The existence of River City Girls prompted me to play though some of the newer Kunio games I hadn't gotten to yet.
Downtown Nekketsu Koshinkyoku ~All Star Special~ / River City Super Sports Challenge ~All Stars Special~
A remake of the Famicom game Bil talked about
in these posts. This release, like all those I'm going to talk about, keeps dot art for character graphics and uses polygons for stages.
The guys at Arc have an obvious affection for the source material. There's a high level of polish, with well-done homage sprites and animated menu backdrops. Singleplayer has lengthy skippable story scenes between each match. The roster of the original version is expanded to include characters from all across the series, and a database profiles every one of them. Are you
in a crisis and need to know the blood type of the blonde team captain from the Super Famicom baseball game? ASS got you covered.
Unfortunately, the game isn't something I can recommend. There are four different programs...
* Cross Country is a footrace. Since it's divided into rooms instead of being a continuous course, points are awarded on a room-by-room basis
in order of exit.
* Obstacle Relay is another footrace, with different rooms and points also awarded for damaging other runners.
* Camphor Ball consists of climbing a pole and punching a ball.
* Battle Royal is a 4-man free-for-all. As points are gained
in proportion to damage done, the last one standing isn't necessarily the winner.
As a multiplayer experience, the one match I played was fun enough, but it doesn't have longevity. Each room
in the footraces has a very clear optimal route, and a rigid memorization-based paradigm is exactly what you don't want
in a party game. Camphor Ball is just lame, and Battle Royal is soon made obsolete.
As a singleplayer experience, it's infuriating. The three AIs effectively form a unified force, since if any one of them outscores you, game over. This is most egregious
in Camphor Ball as one AI climbs the pole and keeps scoring while the other two are
in fight mode and keep you from it. You can end up hundreds of points
in the hole
in from this one program (so do the other two AIs, but they don't care).
Even if you came out on top
in all programs, you might see your victory evaporate
in the bonus scoring. The MC hands out additional point awards
in an overlong sequence based on nebulous criteria. What earns you the
Reiho Award? I don't know, but it's worth a ton of points and one of the AIs just got it. Do the whole match over.
There's also design schizophrenia concerning your player character. At the start you create an Avatar with meager stats to be the protagonist, though you also play as the other Nekketsu High students at will. You get a hefty point penalty for each student you keep benched an entire match, so it makes sense to give them all some play, right? But doing so is digging yourself a hole, since your Avatar's stats only increase if you pick him for a program and win first place using him, and later
in the game there are sequences where you must use your Avatar. If you haven't been leveling him constantly, these are unwinnable.
So yeah, neat idea, disastrous result.
Dude I think you're mistaken, The Sex Pistols started punk. 
)
i got some catching up to do
Gets an "R-9 on foot" feel when you're fully kitted out. Good job on the no-miss, as you say it's a game where death peskily nips at your heels!
