River City Ransom Remake Heading to 3DS, Trailer Released

NES brawling classic River City Ransom is heading to the Nintendo 3DS next month. Here's a new trailer...

The full history of River City Ransom is far too convoluted to go into here, since it takes in numerous sequels and all kinds of name changes. In brief, it began with Nekketsu Kunio-Kun in 1986, a Japanese brawler about violent school kids and gangs of thugs. That game was released in edited form as Renegade elsewhere in the world.

NES fans will remember River City Ransom, actually the third game in theKunio series and called Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari in Japan. By turns violent and strangely cute, its mix of action and light RPG elements made it one of the most enjoyable third-party games for the NES. If you've fond memories of that game, there's good news - Arc System Works is bringing out River City Ransom SP, an updated remake of the original with all kinds of extra items and modes. There's even a two-player link-up mode which revives memories of another old Technos classic, Double Dragon.

The bad news, at least right now, is that the game's Japan-only. The original NES version did get a 3DS eShop release in 2013, though, so we're hoping that River City Ransom's cult status will mean this updated version will eventually follow suit. More details on that as we get it. Until then, the Japanese version is out on the 28th April if you feel like importing it...