River City Girls 2 Critic Reviews

Despite not being the expected genre revolution, River City Girls 2 is a fantastic sequel. WayForward improves every element possible, and pays homage to Kunio-kun's legacy.

Its additions make what was an already slick and fun experience even better, and the open world maps now bring a dimension of exploration, which coupled with a gorgeous visual environment, a very fitting soundtrack, and a finely executed co-op multiplayer all contribute to make River City Girls 2 a bright gem in the Nintendo Switch catalogue.

River City Girls 2 tries to take the Beat-em-up genre to the next level with a plethora of improvements that for the most part pay off greatly. What an incredible game by WayForward.

If you're unsure if you want to take the plunge, the less expensive prequel is a great way to test the waters. If you get through it and end up hungry for a much bigger burg to brawl in, and can stomach a few technical hiccups, you'll more than get your money's worth with this full-throated, knuckle-dusting follow-up.

Changes here and there make this new installment feel fresh and atractive. Long exploration may not appeal some gamers, but the rest will feel the joy of pixel-art.

Bigger and better perfectly fits for River City Girls 2, that manages to improve what the previous entry achieved.

If you're a fan of beat em up games and the first River City game you'll most likely enjoy River City Girls 2 and all if not, you will still enjoy the game if you can ignore its few annoyances.

If you liked River City Girls, you’ll probably like River City Girls 2. It’s mostly the same thing, just way more of it. The new characters are fun, the city is much larger, there are way more quests, and the story has higher stakes. The minigames are a great new addition, boss fights are tough but fun, and oh man, that soundtrack.

River City Girls 2 should've been a slam dunk release by building on the excellent original and supporting online multiplayer with cross platform play, but it is held back by the gameplay feeling sluggish compared to the original thanks to a lower frame rate target. The music, voice acting, and boss fights are excellent though. Hopefully the performance can be addressed in future updates.

River City Girls 2 is more River City Girls, feeling less like a full-fledged sequel and more like a RCG 1.5. Switch-related performance issues aside, it was still a great time to return to River City thanks to its phenomenal music and voice acting, sharp writing, gorgeous sprite work, fun new characters, and satisfying combo-based gameplay, but at launch it feels a patch or two away from greatness. If you loved the original as we did, you’re bound to like this follow-up, and we hope the team at Wayforward gets more time and money to really expand the series for a third entry.

River City Girls 2 is more River City Girls, with all the good and bad that implies. The expanded playable roster and some minor gameplay tweaks are appreciated, along with the ability to play with others online, but so much here is the same that you probably don’t even need to read a review to know if you’ll like it or not. Want another reason to stomp around River City with Misako and Kyoko? Here it is. Looking for the next great brawler after Shredder’s Revenge? You’ll have to keep waiting.

River City Girls 2 almost ticks all the boxes: fun gameplay mixed with anime-style aesthetics and a humorous story. The jarring loading screens between each playable area annoyingly slow the pacing. It’s enjoyable, it’s just not as smooth as it should be.

River City Girls 2 does a lot right. With fantastic presentation, an incredibly exciting soundtrack, and tons of creativity and variety, all of the elements are here for a classic beat ‘em up. Poor performance, though, really brings the experience down, being an almost constant thorn in your side. It’s by no means unplayable, and I still had a fair amount of fun along the way, but this feels like a game that wasn’t ready to release yet. Hopefully, after a few patches, we’ll be talking about it being the great game it could be, but for now, know what you’re getting yourself into.