SHODAI NEKKETSU KOUHA KUNIO-KUN
Original Release: Technos, 1992, SNES
Is it River City Ransom 2? Is it Renegade 2? I dunno if either series wants to claim it, as it really isn't very good
Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (SNES, Technos, 1992)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: SNES Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Technos did a slew of Kunio games in the 16-bit era, but never revisited River City Ransom or really even the basic formula of it. This game was probably the closest of the bunch, considered an unofficial River City Ransom 2 by some, but really it plays as much (or more) like a Renegade 2.
The one thing it has that isn't found in either of those games is stronger RPG elements. River City Ransom had a bit of this, but SNKK takes it much further with experience points/grinding, more stats, and equippables. You even start the game with no moves save a basic punch and jump, and have to learn all the other moves from gradual level-ups (including basic stuff like the jump kick)!
It's also more story-driven than River City Ransom, with a lot more dialogue and non-interactive cutscenes. The story this time out is that Kunio and a small posse of his River City boys take a trip to Osaka for some reason. Once there, they find themselves ambushed in the streets by aggro local students and eventually come across a plot by an evil Student Union to take over the city.
The game is also much slower than River City Ransom. Not just due to to the story (though that does contribute with a slow message speed), but just the overall feel and gameplay. This seems to have used a repurposed Super Double Dragon engine, which you may recall as having something of a lethargic pace. Well, same thing here, but design decisions also compound how slow everything moves along.
As you wander about the game world, pretty much everywhere but the one floor your gang's hotel rooms are on, you'll constantly be assailed by random punks. This happens A LOT. Like nearly every screen, sometimes two or three times before you can get the length of one screen. It's an absolutely tedious amount to chew through and it LITERALLY NEVER ENDS. And it's not like River City where you could just run off the screen, you're locked into fights once the computer initiates them.
These fights are also hobbled by some bad AI scripting, particularly when you're forced to have an "ally" fighting alongside you. The allies have the absolute worst scripting I've ever seen in a fighting game; they can both be hit by you and hit you back, and they're CONSTANTLY IN THE WAY, always either hovering uselessly near an enemy so that you can't attack without hitting them both, or running in while you're in the midst of fighting someone and messing things up by either slugging you or causing you to grab them accidentally.
But even when you don't have to drag an ally along, you often find by the time you get to an objective you've had so much health chipped off in random fights that you can't survive the big brawl / boss battle you need to clear. This could be interesting in a Dark Souls-ish sort of way, I guess, but the game never feels like it has stakes because getting beat down just sends you back to your hotel room with replenished health and no worse for wear in any way; there seems to be no actual way to get a "Game Over" in this one.
It feels primitive, even by SNES standards, and dumps a lot of the qualities that made River City so enjoyable (zippy pace, goofy humor, shops). It feels more like it was meant to be Renegade 2 but with random River City and RPG elements scattered in, though ultimately without much of a real sense of direction. Rather poor graphics and music as well.
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