River City Girls PS5 Review

 River City Girls PS5

Developed By: WayForward
Published By: Arc System Works
Date of Release: January 20, 2022
Price: $29.99

Back in the good old NES days, there was one game that always had me coming back for more, it was the famous River City Ransom. A sidescrolling beat-em-up with mild RPG elements, it was an amazing experience and it blew my young mind. You'd beat the crap out of your foes, take their lunch money, and use it to level up in shops and spas. The gameplay was tight, and the graphics were awesome for the time. Later on I found out that River City Ransom is actually part of a larger series from japan known as Kunio-Kun, and I had a blast playing the other entries in the series whether they had been localized or not. There have been a lot of games in the series over the years covering a wide range of genres, and I loved them all. But that's all in the past though, in modern day 2019 Arc System Works teamed up with WayForward to make a new spinoff entry in the series: River City Girls, and it was AMAZING, very much worthy of it's place alongside the mainline Kunio games. And now with this re-release on the PS5 (with a free upgrade for PS4 owners might I add!) even more people can enjoy it.

River City Girls stars Kunio and Riki's girlfriends Kyoko and Misako as they set off on an ass-kicking adventure to rescue their missing boyfriends. And kick ass they do, with style and flair! The spritework in RCG is absolutely amazing, with fluid animation and amusingly exaggerated expressions on your foes as they receive their beatdown. The fighting system feels just as good as in the original games, and has some decent upgrades as well with EXP earned for knockouts, and the ability to recruit defeated foes. The music and voices are amazing, with an awesome assortment of vocal tracks backing some stages. The controls are tight, and fighting your foes feels great with awesomely destructive combos and special moves you can pull off. The DualSense controller really gives you a good sense of feedback through it's haptics as you pull off combos. The bosses are also incredibly punishing, until you figure out their attack patterns and grind a couple levels. When you finally beat them it feels like a real accomplishment.



The only complaint I really have with River City Girls is that the multiplayer is local couch co-op only. I'd have liked to play online with my friends but it just doesn't have that feature, and I suppose the timing would have been a nightmare to get going over the internets. But other than the lack of online, this is an amazingly solid experience. The local co-op is extremely well done, with friendly-fire options that can lead to plenty of amusing situations (and real world fights!). The story is extremely entertaining, overflowing with anime cutscenes and awesomely voiced manga panel based cutscenes to tell the story. River City Girls is every bit in the spirit of the rest of the Kunio-Kun series, and WayForward should be proud of what they accomplished. I'm absolutely looking forward to River City Girls 2 and Zero later this year.