CGC Game 5: Riot City (Sega System 16) [Arcade]

[PistolsAtDawn]

Riot-City-Japan.jpeg (79.18 KiB) Viewed 8254 times

Game info

Gameplay video

Released in 1991 in arcades (perhaps) before the late-1991 Streets of Rage for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis, the two games clearly share DNA. I'm a big fan of the SoR series (especially the new one out last year), and I'm excited to play this one as I haven't before somehow.

Play however you'd like! The point is to enjoy and have fun, but if you would like to compete on high scores, please let us all know how you played (as in, with a arcade control panel, gamepad, etc.). We're on the honor system here for reporting high scores, so if you used cheats, fess up!

Please share with us your thoughts, jokes, frustrations or anything else related to this game that you may discover (i.e. if you discover the game itself was featured or visible in some other form of entertainment like a movie or TV show).

[charmless]

Awesome! Never played it before hoping it's a... riot. Sorry.

[Hetzen]

Not played it either. If I squint a bit I guess I could pretend it's Shinobi.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Not played it either. If I squint a bit I guess I could pretend it's Shinobi.

Or you could play Shinobi and pretend you're playing Riot City.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Okay so I want to know who the geniuses are that design these games that have a score but then don't give you your final score when you beat the game! Both this one and Spriggan even get your intitials at the end without showing your final tally. And then the attract mode doesn't flash the high score either. That's the second time I've had this happen. Grrrr.

The only thing I know for sure is that I set the game to 4 lives per continue, easy to gain extra lives and normal difficulty. It still took me 16 credits to finish.

Even though I love beat em ups I didn't think too much of this one. Streets of Rage was better for few reasons: useable weapons that you can pick up from crates or when enemies drop them, special moves that actually do damage to enemies and the ultra attacks that you have a limited amount of per continue (or have to pick up). Oh and the graphics are better on Streets of Rage, IMO.

All complaints aside I did still enjoy Riot City enough to finish it. The artwork was good, and perhaps this game is what was refined into Streets of Rage.

I feel a bit short changed though, so think I'm going to play Shinobi now, haha.

[Hetzen]

Haha. You know it makes sense!

I'll have a go at this tomorrow.

[Hetzen]

The last guy at the end was tough to kill. Fairly enjoyable and brainless. No idea what my final score was, it was over 2 million.

Certainly put in more coins than 16.

[Hetzen]

RiotCity.jpg (274.99 KiB) Viewed 8406 times

[PistolsAtDawn]

RiotCity.jpg

Guess I was impatient!

[Hetzen]

Yeah, I had it running in the back ground when it showed up. Didn't have a chance to put in my initials though.

[charmless]

riotcity.jpg (2.14 MiB) Viewed 8253 times

Finally got around to Riot City. Took me 14 credits to finish the game.

As beat 'em ups go it was pretty standard. I've played way worse, and much better games than Riot City. Couple of things stood out. The Satanic lair with the pentagram was pretty bad ass with some nice parallax scrolling and the Wrestling themed boss fight was also cool. I really wished the controls were a bit more complex, but at least they were responsive. I totally agree with PistolsAtDawn that the Streets of Rage games are a huge step up from this.

But Riot City was fine, at least it didn't piss me off.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Finally got around to Riot City. Took me 14 credits to finish the game.

As beat 'em ups go it was pretty standard. I've played way worse, and much better games than Riot City. Couple of things stood out. The Satanic lair with the pentagram was pretty bad ass with some nice parallax scrolling and the Wrestling themed boss fight was also cool. I really wished the controls were a bit more complex, but at least they were responsive. I totally agree with PistolsAtDawn that the Streets of Rage games are a huge step up from this.

But Riot City was fine, at least it didn't piss me off.

Congratulations! Well done. I'm glad we played it, but I'm not sure I'd play it again anytime soon. Not when the Streets of Rage series is so strong and similar.