Back when I heard that a lot of the old NES games were
getting the re-release treatment for the Game Boy Advance, by first thought was,
"Are they going to make River City Ransom Advance"?!
The answer as of now is sadly, "No."
Which begs the question, "Why? Why not remake a game that people like and will
make you money?"
We may never know why exactly this is the way it is. But what we do know is that
River City Ransom was one of the finest games for the NES.
Back in the day, there wasn't much in the way of simultaneous 2-player action.
Nearly every game that had 2-player capability had it in the, "Player 1 dies,
Player 2 starts."
This was not very fun, especially if you had two players of dissimilar skill
levels in that particular game playing. In this fashion Player 1 would die in
like 15 seconds while he was trying to figure out the game and Player 2 would
play for approximately the next hour and a half while Player 1 sat idly by.
Not exactly the best way for Player 1 to contribute to the game or have any fun
at all.
River City Ransom was different in that you could have two players playing at
the same time. In fact, you could even use the 2nd player as a weapon if you
wanted. The 2nd player might object due to the fact that they'd take damage from
the attack.
But in a more cooperative environment, players will pick up weapons, and punch
out baddies together, take the money the punk kids from the local schools drop
after they give their pithy last words. (Ex: 'James: "HURL!"')
The story revolved around some guy stealing your girlfriend and you having to
get and get her back.
If you ever played Super Dodgeball, you'll recognize the art, short squat
characters drawn with huge heads. This style of character design allowed for you
to see expressions on the character's faces.
Your character would display a wide variety of emotion such as, stoic, punched
in the face, out of breath, and hit really hard and flying backwards. For their
time, these little variations were absolutely side splitting. I used to pause to
get a good look at the various punched in the face expressions.
This was also one of the first genre hybrid games. You had all the beating up,
but there were RPG elements to everything, too. As you picked up money, you
could use the cash to buy items to raise your strength and other attributes.
In addition, you could buy yourself new moves and techniques like a rapid combo
punch, or a rapid combo kick. This meant that you'd go around pounding the snot
out of unfortunate high school punks who were looking for a fight to get their
precious $1 or $1.50 off them in order to buy new swag.
The humor for the game was very evident throughout the game. There's a secret
store that would sell items. One of them was a Gold Medal which would give you a
boost to certain stats. After purchasing it, the in-game message would read:
"(Name) got a Gold Medal...
After drug testing, he was allowed to keep it."
And all the restaurants would have the option for "Smile", which you'd get for
free. If you selected this option, the game would make your character blush.
I really wish this game would make a comeback on the GBA, or have an updated
sequel, a la Super Dodgeball.
If you haven't played this one yet, go find yourself a ROM or an old cart so you
can experience the joy that is beat beating the tar out of the folks Cross Town
High School.
9.5
