One Game, One Day, One Year - 157 (RvrCtRnsm)
BARF!
River City Ransom for the NES, also available on the Wii via the Virtual Console. Developed and published by Technos Japan.
Here, this is the plot.
Huh. So this guy, SLICK, managed to recruit *all* of the gangs and *all* of the kids in the city to his side to hold a school ransom while specifically antagonizing two specific high school guys? Alex and Ryan, the heroes of the game, could just sit by and let SLICK's plan fall apart as it inevitably will. I can't possibly see how recruiting opposing clans and hotheaded teens will result in anything but success. /sarcasm
Absurd plot aside, River City Ransom is one of the iconic games of the NES, remembered as a mix of both humor and challenge as the heroes pummel wave after wave of gang members while adding RPG like stat boosting conventions and special abilities. It's sort of like Double Dragon, but this offered respite in town malls and even included a sento (Japanese bath house). It's been remade a few times on some handhelds like the Game Boy Advance, but recently the dev team at Miracle Kidz announced that a full fledged sequel is in the works for WiiWare download and the PC.
Oh, and if you've heard of a little movie and comic strip called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, you should know that many of the ideas for the story were borrowed from RCR.
Anyway, you traverse the streets of River City to reach your high school, facing gang members the whole way. Usually you'll be punching or kicking foes into submission, but often you can grab a handy weapon to increase your damage. Each zone you enter randomly selects which gang is in control, identified by the colors of their shirts and names. Here, I've defeated Jerry of the Generic Guys, proclaiming his defeat with the well-known line, "BARF!" You'll also face the Jocks, Frat Boys, International Guys, Squids, Zombies, and other oddly named gangs during your quest.
The money that the enemy drops is spent on a variety of goods available at shops and restaraunts in the strip malls you'll encounter, almost all of which have some beneficial impact on your characters stats. A few items are special techniques, such as rapid punches or kicks, which are highly desirable. Some are consumed in the store while some can be taken with you to function as a sort of healing potion during your fights.
Even though the dev team took some pains to localize the game to make it somewhat familiar to American audiences, not everything could be handled so smoothly. Japanese cities have sento, a public bath for folks to bathe and soak in the hot tub. (Seperated by gender, of course.) In the American release, the sento was translated as a Health Spa/Club. I suppose that could work, but what really gets me was the fact that they left in the naked man ass in all its pixelated glory. I think this was the only NES game to show nudity, which is quite stunning given Nintendo's tendency to sterilize *everything* for American audiences.
Ultimately it's little more than a side scrolling brawler, as the shopping and stat building are available only after you've acquired enough funds from defeated enemies. It's called 'grinding' nowadays, this necessary, repetitive slaughter of opponents, but it's also an age-old convention in games which fundamentally works, and is made tolerable here by the dark humor of the fallen foes' comments.
The glaring flaw of the game, though, resides in the shopping menu. You can't tell what each item does until you consume/use it, and that's not always the case. Lasagna and Pizza both cost about $7.00 in the game, but you're unable to tell which will boost the stats you want until you eat it. Books which teach combat techniques give no indication what they do or how to activate them, which is quite frustrating since a few of them will run you $75. It's an expensive learning mechanism normally circumvented by saving/reloading, but RCR is burdened by the dreaded password system of early NES days which are prohibitively long and prone to being transcribed incorrectly.
It can be forgiven, though, as the game offers two-player co-op play, letting each one interact for new combat moves such as throwing the other player, or using them as a boost for jump attacks. This method is the preferred way of experiencing RCR, so be sure to have a friend handy when playing.
Is it worth playing now? Surprisingly, yes. Flaws aside, it's a great multiplayer brawler with comedic elements and RPG-like traits.
River City Ransom for the NES, also available on the Wii via the Virtual Console. Developed and published by Technos Japan.
Here, this is the plot.
Huh. So this guy, SLICK, managed to recruit *all* of the gangs and *all* of the kids in the city to his side to hold a school ransom while specifically antagonizing two specific high school guys? Alex and Ryan, the heroes of the game, could just sit by and let SLICK's plan fall apart as it inevitably will. I can't possibly see how recruiting opposing clans and hotheaded teens will result in anything but success. /sarcasm
Absurd plot aside, River City Ransom is one of the iconic games of the NES, remembered as a mix of both humor and challenge as the heroes pummel wave after wave of gang members while adding RPG like stat boosting conventions and special abilities. It's sort of like Double Dragon, but this offered respite in town malls and even included a sento (Japanese bath house). It's been remade a few times on some handhelds like the Game Boy Advance, but recently the dev team at Miracle Kidz announced that a full fledged sequel is in the works for WiiWare download and the PC.
Oh, and if you've heard of a little movie and comic strip called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, you should know that many of the ideas for the story were borrowed from RCR.
Anyway, you traverse the streets of River City to reach your high school, facing gang members the whole way. Usually you'll be punching or kicking foes into submission, but often you can grab a handy weapon to increase your damage. Each zone you enter randomly selects which gang is in control, identified by the colors of their shirts and names. Here, I've defeated Jerry of the Generic Guys, proclaiming his defeat with the well-known line, "BARF!" You'll also face the Jocks, Frat Boys, International Guys, Squids, Zombies, and other oddly named gangs during your quest.
The money that the enemy drops is spent on a variety of goods available at shops and restaraunts in the strip malls you'll encounter, almost all of which have some beneficial impact on your characters stats. A few items are special techniques, such as rapid punches or kicks, which are highly desirable. Some are consumed in the store while some can be taken with you to function as a sort of healing potion during your fights.
Even though the dev team took some pains to localize the game to make it somewhat familiar to American audiences, not everything could be handled so smoothly. Japanese cities have sento, a public bath for folks to bathe and soak in the hot tub. (Seperated by gender, of course.) In the American release, the sento was translated as a Health Spa/Club. I suppose that could work, but what really gets me was the fact that they left in the naked man ass in all its pixelated glory. I think this was the only NES game to show nudity, which is quite stunning given Nintendo's tendency to sterilize *everything* for American audiences.
Ultimately it's little more than a side scrolling brawler, as the shopping and stat building are available only after you've acquired enough funds from defeated enemies. It's called 'grinding' nowadays, this necessary, repetitive slaughter of opponents, but it's also an age-old convention in games which fundamentally works, and is made tolerable here by the dark humor of the fallen foes' comments.
The glaring flaw of the game, though, resides in the shopping menu. You can't tell what each item does until you consume/use it, and that's not always the case. Lasagna and Pizza both cost about $7.00 in the game, but you're unable to tell which will boost the stats you want until you eat it. Books which teach combat techniques give no indication what they do or how to activate them, which is quite frustrating since a few of them will run you $75. It's an expensive learning mechanism normally circumvented by saving/reloading, but RCR is burdened by the dreaded password system of early NES days which are prohibitively long and prone to being transcribed incorrectly.
It can be forgiven, though, as the game offers two-player co-op play, letting each one interact for new combat moves such as throwing the other player, or using them as a boost for jump attacks. This method is the preferred way of experiencing RCR, so be sure to have a friend handy when playing.
Is it worth playing now? Surprisingly, yes. Flaws aside, it's a great multiplayer brawler with comedic elements and RPG-like traits.