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Platform: Game Boy Advance Genre: Action / RPG Publisher: Atlus Developer: Atlus ETA: Q4 2003
Related Links: Classic: River City Ransom (NES)
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River City Ransom EX * No screens were available at press time
River City Ransom (see Related Links) appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System a long, long time ago but it still has a cult following. What’s the big deal? Well, if you want to look at it critically and objectively, River City Ransom (RCR) has had a lasting impact on gaming – in fact, games like Shenmue owe their existence to RCR’s mix of exploration, side-scrolling fighting and role-playing elements. And after many years, it’s time to go back to River City, this time on Gameboy Advance. Here’s the official word: Panic strikes River City! “To the citizens of River City: I hold your high school captive! With my gangs of students and vicious bosses roaming the streets, nobody can stop me now! Meet my demands – or else!” Slick, the meanest, most powerful gang lord in River City, has issued this ultimatum – and the entire town is powerless in a grip of fear! Fortunately, Alex and Ryan weren’t in school the day Slick took over. But now, their fellow students are prisoners – including Ryan’s girlfriend! It’s up to our two young heroes to battle their way past several dangerous city gangs, then defeat the gang lord to free the students of River City High and restore peace to the panic-stricken populace! “With it’s unique character building system and customization, River City Ransom EX truly is the RPG of side-scrolling fighting games,” said Akibo Shieh, Project Lead, Atlus USA. “We are bringing to life a videogame classic to the Game Boy Advance and we look forward to developing other titles based on this awesome franchise.” Features: Two different game modes: Story Mode (story-driven, one or two-player cooperative mode); two-player Battle Mode (Take your customized character against another player). Buy items to increase your stats and learn powerful techniques. Dynamic story mode allows events to take place as you progress through the game, allowing you to gather clues, make or break friendships, earn items/techniques, and much more! Special link mode allows you to use one Game Boy Advance for actual gameplay and another to display the status screen and watch how your NPCs are doing. Depending on things you do when playing the story mode, or how your friend plays against you in Battle Mode, you can save the gameplay style and create a computer-controlled AI character. By exchanging data, you can fight against another player’s custom AI character. Customize the game any way you want! Change your character status, techniques, background music. Save your customized data and exchange it with another person.
Two words: YEE-HA! A straight resurrection of RCR would be fine and dandy but with all the EXtra features this could be one of the best handheld titles ever! Okay, I’m going overboard but you get my drift. I really like the fact that Atlus is going to allow data swapping and two-player action. Couple that with the possibility of more titles based on the RCR mythos, we might finally start to see what the GBA is capable of. Just imagine being able to bring your fighter from one game to the next…. That’s speculation, but the possibilities have me interested. River City Ransom EX will be jump-kicking and buying roast duck on Game Boy Advance (hopefully) Q4 2003. - Omni (June 29, 2003) |
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