Genre: Brawler
Developer: Technos Japan Corp
Publisher: American Technos Inc

The big-headed "Kunio-kun" games made quite the impression on the Famicom and PC Engine platforms, and are probably best known by this release: Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, or "River City Ransom" as the English-localized version is known. The backgrounds aren't as rich as those in the first two "Double Dragon" games, but the character designs benefit from the comedic shift in emphasis. The varied settings-- parks, bridges, and even creepy warehouses-- sometimes have chill-inducing "cool" factors.

The soundtrack isn't as compositionally or technically complicated as some of Technos' other releases, but it is extremely catchy and melodic-- alternatingly moody and dramatic, and goofy. The games sound effects do a good job of emphasizing especially the emergent aspects of the gameplay, like AI characters ricocheting items off of their own heads.

As perhaps the first genre fusion between brawler and RPG, River City Ransom involves grinding enemies via Double Dragon-like control mechanics, on a series of freely explorable, inter-connected stages. The money acquired from this grinding is then used by the player-- or players, in the case of two-player simultaneous co-op-- to purchase healing items, stat-increasing equipment, or unlockable new moves. The gameplay's strongest suit is its ludonarrative potential, which ceaselessly sees zany interactions between the players, enemies, and the throwable projectiles scattering the terrain.

Some consider River City Ransom to be, if not one of the best games of all time, at least one of the best NES titles, and it's easy to see why: its distinctive artwork, memorable soundtrack, nifty RPG-lite mechanics, ludonarratively-rich systems, and two player cooperative play make it stand out from the pack. Unfortunately, the pacing is a bit stop-stuttery in nature, making it one of those odd games that is good, but not satisfying. For note, a phenomenal CD-upgraded rendition of this game was released for the PC Engine, although it was never localized to English, making this NES version-- perhaps-- the definitive one for Western audiences.