Gonna be a borstal breakout
Fans of those schoolyard roustabouts, the River City Girls, will be pleased to hear that the pugilistic duo’s series debut, River City Girls Zero, will be making its impact felt on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox this month, following on from its release on Nintendo Switch back in March of this year.
As a quick cram session, River City Girls Zero is a revamped remaster of the 1994 Super Famicom title Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, which is the first title in the Kunio-kun franchise to introduce Kyoko and Misako as playable characters. WayForward‘s remaster sees the scrolling brawler officially localized for the west for the very first time, while sporting a freshly translated script, new manga cutscenes, and an amusing intro song by River City Girls series composer Megan McDuffee.
As a game… welllll… it has to be said that time has not been too kind to Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, which was already quite dated by brawler standards even in 1994. But, as a little piece of franchise history, it’s still nice to see the long-lost title get some time in the spotlight. This release, of course, will also serve as an appetizer to WayForward’s long-awaited sequel River City Girls 2, which will be gracing us with its presence at some point later in 2022.
River City Girls Zero launches on PlayStation and Xbox platforms September 13, with PC (Steam) to follow on September 22. It is available right now on Nintendo Switch. Be sure to check out our thoughts on the remaster right here, along with our recent interview with Megan McDuffee!
