Magnificent 2P side-scrolling adventure with the button-mash brawling of a fighting game and the complexity of an RPG...
Along the way, you can fight various street thugs, who then respond to their sudden loss in a quote at the bottom of the screen, as well as drop coins to be collected and used to purchase food/beverages to raise health and RPG-based attributes, as well as books from the library that teach new fighting styles that could prove useful throughout the course of the game.
Gameplay consists of fighting the lesser enemies until a suspenseful song begins to play, followed soon by a quote from the Boss at the bottom of the screen.
You then fight, and hopefully beat, the area boss to proceed to the next area, who should be blocking at this point the route to the next area.
If you don't fight the underlings, you don't get to the boss of the area. That being said, if you just ran on to the next area, you will eventually find yourself with no access to the school at the road's end, and must retrace your steps to the boss(es) that you skipped.
Inbetween the bosses are several different stores for you to purchase various types of items that raise a large number of very specific attributes.
The game uses a password system, but since it's so complex, I'd recommend having a full sheet of paper, as it takes at least 15 minutes to fully copy and check the long passwords, which can be obtained at virtually any point throughout the game by bringing up the Inventory/Status/Password screen.
There is also at least one hidden shop with mysterious items, and several other surprises along the way to rescuing the girl from the evil clutches of her captor.
If you should die along the way, you will find yourself in the last shopping district you found yourself in, with half of the cash you had before dying (After all, Grim Reaper's gotta make a livin' too, ya know?)
River City Ransom is one of the best Two-Player fighting games ever to hit the market, and I more than highly recommend it to classic gamers.
Blessed Be