River City Girls

It's a very fun beat-em-up however, the controls definitely feel a lot more clunky than the RCG2's. I'm also a big fan of the stat level up mechanic and obtaining moves as you progress through the game. (Which might be unique to the Kunio-kun series but idk really) Only downside other than the controls is that you can't play online with your friends through steam invites, only through game share and split-screen. (Which the sequel definitely improves on a lot of these things.) Overall a 7/10
Edit: I 100% the game. The game was really fun for the span I played it, and the music grew on me; it's good. Updated Score: 9/10

After previously playing this on consoles, I ended up getting and playing through again entirely on the Steam Deck, so keep in mind.
River City Girls is a very fun little beat-em-up with co-op, which I sadly didn't get to try.
It's not a very long game, easily finished within a few hours, but when grinding out money for items, as well as xp for levels, could take quite a bit.
The 2 main characters, as well as the 2 unlockable ones, do fight somewhat different, albeit without too much variation with basic combat (Full combos with a heavy finish early on; late game longer combos involving launching enemies, as well as extending combos using specials.)
Most enemies are pretty simple, though they like to block a lot, and annoyingly can block from all sides. On hard difficulty they can move quickly, attack suddenly and spawn in bigger amounts, which can get frustrating.
Prior to this posting, cutscenes didn't work, only giving a "tv static"type screen, but there has since be a recent update that fixed that issue, allowing you to see the story, if it tickles your fancy.
I love the audio in the game, and all its goofiness, and especially love the soundtrack.
One issue that the game has on Steam Deck is your shoulder buttons, for recruiting/assists and blocking, don't always register inputs, which isn't a huge break, but gets inconvenient at times.
The game is a very fun time killer, and with a friend, could be hilariously chaotic with friendly fire off.
If on sale, is well worth it, though am surprised it hasn't had a small price drop as long as its been out.

Really solid beat-em-up. Good mechanics and combo potential. The art style was great and the voice acting was full of fun surprises. A nice homage to older games of this style.

A very very good RPG Beat-em-up game.
I would say this was one of my favorites on Steam if it wasn't for a few problems I have with it.
Story is silly, the voice acting is cheesy and grating at times. It does add to the experience, but I do wish the dialogue was less quippy.
Gameplay is solid, but could be improved a lot.
What you see is what you get.
While you can unlock new moves, it barely changes the overall loop.
The combo system is very weak, its hard to string attacks together because the enemies either get too far away, get knocked down or you move through them.
All heavy attacks are a variation of "launch enemy far away", and its very hard to combo due the timing and move delay.
Several attacks also can launch the enemy, but you lack any capacity for air attacks, so its nearly useless.
Blocking is useless.
Enemies have instant attacks, so its nearly impossible to time it right.
Even more useless against several enemies at once.
Weapons work, but all cause enemies to fall after one attack, so you are just waiting for them to get up so you can attack them again, repeating until the weapon breaks, which doesn't takes long.
By far, the biggest problem with this game is the equipment system.
My god, whoever balanced these items, shame on you, shame on your family, shame on your cow.
The bonuses are so small or specific that they make no difference at all.
5% extra damage, against women? That MIGHT reduce the number of punches needed to defeat one enemy by ONE PUNCH.
5% less damage from cheerleaders? 5% chance to double money? Recover special as long as you are carrying an enemy? Extra damage when 3 specific songs are playing? Increased reward on some quests, on something that you can miss if you don't backtrack right at the start of the game? 1% chance to kill an enemy on the first attack (but not subsequent ones)?
Who the hell balanced these??
The only good equipment are the secret ones that cost $10000 total, which is 5x more money than you make in the entire game. Even the final secret boss gives a bad item that only works in co-op.
Bosses are cool, characters are well designed.
Plot is a bit too zany and goes unexplained for the entire game. In fact, the plot start was explained on a twitter post after a fan asked the devs. Really lame.
Minus a hundred points for an Egoraptor reference. Fuck that guy.
Overall, good game.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

I love this game, I played it both alone and with a friend and is incredible funny and silly at times, the pixel art is also pretty good, if anything at least try it, and remember that friendly fire is always an option.

I bought the sequel when it launched but never played the original. Got it for free on a different platform and played it with my sister, ported my save to steam after buying it here on sale.
This one is shorter than the sequel and with shorter combos, but it still has fun characters and interactions.
I honestly love these types of co-op beat them ups and hope someday soon they release a third game.