Game:

River City Ransom (1989)

Duration: 12:50

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8

This video was captured using the actual game on an actual Gamecube Game Boy advance player.

Born on the NES this is the remake of River City Ransom on the GBA. Back in the NES days all I could think about was Double Dragon and wished the NES port of it looked and played alot more like the arcade. While I was too busy fantasizing about that, I totally over looked one of the greatest beat'em ups ever made. It wasn't until many many years passed that I saw what River City Ransom really was. Back then like most kids I was stuck on graphics. River City Ransom didn't break any ground in the visual department, and it was too bad I never could see passed that because it was an awesome game that was better than Double Dragon in many ways.

If you're not familiar with River City Ransom it is not a typical mindless beat'em up. It's a beat'em up with RPG elements. You're able to level up your character and upgrade your character with new moves. However leveling up is not the tradition experience scheme that comes with killing a certain amount of bad guys. The bad guys drop money after you beat them and you buy food to raise your stats. You also buy books that you read to learn new moves. It's very genius and very fun.

Anyway this is the remake of the legendary NES title. How did it turn out? I'd just like to say that this is how you do a remake. The graphics of course got a major boost and surprisingly the music is very SNES like on the GBA. The sounds have also gotten a good revamp. You now have a CPU character Ryan you fights along side you now, but you can turn him off if you wish. I like the addition of the CPU helper. He certainly doesn't make the game any easier, but it's just fun to be fighting along side someone else. Alex also has new general moves like back handing when guys are close behind you. When the game for the NES was localized for the States, all the characters were given typical jeans and t-shirt clothing to look more like western street gangs than Japanese. However in the GBA version they restored all this to it's original Japanese form.

River City Ransom is one of those games that will make you laugh while playing it. From the hysterical beat downs to the dialog at the bottom of the screen you'll be grinning ear to ear. There's nothing like continually whipping somebody with a chain while they lie helpless on the ground. Or picking them up and throwing them into their friends. Or knocking someone silly by throwing a trash can or tire at their head.

Overall this is a great remake of an already great game. It's even better because it's for the GBA which makes it portable. Now you can barf no matter where you're at.

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