Ever since Arc System Works bought the Kunio-kun series, they’ve been randomly releasing games left and right for the past couple of years. Some even have made it over here in the West, albeit with not much fan fair or notice. The last game be released in the West (not counting the spin-offs River City Girls, River City Underground and River City Knights of Justice) that follows the mainline series was River City Super Sports Challenge All Stars Special.
Let’s get ready to Rumble!
The festival continues- Melee Mach!! takes place right after the events of All Stars Special. A couple of days after the sports festival flyers have been floating all around town promoting a new event: a “Anything Goes Martial Arts Tournament” to see who is the strongest group in River City. These mysterious flyers show up around the same time as students from different schools are getting beat up. Kunio-kun and his friends think this is very suspicious due to the tournament being held by Tora. Kunio has fought Tora before in a previous tournament, but think this isn’t the same Tora but a different person using the same name. Regardless, Kunio-kun and friends are pumped for another chance to test their strength in an all out brawl.
Brawling and making friends- Much like All Stars Special, Melee Mach!! stars Kunio-kun and all of his friends and rivals from All Stars Special. This also includes teams where Kunio is in a couple of alternate versions of his main team, the cheerleaders, the Lion Union and even a team that consists Kiyoko, Misako and Misuzu from River City Girls. Sadly there’s no customizable player, but when there’s over 180 characters to choose from (including Billy and Jimmy from Double Dragon) I think I can live without it.
Other team’s version of events- Kunio and his gang aren’t the only ones story that you can go through. Each of the teams have their own story modes that you can go through. Each have their own motivations to enter the tournament and its pretty cools to see the story play out through their perceptive. My favorite one to play through is the historical drama team from Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki dayo Zenin Shūgō!. Basically its Kunio-kun and his friends if they were back during the age of the samurai. They’ve gotten “transported” to the future and participate in the tournament to get back home.
Various modes- While it may seem that Melee Mach!! has only one event, the battle event, there are various modes built around it. Battle Royal is a fight to be the last man standing. Tag Match has teams working together to take out enemies. Change Match is a new mode that if one member gets knocked out, then the next member jumps in and continues the fight. Endless Battle is another new mode that is single player. Here you are tested to see long you can survive against back to back fights. In each of the modes you can customize different options like the number of matches, the timer, if being tossed out the arena causes damage or a DQ, set items, selecting the stage and most important of all choosing the background music. I personally set all my fights to the Double Dragon Theme.
Dream team- While it’s sad that there isn’t a create a character in Melee Mach!! the next best thing is creating the strongest team in all of River City. Want a team that has the four strongest students in the city? Done. Want Kunio and Riki to team up with their girlfriends Misako and Kyouko? Cute and done. Or maybe have a team that has all the versions of Kunio and Riki? Weird flex but ok. Its pretty fun to see what team combos that can be made.
Barf again
Nitpicks- I a couple of nitpicks about the game. One is that the game still uses the same fighting system that has been used throughout the series since the early days of NES/Famicom. You would think that now that the Kunio-kun series is in the hand of Arc System Works, a mainly fighting game developer, would at least put a bit of their fighting game influence into game. Nothing to major, maybe just a few simple combos. The other nitpick that I have is the missing character creator/customizer. It was fun creating a character and having them interact with Kunio and friends. Again just a minor nitpick as I do enjoy creating different teams. And speaking of teams, it kinda sucks that there’s only six spots for six different teams.
River City Melee Mach!! is a fun, albeit repetitive, brawler staring gaming’s favorite hot-blooded student. It’s great to see Kunio-kun and all of his friends back together for a another round of fights after the events of the last game. New teams have been added in that weren’t in the previous game, such as Kunio’s and Riki’s girlfriends. Speak of teams, being able to see other team’s view of events is pretty cool and adds to replayablity. Also being able customize teams with characters from different schools is fun.
There are a few issues that I have with the game, mainly the game using a “ancient” fighting system and no customize character option but as I said, these are minor nitpicks. River City Melee Mach!! is another great entry into the Kunio-kun that’s also a perfect fit for the Switch. So gather your up your friends for a hot blooded battle royal.
