Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics is the latest compilation from the storied history of Technos, famous for Double Dragon and Kunio-Kun (often localized as River City). But will this be an informative trip down memory lane, or a mix of mediocrity?
This compilation of retro titles consists of 12 games from the 16-bit era. You’ll find the following mix of titles from the Arcade and Super Nintendo platforms:
- River City Renegade
- Kunio’s Dodgeball Time, C’mon Guys!
- Downtown River City Baseball Story
- Kunio’s Oden
- SugoroQuest++ -DICENICS-
- DunQuest
- Super Dodge Ball
- XAIN’D SLEENA
- CHINA GATE
- SHADOW FORCE
- THE COMBATRIBES
- THE COMBATRIBES (Arcade)
A Collectors Collection
You may have spotted one oddity right away and that’s with The COMBATRIBES. In a rather cheeky move, Arc Sys Works (who are current owners of Technos) have decided to include both the Super Famicom and the Arcade version. Perhaps it’s for the purists, completionists, or those who had the home version and want to revisit it, but after playing both I felt the arcade release made the console port redundant unless you want the story mode.
Another curious standout is the fact we haven’t gotten a single Double Dragon game here. While I do know titles like Double Dragon II: The Revenge and Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone weren’t great in the arcades, I do think they would have helped balance this package out somewhat.
The final and quite unfortunate quirk with this collection is that two of the titles are only in Japanese. There are some genres where the language barrier isn’t so important and I’ve even covered shmups like this before such as DoDonpachi SaiDaiJou. Sadly, the Japanese-only titles in Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics are DunQuest (an action RPG) and SugoroQuest++ (a board game). As such, I had zero idea what was going on in the story or what the instructions were saying. As such, I’ve omitted them from this review as I don’t feel I can fairly review them and most players wouldn’t get much out of playing them.
Minus the two Japanese exclusive games, each game includes both the English and Japanese releases. There aren’t too many differences between them aside from language.
Lets Talk Extras
In terms of extras and emulation in Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics, four Save State slots are included, making the games easier if you choose to use them. Most of the arcade games also allow you to brute force the game with continues, aside from Super Dodge Ball for some reason.
All the games are playable online in theory. Unfortunately, even post-release, I have yet to find anyone playing it online. That aside, there is an online profile system, but that is all in terms of extras. There’s no glorious gallery for unlocks or a jukebox system.
River City Renegade (Super Nintendo)
River City Renegade/Shondai Nekketsu Koha Kunio-Kun has received its official English translation in this package years after its “sequel” received one under the name River City Girls Zero. If you have played that title, you’ll no doubt notice a lot of similarities between the games both in gameplay and in how they share a realistic and gritty tone in the visual style.
I’ll be honest, SNES/Super Famicom-era River City games really don’t do it for me. I’ve played this previously and covered the re-release of River City Girls Zero, and while this game is better, it still has some of the same issues that plagued that game.
Kunio is on a school trip in Osaka when he comes across his old friend Hiroshi and by chance, Riki is also in Osaka on a school trip. The dynamic duo of Kunio and Riki start to tear a path through Osaka due to Hiroshi getting put in hospital by one of the warring Osaka clans. It’s a standard River City story that does the job and includes plenty of cameos from the wider cast of the series.
The game is more of a traditional “River City” experience with an open world and people to interact with. Also for the first time in the series, it includes a day and night cycle, changing who is about and what events will trigger. This is something that would go on to be included in some of the bigger River City titles.
The combat in River City Renegade is the slowest of all the River City titles I’ve played, both newer and older than this one. Again, it shares a lot in common with River City Girls Zero, though with slightly more options due to the more open nature of the game.
Kunio’s Dodgeball Time, C’mon Guys! (Super Nintendo)
Frankly, I had a terrible time with this one. From the second you load it up, you’re bombarded with menus. It has a lethal combination of an unintuitive user interface and a control scheme that causes you to spend far too long before you actually get into the nitty-gritty of the game. Sadly, this is something that plagues a lot of the River City sports titles, but here it was to the point that it just felt like wading through mud.
Visually, when the game gets beyond black screens abusing you with words and numbers, it retains the chibi visual style and looks quite nice. Unfortunately, the mud creeps back in, and the game runs at quite a horrid frame rate. Back on its original release, I can’t see this being as much of a problem, but here on modern hardware, it’s a tough one to bear.
If you want to play a dodgeball game, there are plenty of better options, including Super Dodge Ball in this very collection.
Downtown River City Baseball Story! (Super Nintendo)
Ok, so baseball is completely alien to me as a Brit, but I did find something about this game oddly endearing. It’s certainly going to be one I head back to again when I actually learn the rules and terms of baseball.
While I was met with menus like in Kunio’s Dodgeball Time, C’mon Guys!, I got through them quite quickly. I was then very pleasantly surprised to find out there is an entire story mode here involving Kunio and friends trying to break into the world of baseball, with that old River City spin of allowing you to fight with other players on the field.
Visually, it’s a very nice-looking game. There are different camera angles for when the ball is hit and switching between bases, which works well to show the action. It also runs at a frame rate that doesn’t feel like walking through a poison swamp while over-encumbered, which was a concern after Kunio’s Dodgeball Time.
I can’t say I understood enough of what was going on due to a lack of baseball knowledge, but it made me want to sit down and learn. It was fun and looked great so who knows, Kunio might just make a baseball fan out of me with this one as I take the Nekketsu High School team through the ranks.
Kunio’s Oden (Super Nintendo)
Kunio’s Oden is a tile-matching puzzle game in the vein of titles like Tetris, Puyo Puyo, or Columns. Visually though it reminds me of Puyo Puyo and, oddly enough, Yoshi’s Cookie.
There is a small amount of story here which basically boils down to the River City gang having an impromptu eating contest. As any Kunio-kun fan knows, he doesn’t do losing, so you have to match the ingredients of food together so he can eat the most and prove his stomach is made of the same iron as his fists.
It’s a fine game, but not one that stands out. This just feels a little too much like a generic puzzle game with Kunio wallpaper covering the cracks. If you do happen to like Kunio and puzzle games, there is fun to be had here, but it’s hardly a collection seller in my opinion.
The COMBATRIBES (Arcade & Super Nintendo)
Our first non-Kunio title of the package, and I’m going to do this as a two-for-one due to it being the same game with two versions. This one is a single-screen beat ‘em up with plenty of moves and plenty of skulls to crack, but lacking any set pieces or sense of adventure or quest. It feels reminiscent of the 1986 title Renegade (known in Japan as Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun).
The version that looks and plays better is the arcade version, which does look very nice. The Super Nintendo version includes a story that wasn’t present in the arcade version though.
It’s a fun little beat ‘em up, but the era of the single screen died quickly once titles like Technos Double Dragon and Capcom’s Final Fight came around. Sadly, no amount of fun combat can detract from the fact this game feels slightly lacking compared to River City Renegade or Shadow Force. It’s a fun curiosity, but it won’t hold your attention for too long.
Super Dodge Ball (Arcade)
Super Dodge Ball makes up for the issues that Kunio’s Dodgeball Time, C’mon Guys! presented to the point of feeling like an apology for it. While I was concerned when I first started this game, my fears were alleviated in a matter of seconds when I was already picking a team and ready to take on the world in the best-looking game in the collection.
Luckily, this game forgoes having team management screens and various gameplay modes. Instead, it just leans on that quick pick up and play arcade-style gameplay and this is exactly what I wanted. It’s snappy and to the point, quickly getting me to the over-the-top combat Dodgeball action.
Super Dodge Ball is a gorgeous-looking game with a solid frame rate. It’s easy to pick up and play, has responsive controls, and even has special moves activated with fighting game-style inputs. Heck, you can even change your team by recruiting other members from teams you beat. It is worth mentioning again that it does have an arcade level of difficulty that can’t be brute forced with continues unlike the other games in this collection though.
XAIN’D SLEENA (Arcade)
I had high hopes for this one. It’s a run-and-gun style game by the people behind Double Dragon and it sounded like it should have been a home run based on that. Instead what I was met with was the most run-of-the-mill run-and-gun with passable graphics, stiff controls, and no real hook.
As seems to be a theme in this collection, it didn’t do anything to keep me wanting to play the game. It just didn’t do much out of the ordinary.
The game does have shmup sections for those who love a little genre crossover. It’s a passable shmup section, but I really would have loved the developers to lean further into one genre for a special game, rather than having very average gameplay for multiple genres.
China Gate (Arcade)
China Gate is a very early beat ‘em up based on Journey to the West. Choose from one of three characters and try to climb the tower, fighting off various demons and other nasties until you trigger the boss fight, take that down, and it’s onto the next section of the tower.
This would be a fun combo of Bubble Bobble and beat ‘em ups if the game wasn’t as hard as bricks. Yes, you can brute force the game with continues to help you see the later sections of the tower, but protagonist Gocco has his work cut out for him with the heavy enemy count, and the bosses that will enjoy nothing more than eating away at your lives by throwing you off the tower and ignoring your attacks.
China Gate is another curious title and a glimpse into the history of Technos. It’s not amazing, but it’s worth it to see them trying many different ideas with the genre they put on the map.
Shadow Force (Arcade)
The final title of the collection I’m going to talk about is another beat ‘em up. Whereas China Gate was a little curiosity, Shadow Force is its wacky big brother. It’s where we see Technos trying to change the genre, coming out years after the Double Dragon series had reinvented the wheel they pioneered with Renegade.
Shadow Force has 4 different playable characters and is much darker than previous releases. Even THE COMBATRIBES seems light-hearted compared to this rather edgy, more modern-looking title with some fantastic looking sprites on show.
The main hook is what overcomplicates Shadow Force, but also what separates it from every other game in the genre. In the game, you can mimic any enemy and unlock their attacks along with a special attack that is performed using various fighting game inputs. I found myself trying to mimic every character just to see what they did, but I feel the way to truly master it is to mimic the “right” enemy for the situation. That said, with the sheer amount of enemies to fight, that could be quite a tall order.
Again, the game is tough as nails, but fortunately, you can throw digital credits into it; this would be an absolutely chaotic and fun time in multiplayer if you could find anyone online. It’s certainly one of the more unique titles of a genre that is often seen as phoned-in and repetitive.
Verdict
Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics is the victim of having an unbalanced game selection. There are the two standout titles of River City Renegade and Super Dodgeball which are fantastic, but I wouldn’t say those two alone are worth the asking price. The rest of the games are more curiosities rather than must-plays, though I am still excited to play more baseball.
Sadly, Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics is the weakest of the collections from Arc System Works for the Technos titles. There is fun to be had here, especially if you can grab someone locally or convince a friend to pick the game up to play online, but otherwise, it may be worth looking into some of the other re-releases that have come out over the last few years.
WAIT FOR SALE ON SUPER TECHNOS WORLD: RIVER CITY & TECHNOS ARCADE CLASSICS
If you are looking for another beat ’em up title, check out our review of Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons.
Thanks to Arc System Works for providing a Nintendo Switch review code for Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics.
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