izigame.me

So far, this is a mostly enjoyable beat em' up romp with a few annoying issues here and there.
I'm liking the core combat and the general pacing of move unlocks. You unlock moves as you level up your character (from beating up enemies) and also from buying them with in-game money at the dojo. I'm playing this game just a few days after I returned Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Revenge because I was upset with the combat depth, and thankfully, I can report that there is a lot of meat on the bone here. You get your bread and butter combo, which you can enhance by buying more moves, along with character-specific strong and special attacks (strong attacks might be something like a roundhouse kick whereas specials are more akin to a Street Fighter hadouken or hurricane kick).
I bought the game with the Double Dragon DLC and I think that's enhancing my enjoyment quite a bit. Billy and Jimmy feel really nice. I just unlocked a clothesline and it feels pretty amazing to use it and just flatten enemies.
The core cast is okay too from what I've seen. Aesthetically, a lot of the designs seem made by and for weebs, which kinda sucks, but they are at least fun to play. In addition to the main roster there are a couple others you can unlock by beating them in the campaign. I just unlocked Marian, who is a boxer, and she's been fun to play since pretty much all her attacks are fist-based.
I have a few qualms with what I've experienced so far.
First off, every enemy in the game will do an invincible wakeup attack that puts you into an inescapable stun state. So, in most beat em' ups, you'll knock an enemy down and then either lift them off the ground to continue your combo or wait for them to stand back up as you mash jab. In this game, if you do the latter, you will get punched and comboed. From what I have seen so far, this means you have to back off and wait, or stand there and block, both of which hurt combat pacing. I think you can also do a neutral jump, but I am pretty sure you can just be anti-aired out of this.
There is a parry mechanic (done by tapping guard at the right time), but I haven't gotten it to work yet against this wakeup attack. Skill issue on my part? Who knows. I'm playing on the difficulty that's above normal but below the highest, and it's just annoying as hell to deal with. If devs ever patch the game again, they should either get rid of the invincible wakeups or widen the parry window against them.
There is a block button, but you can't turn left or right while using it. You are locked into place staring forward, and it feels stiff to let go and face the other direction. Characters seem to have an unlockable back attack (hold block + press attack), but this attack can whiff depending on spacing. So like, an enemy might walk up to your buttcheeks and then backpedal a couple feet and make you whiff. For this reason, having enemies on either side of you feels even worse than it feels in most other games of this genre, due purely to the mechanical stiffness that's built into the game.
Given this is a River City game, there's a widen open cityscape to run through. What's a bit annoying is that if you go into a shop to buy something and come back out, all the enemies respawn. Since there isn't a requirement to clear the mobs outside of specific missions/objectives, I usually will just run past all of them. This feels lame. I don't really know how I want to phrase this, but in a beat em' up, I want the combat to actually mean something. If I can just run past all the enemies, then the mobs are meaningless and may as well just not exist.
The music... I like Megan McDuffee's work. I actually followed her on instagram and watched her stuff on YouTube before she was ever involved in this game. Her songs here fit the overall theme and game, BUT they get played to absolute death. I think part of it is that the songs have vocals. Games in this genre benefit from catchy instrumental tracks. Too many vocals and you end up with the feeling of repetition.
The voiceovers are terrible and when you exit shops, you are FORCED to listen to whatever quip the shopkeeper says. This is super annoying and makes the developer's self-indulgence extremely clear. Probably, the devs were super proud of these quips and thought their writing was clever. But at the end of the day, it should always be the player's prerogative to skip this stuff. I'm hear to punch people, not engage in the "world-building" and story.
The story is mostly pretty whack and convoluted. You talk to multiple contrived NPC's... the emo boy, the jock, etc. It's all extremely cringe. Remember Double Dragon? Your girlfriend gets gut-punched and abducted. Go find her. Bad Dudes? The president is kidnapped, go find him. We do NOT need these elaborate setups and extraneous NPC's littering the play space. Give us more fundamental combat, smart upgrades, solid hit detection, etc. The shops are okay for the RPG elements. But too much effort is wasted on fleshing out the story and the world in a game like this, where it's unnecessary.
I still give the game as it stands a 7/10 for an altogether enjoyable combat loop outside of the issues I highlighted. Also, I should probably address the title of the game. It's called River City Girls, but there are a couple of male characters on the default roster and 2 more if you download the Double Dragon DLC. So don't be put off here.
The game could be an 8.5 for me if the combat issues were fixed, the shop outros were skippable, and the game was a bit more linear and consequential as opposed to a wander-fest padded out with unlikable NPC's.