The River City franchise is one I am not too familiar with, but always admired. The latest release appears to be taking on a new suit of armor and adding some light RPG elements to spice up the franchise. River City Saga: Three Kingdoms is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up, the newest installment of the River City Ransom (Kunio-kun) franchise. However, this time, the main characters aren't strolling the modern streets beating up street gangs. Instead, they are thrown into the final years of the Eastern Han Dynasty and live out one of China’s greatest novelizations in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," which is fairly often used in games.

Three Kingdoms almost feels unique in its look and design. The visuals offer a slightly polished version of the original River City Ransom game, with the 8-bit character models popping in contrast to the washed out background. The backgrounds themselves are a more modern 2.5D, allowing you to move the character up and down, adding depth to the screen in classic side-scrolling beat-em-up fashion. When in dialogue, the characters are far more detailed and full of life, emotion, and color. These are expertly drawn and contribute charm and personality to the otherwise flat 2D models that kick, punch, and kick again.

Not having as much experience with brawlers as some, I was interested to see how much fun the controls and gameplay would be. Beat-’em-ups come across as chaotic and button-mash-heavy, drop kicking four enemies at once while waves upon waves come into view. My expectations were met… partially. Whilst River City Saga is chaotic, especially when the screen is flooded with enemies for you to beat down, this chaos does not equate to fun. This is mostly due to the very clunky controls and depth of field being almost impossible to be 100% accurate with as the models just sit on the screen like paper cutouts. The repetitive button mashing style is also quite messy, and when I wanted to take my time and focus on a small handful of enemies, moving around them and attacking them in a "prettier way" would usually end up with me getting knocked down. This led me back to just spamming the attack buttons and almost mindlessly running around kicking and punching whatever falls in my path.

Compared with past installments of this franchise, the control scheme and gameplay seem almost identical. There is a new feature called "Hot-Blooded Dance," which makes your character’s moves much stronger and more impactful, with some more unique moves thrown in temporarily. Still, I feel veterans of this series and style will be very comfortable with how River City Saga: Three Kingdoms plays, whereas newer players, like me, will need a little time to become familiar.

Beat-’em-ups tend to be quite chaotic and violent. I mean, the genre is called "beat 'em up"! This is why the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story serves as an excellent setting for a game of this style. There are lots of battles, with bandits, armies, and more to thwart in large numbers, which is perfect for a non-stop brawl. Within River City Saga, Kunio, the main character in many of the franchise's games, takes on the role of Guan Yu, the hero of this story. Given that Kunio’s name is still present in brackets, it makes the whole narrative appear as a play, or that the River City crew are all dressed up and LARPing, or something. A potentially fun and interesting twist, it keeps the more serious elements of the story lighter and more fun.

As you begin your adventure as Guan Yu, the gameplay can be quite challenging. However, as you unlock more moves—namely the dropkick—fights become a lot easier. If you are playing on moderate difficulty, you’ll have almost no issues once you're past the earlier chapters. As the leveling system is very kind to you, you’ll find yourself overleveled and breezing past almost everyone. It's not that the enemies are necessarily easy to beat; they just go down quite quickly. Outside of the minute-to-minute flights, you can purchase items to help you in scraps, explore towns, and complete side missions, in addition to taking on some very frustrating platformer sections. These platforming sections are stifling at times, as the aforementioned poor depth of field means you need to be jump-perfect, something this game is not designed to be. You’ll be missing ledges and boxes often, which can be frustrating.

River City Saga: Three Kingdoms feels like an incredibly nostalgia-driven game, aimed specifically at those who hold classic beat-’em-ups, the River City games in particular, close to their hearts. And for that audience, I think they’ll be very satisfied with what River City Saga has to offer. For people like me, who have less nostalgia for the franchise, they may struggle to understand the repetitive nature and overall appeal of River City Saga: Three Kingdoms.