History Videogame / RiverCityRansom

''River City Ransom'', released in Japan as ''Downtown [[HotBlooded Nekketsu]] Monogatari'' (part of the ''Franchise/KunioKun'' series, which also included the ''VideoGame/SuperDodgeBall'' series, ''[[VideoGame/CrashNTheBoys Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge]]'', and the original ''Renegade'') and in Europe as ''Street Gangs'', is a BeatEmUp with [[RPGElements elements]] of a RolePlayingGame. The story goes that Ryan's (Riki's) girlfriend gets kidnapped by River City High's top gang leader, Slick (Yamada), who also happens to be the arch-rival of Cross Town High's top punk, Alex (Kunio). So Alex and Ryan fight their way past gang territories and various malls to get to River City High, take down Slick, and rescue Ryan's girlfriend.

* AIBreaker: Walls that can be climbed. The computer is completely unable to jump on top of other platforms, and it becomes way less aggressive against a player walking on them. One easy way to handle many foes (even bosses!) is to climb up a wall, attack while jumping down, and get back onto the wall to repeat while your foe is down. If the wall is sufficiently short, Alex and Ryan can even hit their foe without jumping down, allowing the player to just stand up there and win. Kept from outright breaking the game by having several of the more challenging fights (including several Zombies as well most of River City High) lacking these convenient platforms. Fixed in the ''EX'' version, where the enemies have finally mastered the esoteric art of jumping.

* BonusBoss: Benny and Clyde are the only bosses the player are not required to defeat to access River City High School. Once inside, Tex can be skipped too, since only Otis and the Dragon Twins are needed to be defeated to access the final boss.

* BystanderSyndrome: Completely averted with Gary. He refuses to stand by and watch the streets become overrun by the gangs. Unless you recruited him at the very beginning he is ALREADY out there kicking ass on his own before he teams up with Alex.

* CombatPragmatist: Plenty of gang members (including bosses) will use whatever's available to pummel you. Kick boxes and cans into you? Throw you into a pit? Kick you while you're down? All things the computer can do - to be fair, [[TheJoysOfTorturingMooks those options are available to you, too]].

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Losing all your stamina simply results in you waking up a the nearest mall, minus a chunk of your money.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Applies to the Zombies, Generic Dudes and somewhat to Ivan in the GBA version. Subverted with Thor, who is more a NobleDemon.
** Ivan will fight on your side as long as you complete the side-quest, even if you don't allow team mates via option. When you hit the top floor, he's facing off with the Dragon Twins just as you show up and counts as a team mate -- although once they're defeated, he leaves.

** The Generic Dudes require Ryan to be absent because his school rivals theirs -- but then you have [[ZergRush the ENTIRE 20 PERSON GANG]] of the Generic Dudes following you around, 3 at a time. When defeated, they're gone for good -- except for their leader, Conan.
** It IS possible to get Thor to join you, but he has the steepest requirement of all the Zombies; namely, a reputation neighboring the game's cap and not having already another Zombie on your party.
* {{Determinator}}: In the original NES version, no matter how much an enemy whales on your limp, prone body (and the Dragon Twins will certainly do that) as long as you have at least 15 Willpower remaining, you will rise to your feet. Each get-up requires another 15 Willpower, but that's all you need in order to heal while in a position to defend yourself back into fighting shape.
** On Hard mode this also applies to the mook gang leader - always has the same face, and has 15 Willpower and will get up one more time no matter how much you beat him down.
** In the GBA version, Willpower is applied more like HeroicSpirit as if you run out of energy the game automatically converts your Willpower to your stamina as required. You're not done until you're out of Willpower. Applies to enemies too.
* DifficultyByRegion: The Famicom version has three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal and Hard. The Easy setting was removed in the NES version, while Normal and Hard were renamed Novice and Expert respectively. The NES version also removed the option to disable friendly fire in the 2-Player mode.

* EnemyChatter: Lots of it, such as "[=*BARF* =]!" (Or in the case of ''EX'''s Homeboys, "[[JiveTurkey Biz-ARF!]]")

* FourIsDeath: The Zombies (in the Japanese version, they're named The Four Heavenly Kings)
* FreudianExcuse: The reason for Slick kidnapping Alex's girlfriend and taking over the whole city? [[spoiler: He's actually Simon, Alex's childhood friend. He got tired of being seen as a weakling and second fiddle compared to Alex and wanted to prove he could kick his ass. Even after getting a beat down, he still swears revenge for next time they meet.]]

** If you didn't know what Reputation is in the remake and how to raise it, you wouldn't know you can actually recruit people. Even the recruit with the clearest requirements (Ivan) will refuse to join if your karma is low, even after clearing the Abby sidequest. Some are clear ViolationOfCommonSense; to have Ted even appear,[[spoiler: you'd have to fulfill the requirements to recruit Rex, ''turn him down'', then return and clear the street he was again]]. To recruit Jesse [[spoiler: beat up his friend Turk four times with ''bad'' reputation, then beat them both with ''good'' reputation.]]. And then there's the Tidus sidequest...

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: You can refuse to take on defeated enemies as your allies. But one notable boss is the Zombie Mojo. If you are in a position to recruit him he will actually show regret for his actions before asking to join. And then he sadly laments that he is stuck where he is if you refuse his offer.

** IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Again, implied. Ivan can't scramble to meet the Dragon Twins for payback fast enough once she hears from the player that his sister Abby managed to escape River City High School. When Abby meets the player in a sidequest, [[FaceOfAThug she suspects you're also "one of Ivan's weird friends" and immediately excuses herself and runs away.]]

* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: The final area is River City High -- Alex and Ryan enter the front gate, and they have to make it to the roof to confront Slick.

* KarmaMeter: In the remake. Not visible, but its there. It measures how cleanly you fight (i.e. your restraint from things like [[TalkToTheFist punching bosses before they finish their speech]] and [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown kicking people while they are on the ground]]), and it's used to get bosses to join you. With some hard work, you can raise it by doing noble things like beating up people fair and square, or just [[GoodBadBugs committing suicide and repeatedly running into a wall]].

* LighterAndSofter: This is quite possibly the least brutal BeatEmUp ever made: no one gets killed, none of your rivals are especially evil, most don't even work for the BigBad, and all of them -- yes, we said ''all'' -- go back to school and earn top honors after you beat the final boss. That said, it's still one of the most esteemed games in its genre, and deservedly so.

** Yamada, being the BigBad, gets a cinematic form of his telekinesis move, which allows him to hit his target instantly, and a powerful takedown grapple. His final boss form has two similar supers -- one where he does a weird gesture that hits all opponents in the direction he's facing, and another that acts like an extended, stupidly powerful version of his takedown attack, adding [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown rapid-fire stomps while standing on his downed opponent]] and ending with a kick for good measure.

* MoneySpider: Justified in part by only fighting human opponents - but isn't it strange how every member of a gang always has the same change in their pockets?

** [[AwesomeButImpractical That said, some of them are better than others in practice.]] One allows you to not so much jump as fly, which sounds cool and great for aerial attacks, but causes you to ascend really slowly, as much as you descend, and doesn't let you come back down again until you hit the apex of your jump, so it also means you take forever to land again. Then there's the item that makes you jump like a freak, which coupled with the item that lets you jump in midair, means spamming it makes it impossible to judge your landing trajectory and will eat up time sending you up way higher than you'd ever need to go. Using them in unison means playing around can get you stuck for quite some time trying to land again just to leave the screen you're on. Then there's the one that makes you teleport behind opponents before attacking them, in essence giving every special attack and normal attack the gimmick of the Nitro Port...except it can make it really easy to whiff moves you always timed normally before. [[SimpleYetAwesome The roller skates that launch your running speed to the moon to better land moving attacks, and the special item that lets you simply run in midair, on the other hand...]]

* PasswordSave: An odd system, since it only would keep track of your stats while the plot starts over from the beginning every time the game is turned on. A jacked up character however can easily walk through the plotline until the point he left off. They were also annoyingly long.

* PromotedToUnlockable: [[spoiler: Eventually ''everyone'', in the remake, thanks to the Custom Char item.]] As far as the plot is concerned, however, you are still Alex or Ryan regardless of what character save you have loaded.

* SayItWithHearts: Quite a bit in the remake, and parodied when you fight both Tex and Ivan together (Your {{karma meter}} must be at its lowest for this boss fight).

** There's also an odd sort of shout-out to "Crash n' the Boyz", where an optional team mate will basically tell Alex that "Crash and the Boyz are rooting for you"... despite the fact that Crash is just that game's version of Kunio.

* {{Unwinnable}}: While it isn't likely to happen accidentally, in multiplayer, if an Javelin Man equipped player throws the other to the right in the first Benny and Clyde fight, they fly off into infinity and the game can't proceed.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: If you fight Benny and Clyde the first time near the river, they'll come back later in the game next to the sauna for a rematch. However, they have the exact same stats as they did when they first appeared. If Alex or Ryan have a maxed out attack stat and the skill books that give that attack RapidFireFisticuffs (which is pretty easy at this point), the two will go down in one or two blows. Also possible if an early- or mid-game gang spawns near River City High - when you're regularly dealing with The Internationals or The Cowboys and suddenly The Mob or The Home Boys show up, it's a bit of a breather as you're suddenly facing off against a pack of nine enemies that's just as strong as when they were hanging out in their usual early-game locations.

* AntiVillain: Roxy supports Alex and Ryan, despite being Slick's girlfriend.

* BigBad: Slick.

* ChezRestaurant: Chez Walle's,
* CoDragons: Randy and Andy.

* {{Expy}}: Randy and Andy, the Dragon Twins, are based on Billy and Jimmy of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' fame, complete with their {{leitmotif}}. They even get Billy and Jimmy's shifty eyes from the NES version (¬_¬). In the GBA version, their hair colors were even changed to match Billy's and Jimmy's.

* KnightTemplarBigBrother: Ivan Popov in the GBA remake has a score to settle with the Dragon Twins for getting too close to his sister, Abby.

* PinataEnemy: The Entrees gangsters, which run for their lives at the mere sight of your character, but drop a whooping $7 each. For perspective, the end-game dominant gang, The Plague, yields $1.50 each. There's also [[TakeThatAudience The Gamers]] gang, which drop $1.60 per KO, but are far less rare and more willing to get their noses bloodied than the Entrees. Finally, given the [[VillainForgotToLevelGrind Villains Forgot To Level Grind]], Benny and Clyde's rematch ($3.50 each) is a very fast way to build up funds right before River City High.

* PoirotSpeak: Downplayed; one of Ivan the HuskyRusskie's lines is "You are strong enemy"--dropping articles before nouns is a common stereotype of English-speaking Russians.

* PunnyName: The Dragon Twins in Japanese are named Ryuuichi and Ryuuji. The names basically mean "Dragon One" and "Dragon Two."

* ReluctantWarrior: Ivan. The only reason he is in the conflict is to [[BigBrotherInstinct keep his sister safe]]. He would like nothing more than to just rest. But until then...

* TerrorHero: Blade will become a Type-V variety if he joins you. Recruit him and Moose and Rocko will run away every time you try to rematch against them for the rest of the game! To put this into perspective, Blade is the 1st zombie that you fight. Not even their leader Thor commands such respect in the game!

* WeaponOfChoice: Along with the names and colors, many gangs also have favored weapons they'll bring to the fight. In the GBA version, this is the only way to get certain weapons like the Eagles' double-length chains and the Entrees' buckets and ladders.

** IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Again, implied. Ivan can't scramble to meet the Dragon Twins for payback fast enough once she hears from the player that his sister Abby managed to escape River City High School. When Abby meets the player in a sidequest, [[HorrifyingHero she suspects you're also "one of Ivan's weird friends" and immediately excuses herself and runs away.]]

** IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Again, implied. Ivan can't scramble to meet the Dragon Twins for payback fast enough once she hears from the player that his sister Abby managed to escape River City High School.

*** Or smacking around [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Duo]] and {{Yaoi|Guys}}. From a gang called "The Plague", no less.

* SpiritualSequel: While ''River City Ransom'' will hopefully finally get an officially licensed sequel with ''River City Ransom Underground'', [[VideoGame/ScottPilgrim Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game]] paid so much homage to the original game that it could be considered a spiritual sequel.

* AIBreaker: Walls that can be climbed. The computer is completely unable to jump on top of other platforms, and it becomes way less aggressive against a player walking on them. One easy way to handle many foes (even bosses!) is to climb up a wall, attack while jumping down, and get back onto the wall to repeat while your foe is down. If the wall is sufficiently short, Alex and Ryan can even hit their foe without jumping down, allowing the player to just stand up there and win. Kept from outright breaking the game by having several of the more challenging fights (including most of the Zombies as well most of River City High) lacking these convenient platforms.

%%* BatterUp

%%* HelloInsertNameHere

* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: The final area is River City High - Alex and Ryan enter the front gate, and they have to make it to the roof to confront Slick.

* NoFairCheating: Very averted in EX. There is a hidden shop located [[spoiler:in a secret wall in the tunnel]] that offers a variety of powerful items at a high price. Some of these items do pretty cool stuff bordering on DebugMode like [[spoiler:creating a save file of any character in the game (including Slick!), rebinding your special moves' controls, and [[LegoGenetics merging two saves to make a character with the stats and special moves combined of both characters]]]]. Since these alter ''the save files themselves'' instead of the current character, you can just load a save, get the item, use it (even on the same save), and reload to get your money back. And said shop also happens to sell a cheap lottery ticket that is very easy to [[SaveScumming save-scum]].

* SayItWithHearts: Quite a bit in the remake, and parodied when you fight both Tex and Ivan together (Your {{karma meter}} must be at it's lowest for this boss fight).

* GuideDangIt: If you didn't know what Reputation is in the remake and how to raise it, you wouldn't know you can actually recruit people. Even the recruit with the clearest requirements (Ivan) will refuse to join if your karma is low, even after clearing the Abby sidequest. Some are clear ViolationOfCommonSense; to have Ted even appear,[[spoiler: you'd have to fulfill the requirements to recruit Rex, ''turn him down'', then return and clear the street he was again]]. To recruit Jesse [[spoiler: beat up his friend Turk four times with ''bad'' reputation, then beat them both with ''good'' reputation.]]. And then there's the Tidus sidequest...
* GreaserDelinquents: The American version changed the JapaneseDelinquents to Greasers from TheFifties

* NeverSayDie: Everyone always faints when they fall down with no more health and willpower.

** Every item (other than books that teach you new techniques) raises your stats. Yes, this includes [=CDs=], books, toys...You can only use them once. The game doesn't specify that your characters are eating these things, but considering the above points, you can't put it past them.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: If you fight Benny and Clyde the first time near the river, they'll come back later in the game next to the sauna for a rematch. However, they have the exact same stats as they did when they first appeared. If Alex or Ryan have a maxed out attack stat and the skill books that give that attack RapidFireFisticuffs (which is pretty easy at this point), the two will go down in one or two blows.

A new officially licensed sequel named ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansomUnderground'' was developed by the Canadian indie developer Conatus Creative. The project reached its [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/combitstudios/river-city-ransom-underground funding]] through {{Kickstarter}}. The game was delayed many times, but finally released on February 27, 2017 on Steam.

* BatterUp

* ChezRestaurant: Chez Walle's

* HelloInsertNameHere

* NoExportForYou: Despite the cult following of ''River City Ransom'', none of the later Kunio games were localized with the exception of ''Nintendo World Cup'' and ''Street Challenge''. An attempt to bring several ''Kunio'' games under the ''Crash 'n the Boys'' banner was made, but only the aforementioned ''Street Challenge'' (''Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku!'') was released and plans to release ''Ice Challenge'' (a localization of ''Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu'') was canceled. This includes ''Downtown Special'', which plays the same, but takes place in historical Japan and is less linear.

* PaletteSwap[=/=]OnlySixFaces[=/=]CastOfSnowflakes: Simultaneously! The first is the most prominent, as all the guys have the same basic body, differentiated only by the color of their shirts. Secondly, all the gangs share the same nine faces; fight all nine members of a gang and you'll always see a Glasses Guy, a Sunglasses Guy, a Big Forehead Guy, a Scruffy Haired Guy, etc. in each of the gangs. Finally, all of the boss characters have unique faces that sometimes resemble but are notably different from the nine generic gang faces.

Another remake, ''Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari SP'', was released in Japan in 2016 as part of the franchise's 30th anniversary celebration. [[http://youtu.be/cGRgnc-JWNk These]] [[http://youtu.be/gP4jNATFekI trailers]] pretty much tell it like it is. Time will tell if it will see an English localization. That same year ''River City Tokyo Rumble'' saw a release in America.

A remake, ''River City Ransom EX'', came out in 2004 for the GameBoyAdvance, which added more moves, more gangs, more weapons, more characters (some of them from later ''Downtown Nekketsu'' games), and the option to have up to three allies fighting alongside you. However, it lacked a proper 2-player co-op mode and while the English version featured an Americanized script like its NES counterpart, the characters were still drawn with their Japanese school uniforms.

* TrueCompanions: A feature added to the GameBoyAdvance version, defeated bosses could follow you around and fight on your side. Most of the time it required a high reputation (an invisible stat the game keeps track) but sometimes it required talking to certain characters or choosing not to play with both Alex and Ryan. The best examples are the Zombies and the Generic Dudes, because none of them really wanted to work for Slick or Thor.

* BossBanter: Though in text rather than spoken dialog, the bosses all had a lot to say during their fights.

* CoDragons / DualBoss: Randy and Andy.

* CoDragons: Randy and Andy.

* [[WalkingTheEarth Walking the Streets of River City]]: Ted, who is a martial artist [[ToBeAMaster looking to hone his skills]] by fighing the gang members. This is his sole reason for offering to join if you find him.

A new officially licensed sequel named ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansomUnderground'' is being developed by the Canadian indie developer Conatus Creative. The project reached its [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/combitstudios/river-city-ransom-underground funding]] through {{Kickstarter}}. After many, many delays, the game finally has a release date: February 27, 2017.

Before ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansomUnderground'' was announced, the game actually had not one but TWO cancelled sequels. You could say that the sequel, not as a single game, but as a ''concept'', has been in a long DevelopmentHell.

* ArtificialStupidity: In ''EX'', you should set the "attack" menu option to "none", as it makes you immune to the attacks of your allies (not that the game ever explains what exactly this function does). Otherwise, the biggest threat to you on the battlefield may turn out to be [[WithFriendsLikeThese your supposed ally]].

* ArtificialStupidity: In ''EX'', you should set the "attack" menu option to "none", as it makes you immune to the attacks of your allies (not that the game ever explains what exactly this function does.) Otherwise, the biggest threat to you on the battlefield may turn out to be [[WithFriendsLikeThese your supposed ally]].

Another remake, ''Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari SP'', was released in Japan in 2016 as part of the franchise's 30th anniversary celebration. [[http://youtu.be/cGRgnc-JWNk These]] [[http://youtu.be/gP4jNATFekI trailers]] pretty much tell it like it is. Time will tell if it will see an English localization.

* Second sequel, ''Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari 2'', was announced in 2011 by Japanese developer Miracle Kidz. Miracle Kidz includes original Kunio-kun developers and it was supposed to be the official sequel. Sadly, this project was put on hold in 2012 and [[http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/10/river_city_ransom_2_on_hold_indefinitely it seems likely that the game is not going to be made.

* First one was a fan-sequel to ''River City Ransom'', planned for the GBA by an independent American developer called "Realize Games". The developer even managed to get rights to the trademark "''River City Ransom''". In 2003, the developer heard that a remake of the original game, ''River City Ransom EX'', was being developed, and the fan-sequel was cancelled out of respect for the original developers. [[http://www.lostlevels.org/200402/200402-rcr.shtml]]
* Second sequel, ''Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari 2'', was announced in 2011 by Japanese developer Miracle Kidz. Miracle Kidz includes original Kunio-kun developers and it was supposed to be the official sequel. Sadly, this project was put on hold in 2012 and it seems likely that the game is not going to be made.[[http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/10/river_city_ransom_2_on_hold_indefinitely]]

A new officially licensed sequel named ''River City Ransom: Underground'' is being developed by the Canadian indie developer Conatus Creative. The project reached its [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/combitstudios/river-city-ransom-underground funding]] through {{Kickstarter}}. It was slated for a 2015 release but is currently in DevelopmentHell.

''River City Ransom'', released in Japan as ''Downtown [[HotBlooded Nekketsu]] Monogatari'' (part of the ''Franchise/KunioKun'' series, which also included the ''SuperDodgeBall'' series, ''[[VideoGame/CrashNTheBoys Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge]]'', and the original ''Renegade'') and in Europe as ''Street Gangs'', is a BeatEmUp with [[RPGElements elements]] of a RolePlayingGame. The story goes that Ryan's (Riki's) girlfriend gets kidnapped by River City High's top gang leader, Slick (Yamada), who also happens to be the arch-rival of Cross Town High's top punk, Alex (Kunio). So Alex and Ryan fight their way past gang territories and various malls to get to River City High, take down Slick, and rescue Ryan's girlfriend.

* CounterAttack: ''Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari SP'' introduces the Nekketsu Counter, which allows Kunio to spend SP to escape enemy attacks while wreathed in flames, dealing some damage to nearby attackers.

* Played straight in the 3DS remake, as most pre-fight dialogue now occurs in cutscenes.