


My early time with River City Girls didn't feel tuned well to single-player play, especially when it came to its brutal boss fights. (The Terminator-inspired guy, for instance, does a big extended punch which is great for knocking down a line of bad dudes.) Each enemy type has a unique move they'll bring to battle when summoned, and I definitely found some to be more useful than others. There are multiple varieties of each enemy type too, and you even get your own little Pokedex-like app in your phone where you can see all the foes you've recruited over time. Each enemy has a certain number of hearts, as they can be knocked down when summoned for an attack. They're not AI companions who are always at your side, but more like a special move that you can summon with the tap of a button. You can walk up, grab them, and then recruit them. In battles, there's a chance that the last person standing will beg for their life. There's also a key addition though: You can now recruit some enemies you fight. You can buy accessories from specific shops across River City. You can also wear two accessories at any time, which change everything from gaining small amounts of stamina while you walk, to adding a five percent chance of taking no damage at all from an attack. Whenever I'd make a large sum of money after finishing a main story mission, I'd run over to the Dojo to buy new moves. The more you level up, the more moves you learn, though you can also purchase some at the local Dojo. You have a light and heavy attack attached to buttons, and your direction indicates certain moves.

But in the first half of River City Girls, I very much wished I had at least an AI co-op companion at my side.Ĭombat works in very much the same way as other side-scrolling beat 'em ups. Luckily, you're not locked into just one character for the whole campaign, and can hop in with another from the menu. Instead, you choose one character from the menu when you load up your save, and that's your character until you save and quit.

Unfortunately in single-player, it's not the sort of game where one of the characters is controlled by AI and you can switch between them. Which leads me to the heroines of this rescue mission: Kyoko and Misako. (I'm sorry, I'm allergic to internet humor.) River City Girls' anime-inspired art direction is a delight, and sets a sunny tone for the entire game-even if I found the writing to be largely pretty grating. And most importantly, the sprite work on Kyoko, Misako, and everyone they encounter is astounding. It's all soundtracked by electronic and bubbly pop music. On every street, everyone from Terminator look-a-likes to cheerleaders want to rumble and tumble with you. The shopkeepers are buff or otherwise intimidating, and eager to sell you anything from avocado toast to med kits to boost your health. River City Girls is a role reversal, with Kyoko and Misako on their own journey to save them.Īnd River City has never been a more lively place. It's a charming nod to the original River City Ransom, which kicks off with Riki's girlfriend Mami being kidnapped and sends Kunio and Riki on a mission to beat up gangs across the city to get to her back. Kyoko and Misako, this entry's heroines, are sitting idly in detention when they get a text that their boyfriends have been kidnapped. The start of River City Girls feels like deja vu. (Believe me, I know from personal experience.)
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They're goofy and brash, full of horrible ideas, in the way only teen girls can be. She tells O'Brien about how as teens, she and a friend were very bored one day, so they got the genius idea of driving their cars into one another's just to "see what happens." Kyoko and Misako, the stars of River City Girls, are this frankly stupid idea personified. On an episode of Conan O'Brien's podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" featuring guest Mila Kunis, the actress tells a story that's at once confounding and relatable.
