River City Ransom Underground

I haven't played Double Dragon 4. As the original post stated:

But if you want to tell me how bad Double Dragon 4 is, go ahead.

After you get some basic moves from the dojos, and ramp up your stats with food a bit, the game becomes much less "punch, kick, wait, repeat" that it is when you start a character on level 1. If I have any gripe, it's that there's no way to take new characters at the endgame portion, and level them up without getting KO'd ten thousand times. ALL of the enemies toughen up after you get so far into the plot; there's no area with weak enemies at that point.

I kinda figured that would be the case. I guess I'll just have to stick to one or two characters the whole way through if I continue this game. So much for having a large cast.

Well, you can level them up before hard mode kicks in, but that would definitely cause me to get sick of the game. May be better to try out new characters after you beat the game, or on a new file.
The hard part about finding decent beatemups in the style of RCR is that the game was pretty unique, and only a pseudo-parody like Scott Pilgrim comes close, but from a different angle. The recent Kunio-kun games kinda' suck ass compared to the original, SP, and RCRU.

RCR did have a very unique charm to it. Cartoony, fun, fairly lighthearted, an open map to roam around instead of levels, felt like it could have been a teen action movie if they weren't pansies about kicking ass in it.

I've been trying to continue playing and now that I've bought a bunch of moves for this Mike guy it's somewhat more fun to play. But a lot of the design choices are absolute horseshit still. Enemies with strong attacks that knock you down and have no choreography is bullshit. Enemies that meticulously back in and out of your range to dodge all your attacks is bullshit. The game throws a half dozen baddies at you in every area but the combat mechanics aren't designed to make fighting that many enemies at once all that fun. Spending a quarter of my game time stunned and unable to move is not fun. A system where the game decides I'm being boring so enemies will no-sell my moves just as a "fuck you" from the developers is not fun.

Either the beta testers (the Kickstarter backers) were complete idiots who couldn't point any of this out, or the devs are pompous jackasses who ignored all these criticisms and released the game with all the bullshit intact. This is what happens when stupid hipsters try to emulate old-school games: leave out the fun, keep in the nonsense.

Oh and most of these moves are absolutely useless. He has a backhand attack that will flip him around to hit guys behind him, but its range is pathetic and if an enemy is that close to me already he'll hit me before I can even react and use the attack, especially since none of your moves have any i-frames. He has a charged punch that stuns and launches enemies, but because enemies always play this game of keep-away with you, it's totally useless. He has a somersault that does decent damage but its range is also pathetic and enemies, again, will always stay just far enough away from you that you can't effectively use it.

They made a beat-em-up then made it an absolute pain in the ass to actually beat anything up.

Then why did you buy it retard?

I said I downloaded it, retard. I got it off the Holla Forums volafile. I don't have $20 to spend on this shit even if I wanted to.

Then start doing something that would result in you having $20.

MY gripe with this game is just how little info the game gives you about itself
The move list menu does not tell anything usefull about how to perform new combos, and some moves are brocken, either they don't work or they work like shit
The game doesn't tell you how to buff up you stats either, i thought level grinding was enoug, turns out leveling opnly buffs your stats caps, but to actually buff the stats themselves you have to eat, and the game doesn't tell you wich food buff wich stat
Aso, i thnk characters are unbalancd as fuck, the Boxer is fucing OP and for stupid reason
When you punch or kick an enemy you push him back, hit him 3 times and he'll be out of your reach usually with the perfect timing for a counter, but the boxer starts the game with a jab jab straight combo that advances one step with every punch so your enemies are always within reach and are easy to kill
with everyone else i died like a noob and had to gridn the fuck outta them to not die so much, with the boxer i could easily reach the first half of the game with out buffing any of my stats
Over all is a fun beat em up IMO

I fucking hate those nigger thoug
It's like they based the niggers of this game in actuall IRL niggers

Which one?

Most of the genere involves goiung forward in levles, punching trash cans to get energy charges, picking up weapons that breack after a while and using the same combo al the time, there was not a strong attack weak attack in many Beatem ups, just one attack button and one special (usually attack and jump at the same time) that saped your life bar, you also hadjump kicks running punches and to grab enemies you just had to touch them, it wasn't a clever genere, mechanically speacking this game is abobe and beyond most games of the genere, even flawed as it is

It's mostly the latter, although the game has improved from the earlier beta versions. The devs seemed to respond to most criticisms with "but muh balance" - one of the most frequent complaints that they never fixed was the massive vulnerable pause that occurs if you try to grab someone and miss. They insisted it was essential because "otherwise grab would be OP" - even though grabs in this game are largely useless anyway.
The game is less frustrating once you get past the two thresholds of 1) getting your character some moves, and 2) stop expecting the game to play anything like RCR, because it doesn't.

The game is okay, but fundamentally misses half of what made RCR so good. (Ironically, what it gets right is pretty much everything that Tokyo Rumble got wrong, and vice-versa.)
The game would improve a thousandfold if only they'd got the physics right. Those high gravity jumps just feel wrong, as does the horribly slow weapon animation. Hitting someone with a trash can is supposed to be one of the greatest joys in RCR - not so here.

volafile.io/r/HF33Go
This one.

Right, I got that basic gist. I just never knew what qualities and details make a good beat-em-up. I assume it's fun levels, interesting enemies, and tight controls so that doing the same thing over and over doesn't get boring.

I heard it was "muh balance" and just the concept of that is fucking infuriating. It's a single-player/co-op game, not a competition, so fuck balance, I want to have fun. If the player character is too strong, don't nerf the player, buff the enemies–and they're plenty fucking buffed right now. This grab stun is bullshit, enemies with stuns is bullshit, enemies with dive attacks that come out instantly is bullshit.

This is a game that I can't imagine its own developers playing, because it's like they wanted to suck out all the fun and potential their product had. And it's still one of the better Kickstarter games I've played, sadly.

After attempting another half hour of this game I've decided it's just too shit to continue. I'm just gonna emulate the old ones instead. Fuck this game and fuck the people who made it.

I disagree. Grabs can't be blocked at all. You can grab a dude (while playing hard mode) and beat him til he barfs (none boss of-course). I started the game on hard and grabbing is the most reliable attack I have. It's even better with the wrestler's powerbomb because you can hurt everyone around you while gaining i-frames.

That being said, it's still a shit game. It plays and looks like a fucking fanfiction. The developers didn't even base the game theme about japan highschool gangs beating the hell out of eacher (playing the main story is jarring once you leave the prologue). Instead, they got all of their fucking snowflakes (because Japanese highschools, including the one this and the previous games take place, have red haired neckbeards and black girls) doing fighting game combos and shit because they clearly didn't like RCR. Then they made the game fucking linear. They even localized the main fucking character.

RCR EX had a full range of basic attacks for both characters as well as a character editer. It also allowed you to recruit dudes to your gang. This nuRCR just said "fuck it! This is OUR game!".

FUCK YOU I REPRESSED THAT MEMORY OF NURCR'S SHITTY WEAPONS! YOU CAN'T EVEN THROW THE TRASH CANS MORE THAN A FEW FEET! SHIT DUDE YOU CAN SWING AND THROW PEOPLE FASTER AND FARTHER THAN YOU CAN A FUCKING GARBAGE CAN REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
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All your points are fair and true, except I'm pretty sure this was meant to be a sequel to the Americanized version of the game, so it's blatantly a New York-esque American city about American high schoolers. Somewhat interesting that it does its own thing with that instead of emulating the original Japanese flavor, so Alex is distinctly Alex and not Kunio. That was one element that got me interested in the Kickstarter in the first place, treating the localization as its own separate entity and building from there, I thought it was interesting.

But of course, it went retarded. Even the Steam forums, where all criticisms of the gameplay are drowned out by apologist fanboys crying "GIT GUD," agrees that the game's story is ass-backwards stupid and its meta "hey guys remember old video games, they sure were weird and old" humor is cringe-inducing.

We could have had a T-rated equivalent of The Warriors. Instead we got another Retro City Rampage except as a poorly-designed beat-em-up.

I'm gonna emulate RCR EX.

The localized version still had school uniforms, but you're still right. I could do without the uniforms if the character aesthetics weren't so shit. Reminds me of Scott Pilgrim and Mercenary Kings. The art looked fine in that it's drawn well, but the designs are so unappealing.

Did it? I only remember it changing the uniforms to T-shirts and blue jeans for mostly everyone.

The whole game in general felt like it was trying to be Scott Pilgrim instead of River City Ransom, honestly.

My favorite thing about the game has been the levels and backgrounds. They made River City look like an interesting setting. Good amount of detail everywhere, a variety of locales, interesting shops to duck in and out of, even the shitty ghetto areas were fun to run around in. That's the nicest thing I can say about the game.

You're right. I was thinking of EX. IIRC Underground had school uniforms for the prologue.

EX does retain the school uniforms, but Underground keeps it in the original NES style of T-shirts and blue jeans in an American town, though Ryan does retain a Japanese-style punk pompadour. Like I said, they were building off the localized version like it was its own identity, and turned River City into a wacky Metro City. I was fine with that, I thought it was clever to make something new out of the Americanized port and create your own "mythos" (for lack of a better word) with it. Too bad it seems like that effort was wasted.

Yeah, I just checked. I remembered the simpler designs but didn't remember that they weren't in uniform. To be fair, I primarily hated the player characters. I was ok with the enemies.I think they had cool looking enemies, but the player characters look like lame self-inserts. It's been awhile since I actually played this shit. So I forgot some of the details.

Some of the player characters definitely seem weird. They barely look like high school students. Who goes to school in wrestling attire or boxing gear? These guys do apparently. I've spent most (almost all) of my playtime as Mike, a fat ginger neckbeard, because he seemed like the character who fit the goofy atmosphere best.

I do like some of the enemies' designs. Luchador gang is neat, the Bombers as a bunch of wiseguy greasers is fitting, and while I think it's dumb the skeleton guys have magic powers for reasons, it was satisfying to punch their dweeby goth faces in.

Too bad all the enemies are infuriating to fight because of cheap attacks and running away from me constantly. Especially the Nerds, Bombers, and those nameless beanie-wearing pricks.

I can understand the wrestling because of wrestling teams, but not the boxing. I've not heard of a school with a boxing ring. I always felt like he should have been like Steve from Tekken. Steve's default costume is his everyday clothes with fingerless gloves.His movements give away his boxing experience.

Also, you reminded me of how much I hated knocking dudes down because of how long it takes to actually knock them out. Why the hell don't they take damage when you throw them?

BALANCE

What they're balancing, though, I have no idea. I'm pretty sure video game enemies aren't supposed to have 100% fair odds against the player.

Bruno wears the wrestling attire but I mean it like pro wrestling tights because he's the luchador guy. The boxer dude (forgot his name, Paul?) is basically a clone of Little Mac. Glen is a Ryu clone and wears similar fighting gloves. The only one who is dressed completely normally (for a kid) of the starting characters is Provie, who looks like a skank in her profile pic. And all the dudes except Bruno have beards. Again, barely anyone seems like a high school student.

I was thinking Rudy.

Fine

God you're a fucking beta.

$20 is not a lot you leach on society. Holy fucking christ day of the rope when? Get these welfare niggers out

Fuck off shill, I'm not buying your shitty indie game.

You have to bait the enemies into coming in for an attack or they wont bother. Try looking away from them.

Focus on using attacks that knock guys down so you can single out a couple guys to use your cool shit on.

You gotta control the crowd.

Is the black girl still overpowered?

They took a lot of what made the original fun, with all the crazy sometimes-overpowered shit you could do, and toned it down so much that it feels like they sucked the soul right out of it.

Maybe Holla Forums has gotten to me but I can't enjoy the game knowing there's a least one nigger character that feels shoe horned in. Makes me think I'll run into a lot of SJW cliches and make the whole game a cringe worthy affair.

>getting cuckolded out of a bad game by ideology
Absolutely spooked.

I don't mind if there's niggers in my game anymore than I mind faggots or other degenerate shit but if they're poorly written or shoe horned it's hard to not get triggered.

It's not like every other character is a nigger so I don't get the vibe they have a forced diversity quota but I have so many games on my plate I'm not terribly concerned with getting my hands on it.

If it goes on sale I'll give it a go but for right now I'll hold onto my Shekels.

I don't think she's shoehorned. River City is portrayed as a pretty crappy city, so a ghetto-looking chick like Provie fits in. From what I can glean of the plot, there's no SJWs, but a lot of cringe-worthy meta humor and "video game" jokes that no one likes.

"Sucked the soul right out of it" is the most apt description of the game. They removed throw damage, in a game where three characters are grapplers. It's like they were competent people up until the game was 90% done then they smacked themselves in the heads with hammers until they turned retarded and did as much stupid shit as they could in the name of "balancing the game." It's a fucking co-op beat-em-up! One that they built to be based on a combo system! Why take fun away from the player? No one is going to appreciate having options taken away from them with no equal or better replacement offered, and none of this shit was overpowered to begin with.

my only gripe with provie is that i can't make her white
but i can make the other characters black
she can be hispanic looking in one of her palette swaps, but not white
this is racist

It seems half the posts in this thread were deleted somehow. Anyone know how/why that happened?

never mind, 8ch was just really fucked up on my end somehow.

Agreed, it definitely doesn't seem fair. All the other characters' colors turn them black or brown, Provie is just differing shades of brown. Then again she is also designed to be a black chick, with that awful lipstick and fingernail polish. If she didn't have those I wouldn't be so put-off by her.

i actually agree with that
i try to pretend she doesn't have them, as they aren't present in the other places she's present like the multiplayer screen
provie gets me going but the lipstick and nail polish makes her a nigger
mods when?
for no nail polish and a skin that makes her white/light in one palette, i just hate chola provie

Is it worth playing if you don't have any friends?

i'd say it's pretty fun user, you see girl butts in it when you go to the bath house!

i'll play with you user?