Luigi Mario

River City Ransom

Publisher: Technos

System: NES

Genre: Brawl

Introduction:

Yep. Yet another under-appreciated, over-looked, Technos classic. This game's U.S. debut was in 1989. As Technos was growing more and more back then what with the sucess of games like Double Dragon, Technos decided to bank it on this game. It was probably one of the most unique brawlers that anyone could ever find for it's time. But in a good way. I can still remember the days that me and my brothers would sit down and play for hours on end. It was more than just a brawler, it was history in the making, well, as far as I'M concerned.

The plot goes like this. Ryan(Who is Riki in the Japanese series) has just learned that his girlfriend was captured by a mysterious foe named Slick. Ryan insists on going alone, but his old-time rival, Alex(Better known as Kunio) decides to team up with him to save her. Ryan, reluctantly, agrees and the fight is on. But many of their fellow High School classmates have joined seperate gangs and have taken over the city. This fight will be, needless to say, tough. Anyway, let's see just how good this game REALLY is.

Reviewed by: MattDDR

Graphics: A  

As always, Technos comes though with top of the line graphics and coloring, even for the NES. The characters are always a chuckle to look at, especially when they get knocked to the ground. Nothing in this is really anything to fuss over, graphic-wise, with the exception of possibly the slower frame rate. Still, this game ranks high, as always, in this catagory.

Sound: B  

Yet again the typical, similar sounds of just about every Technos, Kunio based, game. Everything is pretty much the same sounds as every other Technos game. I did enjoy the music very much, especially when you get to Sherman Park for the first time. It's nice and relaxing and makes you just wanna run around and do next to nothing for a few minutes.....Well, that's how I was when I went there the first time. So, music wise, very good. Soundwise, just about the same...

Control: A  

Technos have never really done it's loyal fans wrong with controls, and this is no exception to the rule. The A button is your punch, while the B button kicks, and if you push both buttons at once, your character will jump up, at which time you can also do a jumpkick. If you time it just right, you'll be able to jumpkick all the way down the street. The enemies always tend to stand perfectly still when you do it too, so you can get some free damage in if you're lucky enough to catch them in your path. Overall, controls are tight and responsive. Everything is easy, and you'll have no problems whatsoever with it.

Gameplay: A  

And now the thing that matters most: How fun is this game? Well, let's say this. The first time I played this game back in the 90's, it was the ONLY game I worked on for a week straight. Even after beating it several times. There's a lot of stuff you can do in this game. Like I said earlier, it isn't your typical brawler. So, the basis of the game is pretty straightforward. Go around and beat up thugs. Right? But here's the thing. You know those coins that they drop after they vanish? You'll want those, and as MANY as you can grab. That's your money, and you'll want LOTS of it. To check the status of your money, you just push select to toggle back and forward between energy and money. The reason you want a lot of money is because you'll have to power your character up a lot to even be able to get halfway through the game. But there are many ways you can do this. Your character has stats that monitor just how strong your character is, and they don't start off very strong, so you'll want to visit the shops in the malls that you come across from time to time to get some. Word of advice: Stock up on Karma Jolt. You'll be glad you did. =) Also, your character can buy new moves and skills from some of the bookstores you visit. But these can be REALLY expensive, so you'll want to pummel as many bad guys as possible. But it's well worth it. The skill you pick up'll let you do all sorts of crazy things. Like kick like lightning, swing a weapon quickly and repeatively, even throw your enemy like a torpedo.

Speaking of the enemies, they aren't really all that tough. Well, not a lot of them. Usually, if you can knock them down, they'll just flat out die. The BOSSES, though, can be tough. REALLY tough, especially if you can reach the Dragon Twins, Randy and Andy. When you reach them, you'll know it. Trust me. Anyway, to find the bosses, you'll have to traverse from area to area, since this game isn't really level based. Some of the bosses you try to find'll be a headache and 3/4 to try to find, or even to get to, and you have to find, and beat, every boss in the entire game. That was really the only nerve racking part of the game. If you miss a boss, you'll pretty much be going through the game for nothing and it'll seem like nothing more than practice. You'll wanna listen closely to what the bosses say to find out where the next boss'll be, and remember to beat every enemy on the screen, because that'll the only way some of them will show up. Yeah. I know. This sounds like a lot, right? Well, not really, but it CAN be, especially if your character isn't powered up. Another good thing about this, though, is if you have a powered up character that you don't want to lose, you can write down a password and save it for later, and your character will have everything he had from the last game. The passwords are LONG and exhausting to deal with at times, but is WELL worth it.

Simply Put: A  

If it wasn't for the poor advertisement methods of Technos, I think a lot more people would've known and appreciated this true classic, but eh well. It's a very good game, and from a very good company that hardly anyone would really pay much mind to. I do know that there's also a GBA version of this game, which looks a lot better, but in some cases, you just can't beat the originals. Case in point: This game. Troll on over to Ebay. Scower the city for old-school stores. Find one of your buddies who's an old-school collector. Do what you have to do, but make sure you do it. This game is too much of a gem to pass up, and if you play. I guarantee, Technos will make as much of a believer out of you as they did me.