It’s hard to answer the question “what’s your favorite video game of all time?” But my favorite retro video game is probably River City Ransom.
I love the action RPG genre, as it blends together so many different wonderful game design elements into something larger than their parts. They often feature expansive worlds that require exploration, filled with challenges that you’ll need to level up in order to overcome. Not content to rely solely on menus and numbers for battle, the action side of the genre brings in the moment-to-moment interactive fun that’s so vital to a good video game.
The genre has its roots in the computer games of the mid 80’s, but I’d argue that its first pure expression is 1989's River City Ransom. The game casts you (and also a friend if you’ve got one who is willing) as two high-school aged dudes who run, punch, and kick their way through a cartoon city to battle a whole series of different enemy groups. It started life as a Japanese “student drama,” and the US localization gently buffs out some of the complexities of that genre to make it suit a worldwide audience.
So while the story exists, it’s mostly about fighting guys, gathering money, and using that money in a whole huge variety of shops in order to buy things and…
