10 Best Beat 'Em Up Video Games Of All TIme
9. River City Ransom
The final game in Technōs Japan’s holy trinity of ground-breaking eighties brawlers (more on the other two later), River City Ransom was a fighting game quite like no other.
Sure, it had a lot of the tropes that were emerging from the beat ‘em up genre – anglicised, urban setting to appeal to a Western market, free movement around the screen and cool fight moves – but it was the role-playing elements that made it such a blast to play. That’s right, along with lots of side-scrolling dust ups and pipe-swinging action, Technōs introduced the ability to spend money and bolster player attributes.
This came in the form of rifling through the pockets of battered adversaries, robbing them blind and spending these ill-gotten gains on anything from food for health, or a trip to the spa to boost punch and kick skills. It was elements such as this, and a non-linear level structure, that made the journey of tough teens Alex and Ryan such a cult hit.