School’s Out… Again!
It’s been a pretty exciting few hours forRiver City Girlsfans, not only did we receive the great news that bothDouble Dragon‘s Marian andRiver City Ransom Underground‘s Provie are joiningRiver City Girls 2as playable characters, but WayForward has also seen fit to release the first screens of the street-brawlin’ sequel in action.
The first screens, which you can check out in the tweet below, see returning heroes Kyoko and Misako once again rumbling through the trouble-filled gangland that is River City… Frankly, it’s amazing that the government hasn’t just leveled the whole town by now. The screens show our fave schoolgirl sluggers messing around in Kyoko’s bedroom, (with plenty of series references on point), kicking ass at the local funfair (which may seem very familiar toKunio-kunfans), and making a mad dash down the highway, the rapscallions.
Perhaps most exciting of all, one screen features the debut appearance ofMarian and Provie, slapping around some thugs in the local graveyard. They both look awesome! WayForward also took time to announce that two classicKunio-kunvillains,The Dragon Twins, will bring their nefarious ways to the new adventure. It’s an all-star cast so far, and it seems that the dev team has only just begun.
From these screens, it’s clear thatRiver City Girls 2isn’t going to be making any severe departure from its predecessor, sporting the same cool pixel art style, currency-heavy mechanics, and what appears to be a returning “Recruit” system. For those yet to experience the ways ofKunio-kun, the franchise differs in style from brawlers such asFinal FightandStreets of Rage, proffering a tighter focus on character progression, backtracking, and the building of unique skills and abilities.
This makesRiver City Girlsand its predecessors closer in style to RPGs than arcade adventures, allowing for more characters, a wider variety of locations, and deeper storytelling. It’s a fit that works for theKunio-kunseries and — as teased by these new screens —River City Girls 2looks set to continue this face-and-pavement-pounding tradition.
River City Girls 2is currently in development for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and Nintendo Switch. It is expected to launch in 2022.River City Girls Zero, a revamped edition of 1994 Super Famicom titleShin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, is also in development, with a tentative release window of this year.
Next, take a gander at a the first screenshots of River City Girls 2! Check out the new environments, characters, and enemies! Kyoko has good taste in posters!pic.twitter.com/PK8pHSZbAl
— WayForward (@WayForward)July 17, 2025
