Often overlooked & forgotten, River City Ransom is one of the best on NES.
River City Ransom was released in 1990 in North America by Technos, after enjoying a very prolific and popular run in Japan under the name Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, which was part of a series of games titled Kunio-kun. The story begins when Slick, the game's protagonist and powerful ganglord of River City, takes over the high school and unleashes his evil gangs to take control of the fear-stricken streets... all the while capturing Ryan's girlfriend in the process! Luckily for everybody (and you), Alex & Ryan didn't attend school the day it was taken over and now it's up to them (and you) to kick Slick's butt, get the girl and live happily ever after.
RCR may seem like any other beat 'em up when you first lay your eyes on it... but what set this game apart from all of the others was that it included a certain RPG element. Not only did you beat up gang members while going from point A to point B, you could also stop in different shops and restaurants to buy different sorts of food to power up your different abilities, by paying for them with money dropped by the gang members when you beat them up. For example, you could go into the expensive Sushi Bar and buy a Swordfish, which would cost you $28.75, and add 4 points to your Punch, Throwing & Stamina, while maxing out your health bar. The abilities were as follows: Kick, Punch, Throwing, Agility, Defense, Will Power, Stamina & Max Power. You could also buy books at the Book Store to learn special techniques such as Stone Hands & Dragon Feet, which made you punch and kick faster, and the infamous Acro Circus, which was a running somersault combined with a jump kick. This really gave a tremendous depth to the game and made it revolutionary for it's time.
The gameplay was tremendous fun: the fighting was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I remember that you could grab your partner and hit the enemies with him! The story was very well written for a beat 'em up and was hilarious at times, especially when you stopped by a shop to purchase some items. Each time you faced a boss, he would give you a lecture on how he was superior to you in every way. Those lectures made me laugh each and every time.
The graphics were very funky looking. You could immediately recognize a gang by their outfits and look, whether it be the MOB with their sunglasses or the Cowboys with their spiked hair. The colors were very bright and the game looked fantastic back in 1990. The music used in the game was very catchy and entertaining.
The only bad thing I have to say about RCR is the passwords you had to enter at the beginning of every game... they were 66 characters long! Both upper and lower case letters and numbers were used in them. You always needed a pen and piece of paper handy to write those suckers down and that could become a pain, especially if you shut off your NES without taking them down. (Yes, it happened to me on several occasions)
All in all, River City Ransom is an extraordinary game that had me hooked for several weeks (if not months). I remember going through the game endlessly, trying to get enough money to buy everything the shops had to offer to boost up my character. No other game on the NES had me so captivated and hooked, and because of that, it deserves it's rightful place amongst the greatest NES games of all time.