Swing and a Miss
Punch and kick your way to rescue your kidnapped boyfriends in River City Girls from WayForward and Arc System Works. Set in the iconic River City brawler franchise, players will mow down waves of enemies and bosses through six colorfully pixelated areas. With inspiration taken from classic arcade games and modern media alike, I was hyped to play this ported gem. While River City Girls came out swinging, my match ended before it ever really began.
A Wonderful Walloping
River City Girls opens with a manga-style cutscene introducing its protagonists, Kyoko and Misako. Bored and stuck in detention, the girls receive a photo via text of their boyfriends, Kunio and Riki, tied up. Enraged, the pair leap into action, tossing their chairs and heading for the door to rescue their paramours. With the stage set, players run through a quick tutorial with the schoolgirl of their choice, either Misako or Kyoko.
Tap and drag your finger on the left side of the screen to move about the classroom. To punch and kick, players will need to tap the yellow fist for quick attacks and the red fist to launch heavier attacks. After taking enough damage, you can stun and throw enemies to disrupt the attacks of others. Some foes will even beg for their lives after taking a beating. You can recruit these baddies to fight alongside you by tapping the handshake button when it appears above them. Eventually, you’ll also be able to wield weapons like chains or baseball bats to pummel foes into submission. However, you’ll lose these items if you take enough damage or once they’ve been used up. Later on, you can purchase upgrades with the cash you earn for defeating your foes.
While I’ve played several beat ‘em up brawlers in the past, River City Girls managed to captivate me with its art style, which conjured Scott Pilgrim vs. the World energy. Thanks to the game’s funky soundtrack and often hilarious animations, the gameplay never felt stale, despite its repetitive controls.
Pulled Punches
While River City Girls stands head and shoulders above its challengers in terms of aesthetics, it’s outclassed thanks to its crowded controls and game-breaking bugs. While it’s certainly possible to play this game on your phone, the controls feel a bit too distracting on such a small screen. The action pad, which allows players to fight, takes up a good chunk of the screen, and while these controls appear translucent, they distract enough from the overall visual experience.
Shortly after defeating the first boss, a hulking high schooler named Misuzu, I took a short break from the game. Upon returning, the game loaded the stage just before my boss battle. To make matters worse, the controls no longer registered my touch. After a bevy of troubleshooting, River City Girls never regained its controls, and as a result, I turned to my XBox Series X to finish the game. On its own, it’s disappointing that the game glitches beyond repair; however, it’s made even worse by the requirement of having to subscribe to Crunchyroll’s streaming service to gain access.
While players will have a ton of fun playing this fresh take on the beat ‘em up genre, they’d be better off grabbing a controller and plopping down in front of their consoles. Perhaps Crunchyroll will iron out the bugs in future updates, but until that happens, River City Girls belongs in detention.
