Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom) - Complete Collection
This week I’m posting a special guest contribution from Akumu. It is a complete collection of River City Ransom soundtracks, spanning four video game systems. The following write up was provided by him as well.
(NES / PC Engine CD / X68000 / Game Boy Advance)
74 tracks, 1:57:36.
The Kunio series was one of the most popular and successful series on the NES and Famicom, with over 20 games released, and still to this day, new games being developed. In the west, these games aren’t known under the ‘Kunio’ label, but rather as individual games, localized with no connection between them. Most famous of these, and the one I’m focusing on this time, is River City Ransom.
My first exposure to the Kunio series was Nintendo World Cup, which in Japan is Nekketsu KouKou Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen. While the western release didn’t have any story related connections with Renegade or River City Ransom (although similar graphics can be noted), the Norwegian Nintendo Magazine actually had a small spot explaining the connection between the games in Japan, and since then I have been interested in the Kunio series.
River City Ransom (RCR) was originally released as Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (DNM), which translates as “Downtown Hot Blooded Story”. It was also released as Street Gangs here in Europe. The American version tells the story of Ryan and Alex receiving a letter from the gang leader Slick, saying he has taken Ryan’s girlfriend hostage and is waiting at River City High. On the way there, you have to fight numerous gangs, gang leaders, and a set of twins using the Double Dragon theme (hmmm…). By each enemy defeated, you get coins to buy food, books and clothes, all to improve your stats and movelist before taking Slick on himself. It is today remembered as one of the best beat ‘em ups and multiplayer games on the NES.
However that’s not exactly how it originally went. DNM follows the adventures of Kunio-kun, a well respected student at Nekketsu High. His first appearance was in Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun, better known as Renegade on the Arcade, NES, and Amiga computer— amongst other systems. The students at Nekketsu High depend on Kunio to help them out in times of trouble. In Renegade he fights to protect his friend Hiroshi from bullies at a rivaling school, with one of the bosses you encounter being Riki. This sets up some events to come in DNM.
As mentioned, the beginning of RCR shows Slick’s letter telling you Cyndi has been kidnapped. While this plot is shared between both games, instead of the letter, DNM shows a conversation between Kunio and former boss and rival Riki, agreeing to team up to save Mami Shimada, Riki’s girlfriend. The kidnapper is not revealed until the end of the game. All the gangs are now different schools and Hasabe, the girl that would become Roxy in RCR, is a gang leader and childhood friend of Kunio. She does not have any relationship to the kidnapper, unlike Roxy.
DNM is by far the most famous of the Kunio games, and its music fondly remembered by many. However it is rather unknown that this game was ported to different systems, being the PC Engine CD, Sharp X68000, and the better known remake on the Game Boy Advance. All of the games are composed by Kazuo Sawa, who composed for most of the old school Kunio games.
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom, Street Gangs) - Famicom / NES, 1989 / 1990
This is the most famous release and also in many ways, the best of the bunch. There are 5 unused tracks in this release.
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari - Sharp X68000, 1990
The X68000 is probably most well known for the Castlevania game, Akumajo Dracula, which was later ported to the PSX as Castlevania Chronicles. DNM on X68 is a bit different from the Famicom release. For one it is much harder, the music is more crunchy and arcade styled, and the colors a bit darker. The biggest change is that the game features voice samples character portraits during conversations. This release has 5 unused tracks.
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari - PC Engine CD, 1993
In 1993, KID developed a remake for the PC Engine CD system, featuring a new redbook arranged soundtrack, voices for the main cast and updated graphics. While by no means a bad game, the colors are a bit bland, and in my experience with the game, the controls always felt a bit more delayed than on the NES. There are no unused tracks in this release.
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari EX (River City Ransom EX) - Game Boy Advance, 2004
Atlus released a remake in 2004, with both the western and Japanese releases using the Japanese school uniforms. With much better graphics and more moves it’s quite good, however it does not have a 2 player mode, which is one of the main joys of the original. In this, Riki (Ryan) is AI controlled. This game has 5 unused tracks.
The Kunio Franchise went under the radar for a long times since Technos went out of business in 1996. When the GBA came out, 3 collections were released in Japan, featuring all of the Famicom release across 3 GBA carts. This, along with the success of EX, led to the development of a new Kunio game, Dodgeball Brawl, and more recently it was announced by NHN that Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari would get an online game in Asia. Though no announcement for a western release has been made, it shows that the Kunio name still has some juice, and hopefully, we will see more adventures about Kunio in the future. Some of the old Kunio team also made a doujin game company called Miracle Kidz, which can be found here.
This release is the first in a series that will have every Kunio soundtrack collected.
Well, thanks for the massive post, Akumu! I’m looking forward to future contributions.
3 years ago
