Ever since arcades began to decline, the future of their iconic beat-’em-up genre has become uncertain. Its sibling genre of fighting games had made the jump to consoles, but 3D game design trends had begun to pull away from what made brawlers resemble themselves. For a while, the genre was relegated to the rare nostalgic throwback, and classic franchises like Streets of Rage and Final Fight seemed to have retired. However, there has been a recent surge in beat-’em-ups from both the indie scene and larger publishers. Streets of Rage 4 is now a reality, something no one thought could happen for decades.
And in the background the whole time was a certain Japanese beat-’em-up/combat sports franchise, steadily releasing games almost every year. Kunio-kun, or River City as it’s typically known in the West, never stopped releasing budget titles using the series’ trademark art style and old-school gameplay. In 2019, publisher Arc System Works and developer WayForward brought the series back to relevancy in a big way with River City Girls, a game starring the old girlfriends of series protagonists Kunio and Riki. The adventures of Kyoko and Misako were a smash hit, and not only inspired a sequel but a re-release of the girls’ first playable appearance. However, this game, dubbed River City Girls Zero, is far from a typical translation and remaster.
How River City Girls Zero Differs From Its Original Release
Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka was a side-scrolling action game developed by Almanic and published by Technos Japan Corp. It was released exclusively in Japan for the Super Famicom in 1994, being the fourth game in the Kunio-kun franchise to appear on the system. That isn’t saying much considering that it’s preceded by over twenty Kunio-kun games, but it does mark the title as a refined version of the franchise’s typical formula. Gameplay and level design became fairly complex as the game progressed, and the visuals and story were both much more detailed and mature than in a regular Kunio-kun romp. Chronologically, Shin Nekketsu Koha takes place after the first-ever arcade Kunio-kun, but before the Famicom title that would become River City Ransom.
It’s fairly appropriate, then, that its localized title would be River City Girls Zero. Not only is this an acknowledgment of its place in relation to River City Girls, but also its place in the wider franchise timeline. However, River City Girls Zero is not a straight port and localization of Shin Nekketsu Koha. A new animated opening sequence and a new theme song by River City Girls composer Megan McDuffee have been added to Zero. There are also voiced manga-style cutscenes at the beginning and end of the game to tie Zero back into River City Girls proper. The new translation intends to align character personalities with their River City Girls selves, but unless an entire second English script is made, there are not expected to be any plot alterations.
River City Girls Zero’s Approach is Becoming More Popular
Despite all these additions, River City Girls Zero is still expected to be a totally faithful localization of Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka. The approach of adding new content without changing existing content is an interesting one and has been observed in a number of modern re-releases. Wild Guns: Reloaded and The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors are both modern re-releases of classic titles that add new playable characters and other touch-ups to create the definitive versions of each game. River City Girls Zero may not be going that far, but even its faithful script is going to be framed differently thanks to the new cutscenes.
This raises the discussion of how viable it is to treat unlocalized games as the focal points for new projects. Altering a game’s presentation to appeal to a modern audience with different knowledge is a viable marketing tactic, but a pure presentation has some merits. A major part of understanding history is trying to understand the original context of events, after all. Still, it’s good to preserve old games and give more people access to them, so a dressed-up re-release is preferable to nothing. While Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka’s old gameplay has been left as-is, beat-’em-up enthusiasts will still appreciate the chance to play this lost classic in English, and River City Girls fans will have something to chew on as they wait for River City Girls 2 to get a release date.
River City Girls Zero is in development for PS4, PS5, and Switch.