Riot Zone (Turbo CD) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1993 beat 'em up for the NEC Turbografx CD, Riot Zone.

Played through as Tony on the hard mode.

Riot Zone on the Turbo is an adaptation/remake of the Westone-developed, Sega-published 1991 arcade brawler Riot City, reimagined much in the same way as Westone's hit 1986 arcade game Wonder Boy was redone as Hudson's Adventure Island on the NES.

Riot Zone is the perfect example of what people refer to as a "cookie-cutter" game. As you'll undoubtedly notice in the first few minutes, it unabashedly apes pretty much everything from much better games.

Split into five stages, Riot Zone gives you the choice to play as Cody... I mean Axel.... errr.... a blond guy in a white t-shirt and tight jeans... named Hawk, and his reluctant partner Tony (who is totally not Biff from Two Crude Dudes). And your purpose? As police officers (wait, it's not Streets of Rage?) you have to enter the "DragonZone" and save the blond guy's girlfriend, "Candy." She's pretty much Jessica, just without being Jessica.

But that's not all. Let's not even mention how the between-stage maps, backdrops, and enemies are all clearly lifted from Final Fight and/or Streets of Rage: just wait until you see the encore appearances of the Andore family, or how Poison has been repurposed as a boss character.

The Turbo didn't have many beat 'em ups, and it seems odd that this is the game that would be a chosen representive of the genre on the system given the strength of Final Fight on the SNES and Streets of Rage on the Genesis. Why wouldn't they go with the excellent CD remake of Double Dragon II instead? Or even the PC Engine's updated CD version of River City Ransom?

Riot Zone doesn't do anything terribly wrong, but it has no identity of its own. The move sets are bare bones, the game is way too easy, and like the first Final Fight SNES game, it totally lacks co-op play. If it was on a HuCard, that omission might be a bit easier to swallow, but Riot Zone was a Super CD-ROM2 title - they should've done a lot more with it. I have to give it credit for its excellent redbook soundtrack, though. The music is easily the best part of the whole experience.

Well, okay. Tony's walking animation, which makes me think he pooed himself and is trying to keep the mess from sticking to his legs, is hilarious no matter how many times I see it. I think it deserves a special mention.

Riot Zone isn't a total loss. The simple mechanics do their job and the graphics are good enough. It can be fun for a bit. The problem arises once you're fifteen minutes in and suddenly remember that both Streets of Rage and Final Fight both exist. That's the point where you'll likely turn it off.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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