Not to mention, characters' idle animations have more enthusiasm, as clothes sway, and mouths and eyes bounce around with personality. Also, as enemies make goofy facial expressions when hit, there's a very subtle, extra bit of emotion injected into their pain. And the artists really went to work on a mini-golf course, with a huge, mouth-chomping skull and a lake octopus as scenery.
Brick walls are decorated with elaborate graffiti art, there's a dinosaur water fountain, and you can clearly see drivers having vivid conversations during an intersection beat down. Familiar locations make appearances, but between them are an excess of new backdrops, all sporting detailed sprite work while maintaining the original's 2D, super deformed style. Present day River City of "19XX" is a much bigger area to navigate this time around, as you'll see more than brief displays of alleyways and construction sites. Along the way, older renditions of Alex and Ryan eventually lend a helping hand, as well as other new characters that can be switched whenever a save hideout is reached. And staying true to its roots, Underground requires your brawlers to become stronger and agile with a combination of beating people for experience, taking their coins to buy stat-boosting items, or purchasing special attacks for quicker, harsher take downs. Years and years after the events of the NES game's school hostage situation, you now take command of four new students as they have to pummel their way through waves of gangs due to a misunderstanding.
Why such an interest in a fan project? Well, at a glance, it doesn't seem like a typical Kunio-kun brawler the series is known for, and the more details you hear about the game, the more it comes off like a legitimate, labored product.Ĭanonically, Underground takes place after the English version of River City Ransom, where players controlled Alex and Ryan, the Western interpretations of Kunio and Riki. To everyone's surprise, the game then became an official, licensed product during the course of its development, with said creator even becoming a creative consultant.
Starting life as a fan made tribute to River City Ransom, the humorous NES beat 'em up with free roam and RPG elements, Underground caught the eye of series creator, Yoshihisa Kishimoto. River City Ransom: Underground (PC) review