Not beautiful Sacramento, Ca., but River City Ransom! If the team at Conatus Creative can put $180,000 together then we’ll all be taking a trip to the rowdiest place around. As you, hopefully, know River City Ransom was a fantastic side scrolling fighting game for the NES. Unlike Double Dragon, many people consider Ransom to still be a great game. Not that Double Dragon is bad, but sometimes it’s best to just leave things in the past. But not with River City Ransom! The new game, titled River City Ransom : Underground is officially licensed from the IP owners, so there’s no danger of a midnight raid on the developers office space.
In keeping with the nostalgia of the original, the new title is being developed “as-if.” As if it were released for a slightly better version of the original NES, just don’t call it super. So instead of quaint low res graphics heating up your $500 graphics card because it takes so much power to make something look so old, Underground is true to its roots. No fancy schmancy graphics tricks up the sleeves, just good old fashioned side scrolling mayhem.
Just because Conatus hold the past in such regard doesn’t mean they’re stuck in it. In fact, Underground features much larger levels, greatly improved AI, a better fighting system, more stores, and local as well as online co-op. The funding video, while cheeky and cute, also gives a very good idea of what you can expect from the game, as does the multitude of updates posted so far.
The River City Ransom : Underground Kickstarter campaign runs until October 9th and has a funding target of $180,000.
