Street Gangs / River City Ransom

Don't be fooled by the titles, these two games are one and the same.
River City Ransom (North American version and the name which I'll refer to this game by) and Street Gangs (as it's known over here in the UK), follow the story of guy called Alex and his friend Ryan, Alex's girlfriend Cyndi has been kidnapped by a guy who goes by the name Slick. In the prologue, you read Slick's letter to Alex, letting you know that he has pilfered his partner, So it's up to you (playing as either Alex or Ryan) to fight your way through several different gangs and their leaders in order to get to Slick and beat him to win Cyndi back.

This game plays very similarly to Double Dragon, another beat 'em up, and there's a reason for that too which I will cover in a future post.

River City Ransom, is essentially a beat 'em up (in which you can roam left, right, up and down)
with hints of RPG in it, what that means is to get stronger you have to build your stats up (an element that many dislike) but it's pretty simple in this game, when you enter one of the many stores in the game, you can either buy food to eat or items to equip, each item/food increases certain stats by certain amounts, so it's important to remember what boosts which. (or alternatively search up an online guide or FAQ)

As you enter each area, under the area it will usually say '_______'s turf!'
Many gangs are present in River City Ransom, you'll start off with easy ones like
'The Frat Guys' and 'The Generic Dude' and as you progress in the game the tougher ones will come out to challenge you. Members will wander onto the screen for you to beat up, their death (or KO) is indicated by dropping of a coin and a humorous phrase such as 'Mama!' and the famous 'BARF!' (above)
as you beat the gang members one by one, sometimes their leader will come out to fight you, an awesome, adrenaline pumped track will play when this happens.
The bosses are much harder than their lackeys so it's best to try and keep your distance and attack when you can, this is the only time where the phrase 'never kick a man when he's down' is nonsense.

Along the way, you'll find weapons to help kick ass and amazing powerups that are really worth saving up for, especially Stone Hands and Dragon Feet, which, when equipped, will allow you to do a turbo-powered triple punch or kick respectively, you'll wanna pick these up as early as you can.

The shops are located in between 3 or so areas that are ruled by gangs, they serve as a check point too so if you die at any point you'll be taken back to the last shop you visited which is really handy and relieving.

River City Ransom is such an enjoyable game with what I'd say is almost infinite replay value because it's a beat em up that can be picked up and played at any time, it has a variety of cool and funny features
(such as the option ask for a smile at a burger joint or Merlin's secret shop), you can play simultaneous two player and seriously, nothing is more satisfying than Triple-kicking a Gang member to the face.

-  Toku-R