River City Girls

My first hour with River City Girls had me worried. The opening combat is slow, your moveset is thin, and the game offers almost no context for why punching a zombie cheerleader with a fish is the correct response to a kidnapping. Stick past that awkward start, though, and something genuinely fun opens up. This is a beat-em-up with RPG bones, and once the progression system kicks in, the two leads - Misako and Kyoko - transform from "button-mash-and-hope" fighters into satisfying brawlers with distinct identities. Misako leans into heavy, fist-forward combos and uses her backpack as a blunt instrument; Kyoko plays lighter and faster. Both characters unlock new moves by leveling up or spending money at the Dojo, and the ability complexity rises in a way that actually rewards you for grinding: juggles, wall-bounds, combo enders, and a recruit mechanic that lets you call in defeated enemies for assist attacks. On paper that sounds like a lot. In practice, each ability is mapped to a direction plus a single button, keeping the ceiling reachable without making the floor boring. The presentation is where WayForward and Arc System Works clearly spent most of their care. The pixel art is lush, detailed, and exquisitely animated - each screen is worth a pause. Conversations pull up anime-style character portraits, and boss introductions get short animated sequences with real personality. The synthpop soundtrack from Megan McDuffee and boss music from Chipzel is the kind of thing that lodges in your head after the session ends. Production quality here punches well above the budget tier this kind of game usually occupies. The RPG layer has real friction, though, and not always the fun kind. Dying costs you money, and money pays for new moves at the Dojo, so a rough boss attempt can set your build back in a way that feels arbitrary rather than instructive. Boss encounters themselves are mostly inventive - each one has a distinct gimmick and personality - but a couple are genuinely cheap, and the multi-segment cutscenes that play before each rematch (with separate loading screens between each clip) are a patience tax that the rest of the game does not deserve. Button mapping is also absent, which causes real problems when a single button handles light attacks, item pickups, and room transitions simultaneously. Accidentally clearing a room you just fought through because you were near a door is a recurring low-grade annoyance. Solo play is functional and the game handles XP distribution so your unused character does not fall behind in levels. But River City Girls was clearly designed with a second player on the couch. The co-op mode is where the recruit system, the crowd control juggling, and the comedy of the script all land hardest. Plan accordingly. The full run clocks in around ten to twelve hours for a first playthrough, with New Game Plus and two bonus unlockable characters (Kunio and Riki) waiting for completionists. The ending is abrupt enough to feel unfinished, and the early-game grind will push away anyone who needs instant gratification. But if you can tolerate a slow first act, what you get is a brawler that earns its momentum properly. Alex, Scout Team