Next to shooters and platformers no other genre was as oversaturated in the 90s as the side-scrolling beat em up. Once Final Fight ignited the genre every developer was off to the races copying Capcom’s formula. But where shooters had diversity in terms of setting and mechanics everyone was content aping Capcom’s game. Between the home consoles and the arcade, the genre grew stale fast. The one system spared from this deluge was the Turbo Grafx/PC Engine. The few titles it received were not very good, of which Riot Zone counts. This is a poor man’s Final Fight and should be avoided.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Police officers Hawk and Tony want to investigate the DragonZone but are rebuffed by their captain. In protest they both quit the force deliver some street justice on their own terms. Their reason for entering the DragonZone? Hawk’s girlfriend Candy was kidnapped! Oh the horror!
I never said it was original. Riot Zone is a port of Sega’s arcade game Riot City. Because Sega owned the names and characters much of the content had to be changed. It is a similar situation to the Wonder Boy/ Adventure Island split except less confusing. In either form the game is as blatant a Final Fight as they come. Unfortunately Riot Zone loses a lot of what made the arcade game decent and is instead tedious and most of all boring.
When I said changes were made to more closely resemble Final Fight I wasn’t joking. Hawk is essentially a palette swap of Cody/Axl. Most of the enemy roster consists of expy’s for the Mad Gear gang. The level transitions show a similar map of the city as well. Even some of the bosses (I’m looking at you Shauna) wouldn’t look out of place in Capcom’s gang. At least Tony isn’t a Haggar stand in although he fulfills the strong yet slow brute role.
One area I wish they skewed closer to their inspiration is in the gameplay. Most brawlers suffer heavily because of their limited move set but this is especially bad. Riot Zone is as barebones as it gets when it comes to combat. You have the standard punch combo, a jump kick, and one throw and that is it. There aren’t even any secondary weapons or items to use. The game becomes repetitive by the middle of the first level and it doesn’t get better from there. In fact, it gets worse.
The pacing is what ultimately kills Riot Zone. At five stages this is about standard for the genre. But each subsequent level becomes longer with increasing waves of enemies. The rogues gallery is incredibly small, even less than the arcade. The game tries to ration them out by introducing one new enemy in each stage. It doesn’t work out so well in keeping the game interesting however. Because you only fight three enemies at once you end up facing the same three enemies repeatedly in the same level. By the end of stage two it becomes grueling to stay interested.
Usually brawlers lean toward the difficulty side, a trait from their arcade roots. Riot Zone actually falls on the easy side. Even though there are no barrels with fresh cooked dinners around enemies randomly drop food pretty often. Because you never fight more than three enemies simultaneously it is easy to manage. Even the boss battles, which are usually the cheapest part of any brawler, aren’t too difficult. The generous scoring means you’ll earn extra lives at a frequent clip. I dare say most will finish Riot Zone without using a single continue.
Most of the levels are faithful to the arcade with the overall presentation being a good match at first glance. But that accuracy comes with a few caveats. I’ve already mentioned that only three enemies attack at once. The large sprites caused this sacrifice. The frame rate takes a hit when the action heats up slightly. The sprites are also the reason why there is no two-player coop. I don’t think the trade off was worth it as the game would at least be tolerable with a friend. The redbook audio is probably its strongest point although you might as well just listen to it on youtube.
In Closing
The Turbo Duo could have used a decent brawler. Unfortunately Riot Zone is not that game. Riot Zone is so painfully average it hurts. Spend your money on something other than this and thank me later.
