River City GIRLS

MÖTLEY CRÜE FAMOUSLY SANG ABOUT “GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS”. ONE THING IS FOR SURE, THEY NEVER MET THESE GIRLS, BUT WE THINK RYAN DID!

As soon as I saw the reveal trailer of River City Girls, I was intrigued. It was a spin-off of River City Ransom (Street Gangs in PAL regions), one of a few localized titles from the Japanese Kunio-Kun franchise — a series that was arguably one of the pioneers of the beat ‘em up genre. Very few titles under the KunioKun series had ever made it outside of Japan, and then all of a sudden, with a blazing rock guitar intro, here was the River City Girls!

In the original Japanese version of River City Ransom (Downtown Nekketsu Story) you play as Kunio and his friend Riki (Alex and Ryan in the Western release). In River City Girls you play as their girlfriends Misako and Kyoko, who are both sat in detention when they discover that Kunio and Riki have been mysteriously kidnapped. Deciding to down pencils, they must pummel their way through armies of jocks, cheerleaders, corrupt police officials, goths, rockstars and even the odd Double Dragon character as they search the city for any trace of their beloved boyfriends.

River City Girls is a beautiful looking game, featuring stunning pixel-art graphics that nod to the retro style of classic brawlers, but ultimately ends up looking far more refined and colourful than anything that beat ‘em ups of the past had to offer. Cutscenes in River City Girls are also visually exciting, alternating between animated sections and flashbacks which look like they’ve come from the pages of a Japanese manga comic book.

The sound of River City Girls is as just as impressive as the visuals. From the opening intro (a fast and furious pop-punk anthem that instantly makes you want to start pummeling baddies with baseball bats) to the slower, melodic synthpop that was predominant for the majority of the game, the music in this

game is simply astounding. I hadn’t heard of vocalist/ composer Megan McDuffee before playing this game. Still, her work on this title is so remarkable that I instantly became a fan, and await her future endeavours with much enthusiasm.

Combat in this game is quite typical for a beat ‘em up, as you punch, kick and use a variety of weapons on enemies as you progress through River City. I did have a few issues with button placement at times, as to leave a screen to go to a new area you have to hit the same button as what you would to punch someone or pick a weapon up. There were many times when I’d unintentionally end up in the previous area whilst trying to fight an enemy.

Boss fights in this game were very tough, but I found that if I struggled too much, I could go back and fight some normal enemies, pick up their dropped money and purchase some health replenishing items to better aid me in boss battles. Some of the bosses were very cleverly designed, often requiring an element of strategy to defeat them, instead of just punching. mindlessly. My favourite boss being Noize, a female rockstar whose stage ends up turning into a Guitar Hero style fretboard, with you having to avoid the coloured notes coming towards you as Noize rocks out on her guitar. When her solos are over, she’ll jump off the stage and attack you with her six-stringed axe, and you must try and land a few hits here and there whilst simultaneously dodging crazed fans that are trying to swarm the stage. It’s things like this in River City

Girls which make the game feel fresh and innovative, something that Double Dragon IV failed spectacularly at.

With a great cast of characters, brilliant music and sound, plus a whole lot of fun, I hope that River City Girls is a sign of things to come for the beat ‘em up genre, as this game demonstrates that although the genre may be old, it can still pack a damn mean punch when it wants to.

Although Streets of Rage wasn't ever my favourite classic beat 'em up, it was one that I enjoyed as a kid. But when I saw the trailer for Streets of Rage 4, I couldn't help but feel a little excited. Instead of going for a nostalgic 16-bit graphical art style, the game opted to go for a hand-drawn look, similar to how the modern remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap looked. I have always had a love of pixel art, but after playing that Wonder Boy remake, I was amazed at just how good hand-drawn animation could look in a video game, so I awaited the release of Streets of Rage 4 with great anticipation. Finally, in April 2020 it was released on various platforms. How did it hold up compared to the original 'trilogy'?

Streets of Rage 4 is set a decade after the previous game, which saw the defeat of the criminal mastermind Mr X, and the undoing of his nefarious schemes. This title sees the introduction of his offspring — The Y Twins, a villainous twosome who share their late father's desire for total domination over Wood Oak City. Naturally, it's up to protagonists Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding to put a stop to their plans as they battle through twelve different stages of Wood Oak City, alongside an assortment of unlockable characters from the previous Streets of Rage games, plus a few new ones.

Of all the titles that I was least expecting to be announced in 2018, Streets of Rage 4 was certainly up there, considering that the previous game was released nearly twenty-five years previously on the Sega Mega Drive.

Despite the beautiful modern graphics, Streets of Rage 4 doesn't feel too different from previous instalments on the Mega Drive, at least in terms of combat. Perhaps it's because the Mega Drive was a lot more advanced than the NES, but this game doesn't feel as clunky and aged as the retro-inspired Double Dragon IV. It also feels a little less difficult than the original three Streets of Rage games, probably down to the fact that I had a seemingly unlimited amount of continues, whereas this wasn't the case in the original three. That's not to say that this game is a walk in the park, as I did end up having to retry a few levels more than once.

Ever since the game's announcement, I had seen chatter amongst fans who were seemingly divided about the graphical direction of Streets of Rage 4. Perhaps it was because I wasn't overly sentimental about the original Streets of

Rage graphics, but the new art style of 4 didn't offend me at all. It'd been about a year since I had played the original Streets of Rage trilogy on the Sega Mega Drive Classics collection, and I don't recall Wood Oak City ever looking as neontinged and cyberpunk as it does in this game, with the hand-drawn style making the details of the dirty city streets truly pop out. There are also a few easter eggs for fans of the classic games to keep an eye out for, with some familiar background locations as well as many classic enemies.

Music in this game isn't bad and features some modern versions of classic Streets of Rage tracks along with some new and original compositions. That said, I don't think that this game musically lives up to its predecessors, which is a bit of a shame, but thankfully there's an in-game option to choose the classic Streets of Rage soundtracks, so you can crack some skulls to the chip-tune beat of 90s techno if so desired.

Although the game is quite short, Streets of Rage 4 offers some replayability with a multitude of unlockables like gallery rewards, playable characters and retro character 'skins', as well as alternate game modes, some of which were extremely challenging.

So in all, although Streets of Rage 4 doesn't try to update the genre in any way, like River City Girls, it shows just how much fun a classic beat 'em up can be, and demonstrates the potential that the genre still has. Hopefully, it won't take as long for the next Streets of Rage release!