, this was one hell of a good time. If you are interested in a physical copy, Limited Run Games had a standard edition available to preorder until September 27th. If you were unable to preorder a copy by then and are still looking for a physical copy, Play-Asia also has multi-language physical copies for both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
If you miss the good old days when Technos wasn’t bankrupt and you had an inkling over what the Double Dragon/Kunio-kun series are, you owe it to yourself to try out River City Girls. It’s fun to play, it’s best with a friend, and it’s just gorgeous to look at in motion. If you hate brawlers and simple beat-em-ups with a slight grind, this won’t change your mind.