Are you prepared to enter... the Riot Zone? That's what this game probably didn't ask players rhetorically in its advertising, but I'm doing so on their behalf. Riot Zone (JP: Crest of Wolf) is one of a small handful of brawlers on the TGCD, a genre that seems oddly under-represented given how ubiquitous they were everywhere else in the early 90s. It's also based on an Arcade game, but isn't quite a complete conversion: Y'see, the developers Westone teamed up with Hudson to produce their Sega-published Arcade game Riot City on the TurboGrafx-CD. Because Sega owned the rights to all the character and location names, all those aspects had to be changed. The rest of the game is identical, save for the new redbook CD audio score.
This practice wasn't new for Westone and Hudson. Best known for the Wonder Boy series, Westone originally produced Arcade and console versions of the Wonder Boy games for Sega and found ways to sidestep any litigation issues with their subsequent publishing deals with Hudson, eventually leading to Adventure Island (Hudson's take on the first Wonder Boy) and The Dynastic Hero (Hudson's take on the fifth Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy in Monster World. It's also another TG-CD game, so I might have to cover that next time).
I mean, I say this game is based on Riot City, but perhaps I should cut out the middleman and just say that this game is based on Capcom's Final Fight. It's kind of shameless, even. That said, at least they didn't steal the plot from Final Fight (they stole it from Streets of Rage instead). But hey, we came here to Riot, not to get all angry about things.
Highway to the DragonZone
Probably Vancouver, but I'll take your word for it.These are our heroes, Hawk and Tony. They're loose cannon cops who play by their own rules. I mean, I'd imagine.Is... is that code? "Red Owl has left the Nest"?"Yeah, whear is it?!" "Hush, Tony. We'll find out the whears and wais soon enough."All right, fine, it is New York. You can't fake that level of linguistic authenticity.The DragonZone, right? I mean that sounds like a dangerous zone, as zones go. I'd prefer him in jail. Or the morgue!Guys, maybe we shouldn't have elected Dr Wily's chubby older brother as Police Chief. I mean clearly he's on the take.Is that a cigar or a particularly thick fountain pen? I can't unsee the pen now."You aren't my real dad!" "Actually, Hawk, your mom and I..."Words to live by.Tony's all for it. He's got a whole season of Sherlock waiting on his DVR.Hawk won't take "Stay outta the DragonZone" for the sensible answer it is. He won't need his gun where he's going: deep into enemy gang territory. Fortunately, they don't have guns either. It's New York, after all.I'm still not sure if DragonZone refers to a place or to the criminal organization. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's just a mini-mall in Chinatown."This close to Halloween? The monsters!"DragonZone. I have to go to there."C'mon. Let's just watch wacky old BeneDragon CumberZone solve some crimes instead. I got hours of this stuff."Nah, Tony can't leave a bro hanging in the wind.Besides, it's a two-player game. He's contractually obliged.If you can't trust a man with stars tattooed on his mohawk'd head, then who can ya trust?Game - no matter what happens next, you and me? We're cool.Beat that, Predator.Welcome to Riot Zone! Sorry, I had to grab as much of that intro as possible. The rest of the game ain't as fun, trust me.I probably should pick Tony. Instead, I went with Not Cody. I prefer faster characters.Sure, let's borrow from Sunset Riders too. Why not. 8000 Points can pay for a lot of Chinese take-out, and all I gotta do is take out some Chinese punks. (Apologies to the Chinese. On behalf of the game, I mean.)Wow. That's overt. I guess this New York floats on an island just like Metro City.Standard "bad guys have names and health bars" set up. Can we assume you've played either a Final Fight and/or a Streets of Rage game? It'll expedite this whole thing.Rather than destructible objects in the environment, food drops randomly from fallen foes. This wet chicken on the ground restores a not-insignificant amount of health. Hey, 5 second rule, man.Sorry Thin Liz, but the Boys Are Back in Town. Drown your troubles in a Whiskey in the Jar if you must.From Thin to Fats, these bare-chested brawlers from the 1930s are your standard Abobo/Andore "big guys". They're not actually that much tougher than these regular goons, though.I took down Pretty Boy with Hawk's special twister move. These specials drain health every time you use them, but they're good crowd control. I read that Tony's special involves breakdancing. Probably should've picked that guy, huh.Right away, we're on a moving elevator with enemies dropping in. I tell ya, these games are obsessed with elevator fights. At least they aren't all wearing stealth camouflage.King Kool might be the death of me. The enemies are relentless during this elevator sequence, and none of them appear to want to drop their lunch after dying.As was the case in Double Dragon, your best move is often the flying kick, performed by jumping forward and hitting the attack button in mid-air (pressing both at the same time activates the special attack). However, if you jump straight up and hit attack, you do an elbow drop instead. Now you're talking!The elevator eventually makes its way to the roof. I have no idea what I'm doing up here.Oh shit! But Not Cody, you've still got so much to live for! Like that probably dead girlfriend of yours.Nah, turns out I just had to leap down a few floors to find where Mr. Lee is hiding. With his two healthbars, he's quite firmly in boss territory. However, he bugs out as soon as his first bar is gone.Which leads to you leaping down several floors after him. Man, those are some giant clown pants.Miss Chan is waiting down here, and then the two double-team you for the rest of the fight.Focusing on one to remove them is paramount, because they have co-operation attacks. Little too claws for comfort, am I right? But seriously I just died.Putting on his best strut, Not Cody celebrates the successful capture (or death, whatever) of some vicious criminals that just so happened to not be white. Way to go, Not Cody."Put a knife in them, they're done." Wait, when did I get a knife? That could've been useful. Or is it just for symbolic use only?Anyway, Round 2 beckons and we're somehow in an even scummier looking area of the slums. DragonZone could use sprucing up.Not Cody wants us to continue, but I think that first stage was enough for me.
Riot Zone isn't terrible, honestly, and you could probably ascertain as much from watching Jeff play it during Vinny's moment of triumph. I mean, sure, it's a brazen Final Fight knock-off, but given the slim pickings for Turbo-CD brawlers, it's not too bad as far as Hobson's (Hudson's?) choices go. It moves at a leisurely pace and enemies drop a lot of food items (well, when they feel like it) so it doesn't quite make the mistake of bringing an Arcade brawler to consoles and forgetting to ease off the quarter-munching difficulty. That might just be the limitations of the hardware though, reducing the number of simultaneous enemies on the screen and making sure everything isn't flitting by at 60fps. Ah, early 90s console ports.
Anyway, we never did see the DragonZone, but perhaps we'll see something equally dangerous in the next (and final!) episode of Octurbo-CD. Until then, I'm going to finish my laundry and then jab a knife through a picture of that laundry. "To Do" lists are for chumps.
