River City Girls

This is another of my personal favorite beat em up games of all time. This game is another volume in one of my favorite beat em up franchises "River City". This series has been an interesting one as it's always taken a lot of different turns in its sequels and spin offs, once again it takes another turn.

I really like the premise and it's more the same thing but different at the same time. In the beat em up games, it's always the common clichéd motif where the girlfriends of the significant others are kidnapped for one reason or another and the boyfriends come to the rescue to save them and the city at the same time; in this game we see this concept has been flipped. I like that as it's a nice little break from the cliched premise, but also, I'll admit as a long time beat em up fan even, I always wondered what would happen if it was the other way around.

Really love the graphical presentation which is two-dimensional beauty as usual in the "River City" games and I wouldn't want it any other way as the whole series plays out like a Shonen Anime. But I really like the detail to it along with the facial expressionism which obviously is in the style of anime which fits perfectly with the game. We even get some manga cut scenes from the current talking panels to the black and white animated panels and all which mainly happen when there are flashback scenes.

I even like the story which is nothing special. It's like with most of the "River City" games but it's in its execution that makes it stand out. I really like how it kept my interest and intrigued from beginning to end, it felt like I just watched season one of an anime series.

But what I like the most was its humor; this game doesn't take itself seriously; I'll admit throughout most of the game I could hardly keep a straight face. I really like some of the dialog with the characters, some have some funny and memorable lines. I mainly like how the game parodies and even addresses certain cliches that have happened in beat em ups as well as Shonen Manga and Anime, it's funny because it's true when you think about it.

Even like the personalities of both leads and the voice acting is spot on. Both are pretty much like a comedy duo; you can almost say a female version of Abott and Costello. Ok, not really but you do have one girl that is the straight girl Misako, and the other is that lovable but ditzy one Kyoko she's my favorite as she sort of reminds me of Bubbles from "Power Puff Girls"; you could say Kyoko is who Bubbles would be if she ever reached teen hood.

The music in the game is great. There are a lot of memorable tracks, it's almost hard to decide which I like the most, but each of them, even that theme song just get you pumped for action. And of course, we have the gameplay which is what you'd expect from the "River City" games the usual action RPG element. From the use of the weapons in which there is a good variety and are all your best friend you'll need more than ever, even like the fallen henchman/woman as a weapon is still intact. There are items and moves to purchase to help you along the way and you have your usual level up system.

One thing I like is that if you decide to show mercy to any of the badies you beat you able to recruit them for your team and can put them to use as each have a different ability. But once you use them you must wait till the gauge recharges so you can either use them or another again. Another thing is you have a stamina gauge for your super move, this gauge does recharge but slowly which is why you should use your super move sparingly, for emergencies only.

I even like the boss fights. Each of them has medium difficulty as they are no pushovers. They each have separate life bars which indicate the different rounds you must go through, so don't get too use to their attack method. Because once you cleared one round, the next will be totally different as they deliver a new method giving you another pattern to adapt to. Even like that sometimes the boss fight format can be different like in one boss fight it was a slight homage to "Mega Man" as you were fighting on a one plane screen and contained area; thought that was cool and kept the game fresh.

"River City Girls" adds fresh water to the river of punches and kicks that continues to flow.

Rating: 4 stars.