River City: Rival Showdown gives me ’90s retro action I love and ’90s gaming frustration I hate

SHOULD I PLAY RIVER CITY: RIVAL SHOWDOWN?

Give this one a go if you’re a fan of the River City Ransom series, beat ’em ups, or old-school games in general. River City: Rival Showdown is a remaster of the remake of River City Ransom, which was first released for the Famicom in 1989. That lineage might sound confusing, but Rival Showdown offers a great mix of new and classic elements: updated backgrounds, a day/night cycle, an open world to explore, beat ’em up adventure, and RPG elements that will get any fan of the original hooked. It’s not modernized enough to get rid of a lot of the more frustrating parts of classic games, though, so you’ll need a little bit of a masochistic streak to really fall in love with this one.

TIME PLAYED

I spent around four hours with River City: Rival Showdown on my PlayStation 5. Stepping into the role of Kunio, a high school student in a dangerous city, I spent most of my time getting my ass kicked by rival high school gangs. I also traveled across River City, listening to what townies had to say, gathering clues, solving items on my event calendar, and going to different parts of the city during the day, evening, and night.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT RIVER CITY: RIVAL SHOWDOWN?

• The glow-up. Compared with the original NES and 3DS versions, River City: Rival Showdown looks better than ever. The backgrounds look great, the maps are colorful, the fight animations are fun, and there’s even online multiplayer. I also appreciated the chiptune music that brought out the ’90s retro feel. I felt like I was transported back in time, and I enjoyed seeing a series from back in the day revisited in a way that both older and younger gamers can appreciate. River City: Rival Showdown doesn’t just feel rooted in nostalgia; it feels like it’s somehow preserving history.

• The unlockables and extras. River City: Rival Showdown is packed full of bonus content that adds to the charm and replay value. One of my favorites was Double Dragon Duel, a fighting game that’s all the rage in River City but also serves as its own playable side game. On top of the usual extra difficulty options, Rival Showdown even includes a sub-story that tells part of the main narrative from a different character perspective, sort of like a Claire A/Leon B scenario from Resident Evil 2. It’s clear that a lot of effort went into making this a full package.

• Multiple endings. The gameplay loop in River City: Rival Showdown happens over three days. Because of that, you’ll need to play through at least twice to speak with all the town folks that come out at different times and to see the game’s multiple endings—especially if you’re trying to achieve the good ending. I’m always a fan of games that encourage a second run.

• Building up Kunio. Kunio might be an adolescent slacker obsessed with defending school honor, but he also kicks ass. Or at least he can if you’re better at the game than I am! There were plenty of possible ways of building up the character, from new clothes, fighting moves, and weapons to an RPG-style stat system.

WHAT SUCKS IN RIVER CITY: RIVAL SHOWDOWN?

• The difficulty. River City: Rival Showdown is hard! As mentioned, I was beaten to a pulp a lot. Other than losing some time, there’s no hefty penalty for getting beat up, so I have to imagine the game’s developers expected players to die frequently. Nevertheless, I was frustrated that I couldn’t tell how strong a rival group was until they hit me. It felt like every time I approached a new enemy, I was just holding my breath, hoping I could dominate them, and that annoyance made me much less invested in the game.

• The grind. Some enemies that I could reliably defeat were the lower-tier, randomly generated bullies. Unfortunately, they gave so few experience points and coins that it took ages to grind out any sort of progress against them. If taking on these easier packs of foes was meant to be the key to leveling up, it wasn’t fun in the slightest.

• The endless wandering. To progress in River City: Rival Showdown, I basically went from location to location, speaking with random NPCs in hopes of finding a clue. Sometimes, heading to different areas triggered a cutscene that would move things forward, but there was no real guidance on what I should do next. This open-ended approach supports the game’s multiple endings. But combined with the overpowered enemies, it made for a frustrating gameplay loop of never knowing if I was going in the right direction.

💬 Will you play River City: Rival Showdown? And what is your favorite retro title? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!