The Kunio-kun series is so old and spans so many consoles that you might have stumbled across one of its games without knowing it’s part of a connected universe of beat-’em-ups. The best known of these – Super Dodge Ball, Double Dragon and River City Ransom – are separate stories that revolve around how there never seems to be a shortage of faces to punch in River City. River City Girls 2 is a sequel to 2019’s excellent beat-’em-up and the ultimate form of action RPG design that River City Ransom pioneered in the late 1980s. systems and expand in size, rather than completely overhauling how anything works. But when you kicked so hard the first time, why change your technique?
The details of how and why the Yakuza that Kyoko and Misako thought they drove out of town in the previous game are back is unclear, but they and their punishable faces have taken over the school and all the local hangouts. That’s reason enough to begin your two-fisted crusade to rid them of the streets, one cracked skull or broken rib at a time. While the story itself is light and easy to overlook, the writing is crisp and funny. I always laughed at the jokes and banter between the protagonists and the various enemies and side characters they encountered.
You’re right into the fray very quickly, with all four returning characters – our two protagonists and their boyfriends, River City Ransom heroes Kunio and Riki – playable from the start in single-player or up to four-player co-op. While leveling up and gaining new techniques organically or via dojo purchases turns the combat system into a robust palette for violent self-expression after a few hours, the early game can feel particularly shallow. With only a handful of techniques at your disposal, the button-spam nature of this genre will never be more apparent. However, this serves as a stark contrast to what a great beat-’em-up can be: when you get deeper into the combo’s rabbit hole, the offensive options look spectacular.
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There are a lot of moves to learn in River City Girls 2, but the ease of entry – just one direction plus light, heavy or special attacks – means it’s a breeze to fit them into your gameplan. The characters also fit into easy-to-define archetypes that make them unique from each other in important ways: while Misako and Kyoko are all-rounders, the former has a much better aerial game, while the latter can block her surrounding zone with her Chun-inspired kicks. -Li, or repel them with the world’s toughest dab.
As the best friends feel like two sides of the same coin, their boyfriends and new characters, so do Provie and Marian. Riki and Provie are speedsters, moving quickly and tricking opponents with blinding blows, but the breakdancer’s tricks are best for groups of enemies against Riki’s single-target block. In addition to being a total unit, Marian is also the most practical grappler to complement Kunio’s fighter instincts. Ultimately, this means there’s more than just one option for those who fall into a certain playstyle. You might still want to flesh out a character and stick with them, as non-active characters level up much slower than field ones, meaning you’re going back several levels every time you switch if you’re not leveling up. actively all of them evenly.
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The gang’s victims come in a wonderful array of shapes and sizes, many of them references to Kunio-kun’s history, beat-’em-ups as a genre, or pop culture in general. They can be very tenacious, and until you get better crowd control tools, the way they simply surround you to howl at your flanks can be enough to frustrate. Fortunately, most of these tough fights can be avoided by simply running for the exit, with relatively few cutscenes trapping you in combat before you can progress.
Like the first game, enemies you defeat will occasionally surrender and beg to join your team, which allows them to be used as side characters in tag-based fighting games. River City Girls 2 goes one step further, providing a selection of NPCs that can join you without having to beat them to the finish first – and this is another great way to get around unnecessary grinding of opponents. I wish there was a similar solution for the final hour – towards the end it was especially tedious, when you’re funneled through gauntlets of locked screens, dodging wave after wave of bad guys in a climax that felt more like busy work than a test ending.
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I wasn’t simply fighting in the streets for the entire eight-hour adventure, though. Shortly after embarking on the quest to save the city, I occasionally found myself doing odd jobs like catching ghosts, robbing a bank owned by the Yakuza, and training the locals in the lost art of dodgeball. The stranger the distraction, the more I missed her when she was gone. They were much-loved ramblings that helped break up the drunken monotony.
Equipping gear purchased from stores spread across the city’s seven regions helps even out the odds in combat. Items that gave me a health shield when I was low on health or added elemental properties to my heavy attacks were my personal picks, but there are also options that change almost every way you interact with River City Girls 2. move faster? There is an accessory for that. Want to only hit male (or female) enemies harder for some reason, there’s one for that too. Food items, while single-use consumables, can be stored for when you need them and grant characters a permanent stat bonus the first time they eat them. So if you choose to grind, there are plenty of places to spend all that hard-earned cash.
The River City map is huge in River City Girls 2, much larger than the previous game version. My first time in places like the vibrant fish markets of Ocean Heights or the elegant offices of the Technos complex was a pleasure because they are so well designed and colorful. That said, the size of the city meant that even with the presence of a fast travel system, I had to spend a lot of time backtracking through parts of the city to check off boxes to progress through the main quest. Additionally, many screens feature a lot of obstacles and architecture that can become challenges for platformers or add a little more tactical thinking to the fights you choose, but I found that I was frequently slipping or having my view of the action blocked. for something in the foreground.
But again, the setting deserves attention. The character models and backgrounds have a chunky pixel style that, mixed with the silky smooth animations, capture a style and expressiveness that deserves to stand alongside handsome retro contemporaries like Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. That’s true of the music, too: Megan McDuffee’s killer soundtrack is filled with foot-tapping, genre-shattering instrumentals. Occasionally, you’ll walk into a room and hear some amusing attempts at parodying local radio stations in the background. In some of the more prominent areas, the songs feature lyrics from villains taunting you as you journey towards them. There’s so much energy in the song that it’s hard not to get motivated to kick every face in the room.