River City Girls Zero

Kunio-kun fans have been blessed recently with many ports and sequels to the classic beat 'em up franchise and here's yet another one.

You've heard of River City Ransom, River City Tokyo Rumble, River City Girls... the list goes on and on. Now you have the chance to go back to one of the earlie

WayForward take us back with River City Girls Zero, offering up a piece of history as a new block in their own franchise.

Released back in 2019, River City Girls was a much needed breath of fresh air for the Kunio-kun/ River City Ransom franchise, being a looser, more complex, yet more accessible entry in a franchise known for being story-heavy, slow-paced and very limited in terms of combat options. The announcement of a prequel of sorts, River City Girls Zero, was met with a ton of anticipation from everyone, yours truly included, but sadly, I should have read the fine print with this one. River City Girls Zer...

Released at a budget price, River City Girls Zero will undoubtedly find an audience. And retro fans are likely to lap it up, savouring its old-fashioned gameplay. Those who have spent the last few years playing fantastic modern beat ’em ups such as River City Girls and Streets of Rage 4, however, should probably view this as a curio and nothing more. It’s nice that it’s finally available in the west, but its gameplay is definitely showing its age.

It’s a good base game to build a series out of but I just wish they would have done something about the actual fighting controls during the port.