River City Ransom on the NES (or Street Gangs as it was called here) was Technos' attempt to reproduce the beat 'em up genre they had established with Renegade and Double Dragon onto a home format. Gaining a cult following, the game was an eclectic mix of fighting, item management, RPG elements and customisation that has rarely been matched since. Now Million, formed mainly from ex-Technos employees, aim to repeat the success of their Double Dragon Advance update with another handheld reworking.

The plot is about as offbeat as the game itself. River City and its school have suddenly been taken over by vicious gangs, and the girlfriend of Ryan, who lives in the neighbouring city of Cross Town, has been kidnapped. Alex happened not to be at school that day in River City and bumps into Ryan as he is about to set off to rescue his girlfriend. Both are deadly rivals in the martial arts, but put aside their differences here to liberate everyone held. You get to choose to play as either Ryan or Alex, or have both of them start out together.

The first thing that hits you is just how much flexibility and customisation the game allows. Right from the start there is a choice of whether to go alone or partner up at the beginning; how many allies and enemies on screen at a time; the difficulty level and AI of your CPU controlled allies; and so on. Within the game there is an even greater amount of choice, even down to specific behaviour patterns and whether or not certain features or aspects are allowed or triggered. In essence, each time the game is played, you get to choose the mix and how easy or difficult it will be.

This customisation also encompasses the development of your character throughout the game. Each character has a number of statistics such as strength, willpower, punch, kick, and charisma that can be either permanently or temporarily boosted. Buying and using food, magazines, CDs and other items during the game affects various parameters, along with supplying new special moves. These are vital for certain sections of the game and should be bought when money allows. Half the fun here is discovering what each item does, and with a large assortment of stuff to buy, it should take some time to catalogue them all.

The other half of the fun is figuring out how to properly defeat everyone encountered, how to trigger certain game paths and recruiting new allies to the cause. For example, if you start out alone as Alex, beat the first two screens and return to where you began, then a friend called Gary is waiting to join and help you out (complete with special moves). This brings incredible replay value to the game and no two games may well be the same. Your stats can also be a factor in negotiations, and with sufficiently high reputation, defeated bosses may even switch sides.

Control is exactly the same as the NES version, which means just the front two buttons are used. Whilst none of the moves are that difficult to pull off, it would have been nice to have jump, for example, mapped to either shoulder button. Moves are executed very much like Double Dragon, with combinations of punch, kick and direction having different results. You can even pick up prone enemies and swing them around to knock others down. Coupled with the special moves that can be bought, there is a wide range of attacks at your disposal which means that combat does not get repetitive after a while. Combat itself can be as judged or as mindless as you want it to be, and many enemies are no pushovers even on lower difficulty levels.

Presentation is tight, if a little confusing initially as there are plenty of menus to access whilst setting up and playing the game. It becomes second nature after a while as to where to go to choose a certain option though. Graphically the game is a joy to behold for those familiar with the NES version; the original style has been retained and essentially tarted up for the new technology. Super deformed type characters flying over the screen and pulling strange faces when hit always raises a smile, and overall the graphics are smart, clean and in some ways, cute.

Despite how good the game is overall, there are two things sorely lacking. Firstly the co-op ability of the original is missing, which is a mini-travesty in itself. How difficult could it have been to implement this successfully over connectivity? Whilst it has been compensated for by the clever ally system, it is always great to be able to team up with a friend at the same time, and success (or failure) is down to your skill rather than relying on the AI of your joinees.

Secondly, in the old school tradition again, there is no save game option. There is the ability to save your game character and reload them in through multiple plays to build up the stats, but the game has to be played through in one sitting to complete it. Admittedly the game isn't that long or big (roughly an hour or so when you know what you're doing), but for a portable format more known for bite-sized gaming, it can be problem allowing that period of time in one session. Whether or not it flies with the newer gaming crowd is to be seen, but it is another indication that the game wants to be a challenge from the get-go.

This new realisation of the game fifteen years on from its initial release is a partial breath of fresh air. It is still as fun, engaging and occasionally humorous as it always was, and with the new additions to the pot, makes it all the better for it, despite the already mentioned omissions. Consider them missed opportunities rather than actually detracting from the game itself. Replay value is immense due to all the factors in play, and all the hidden aspects will take a long time to discover. A must-buy for old NES fans and a definite consideration to those new to the series.