TheRiver City, also known as theKunio-kun, series has seen a bit of a revival recently thanks to games likeRiver City: Rival Showdownon Nintendo 3DS and the original game’s inclusion in the Nintendo Switch Online’sNES service. Today, WayForward Technologies announced that they are releasing a brand new 2D beat ‘em up in the series calledRiver City Girlsin September.
The game follows Kyoko and Misako as they are trying to save their boyfriends, who are actually series protagonists Kunio and Riki. Their adventure takes them through all six regions of River City, which has now been realized in a more vibrant and colorful 16-bit inspired art style. As you’d expect from the premise,River City Girlssupports two player co-op and the same beat ‘em up combos and upgrades players have come to expect from the series. That being said,River City Girlswill allow players to pick up weapons, recruit enemies to fight for them, and will feature lots of side quests from NPCs guest-starring from otherRiver Citytitles.
Arc System Works is also overseeing the title, in case you are worrying that this is a purely western-developed game. WayForward Technologies was also sure to highlight the game’s pop-synth soundtrack, which is poised to hold songs from Chipzel, Christina Vee, Megan McDuffee, and NateWantsToBattle; in fact one of Christina Vee’s songs is actually used in the trailer. They also confirmed thatRiver City Girlswill be getting a limited physical release from Limited Run Games at a later date.
You can check out the game’s announcement trailer below.River City Girlscomes to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2025 for $29.99. WayForward is also working onShantae 5right now, and we recently learned that it will feature andopening animation fromKill la Kill’sStudio Trigger.Unfortunately, WayForward won’t say whether or not Shantae will make a surprise appearance in this game.
