It’s Time to Barf Back Into River City with Tokyo Rumble
For those who enjoyed River City Ransom and other titles in the entire Kunio-kun franchise, it’s been a rough last few years. That is, if you’re aware of the plethora of games that have been released in Japan by Arc System Works and Miracle Kidz, but nowhere else. For a time, Aksys Games was reliably handling localizations of the titles, but they decided to leave the franchise behind after it left the Nintendo DS. It appears sales for each title started slipping, and Aksys didn’t feel there was a big enough audience on 3DS to make up for that shortfall.
Not to say it was all bad during those aforementioned drearier years. There’s River City Ransom: Underground, an officially licensed title coming from Conatus Creative which was crowdfunded around two-and-a-half years ago. It’s due for release sometime during the second quarter of this year on Steam, meaning it should be available before the end of June. There was also River City Super Sports Challenge ~All Stars Special~, an enhanced version of the original DS tittle localized by Aksys, which released for PS4 and PC at the end of 2015 from H2 Interactive. But it was nonetheless difficult to observe all the 3DS games Japan received in the last few years (nearly seven of them) that didn’t make the trip over.
So it’s nice that someone’s looking to change that, and it’s…Natsume? When the company clearly teased a game in the series on Twitter, the initial conclusion was that they were handling publishing duties for the aforementioned Underground, since small games can always use more advertising venues. But it was actually for River City: Tokyo Rumble for 3DS, a localization of 2013’s Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun SP: Rantou Kyousoukyoku. This marks the first time they’re handling the localization of a title in this series.
Like previous brawlers in the franchise’s history, Tokyo Rumble will give players the option to play as multiple characters, including Kunio himself and reliable friend Riki. Together, they’ll stop trouble in the form of a rival and vicious gang that’s threatened to take over the streets of Tokyo, which will lead to a, well, Tokyo rumble. Like any brawler worth its salt, the game’s characters are capable of basic physical attacks like punching and kicking, and can use multiple objects and weapons to fight enemies. You’ll also have the option of venturing through the streets with other players, albeit only through local multiplayer and download play.
Given how difficult it will be to find another player who owns the game locally, it’s a real shame this won’t have online play. It’s slightly surprising considering this game was handled by Arc System Works, who’s released multiple fighting games which play well online. Perhaps they didn’t feel it would sell enough to be worth it, and sadly, they’re probably not wrong.
But Tokyo Rumble isn’t all about the fighting, as its characters also have the option of participating in various side activities. It inherits RPG elements established in its predecessors, along with its nonlinear progression. Restaurants will be open for players to chill in, for instance, and they can take on jobs to get more cash to purchase items and equipment. They can also participate in dodgeball games, though this title only provides a small mini game instead of inheriting everything from the separately-released Kunio dodgeball games. Having RPG elements in a brawler is nothing special for the few games released in the genre these days, but it’s nice to see how the franchise’s spirit has been preserved over a few decades.
As good as this news is, though, you’ll find some who are understandably a little disappointed. They’re part of a group that was hoping this localization would be for River City Ransom SP, the franchise’s 30th anniversary installment which is will release in Japan on April 28th — this Thursday. SP is a remake of the original NES/Famicom River City Ransom title, which has been expanded with new event scenes, characters, locations, and special techniques. Perhaps if this one does well, Natsume (or someone else) will bring that title over; but perhaps it would have been better if they localized a title that’s closest to the RCR people knew and enjoyed during the NES days.
Another concern here is Natsume’s potential localization efforts, which can sometimes be below par compared to offerings from other companies nowadays. Sure, they’ll occasionally release one bereft of errors, but too many of other titles release with grammatical errors, including sentence structure issues and typos. If they’re not dedicating many resources to polishing the localization (the few they have, admittedly), perhaps it could be subpar for nostalgia’s sake — however unintentional. But hopefully they are.
Natsume plans on releasing Tokyo Rumble sometime this summer, though before that, it will be playable at their booth at E3 2016 in mid-June. If Aksys couldn’t get some of the last few installments to sell, Natsume’s will need some good luck in marketing this, and getting potential purchasers to pick it up. Here’s hoping it does well for them, because they (and franchise fans) could use a break.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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I will forever associate RCR with Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster thanks to evilzug and Newgrounds. I guess I will now need to add the brawler to my 3DS collection, then pick up this sequel when it arrives, and, finally, watch “Work It! – Olskoo NES” again on Newgrounds. Actually, I might do that now, then again after I buy Toyko Rumble… unless the showing at E3 turns out to be unimpressive.
Thanks for the heads up on this.
Sure thing! I’ll try to make another post about this come E3 time.
I just looked out of nostalgia, and RPGamer still has the walkthrough I wrote for the NES game about 17 years ago.
I didn’t remember that RPGamer was that old until you mentioned it, but I did read a lot of info about Final Fantasy VII there before it released. Damn, that was nearly 20 years ago!?
I have to read that guide, by the way.
And the Unofficial Squaresoft Homepage is even older still.
Between those two sites, I’m trying to remember which site spoiled me on Aeris kicking the bucket.
You just asked yourself a trick question. RPGamer was a rebranding of the Unofficial Squaresoft Homepage.
It had to sacrifice its Rad Racer coverage to make the transition, though.
Oh no, I played myself. 🙁 And I remember discussing that with a high school friend too.
It probably wasn’t RPGamer that spoiled me, thinking about it. I went around to all sorts of places looking for FFVII info, because I didn’t know how to “internet” yet. Ah, the good ol’ days.