River City Ransom Spirit Board Announced

On January 21st, the official Japanese twitter account for Super Smash Bros. announced an upcoming Spirit Board event based on the Kunio-Kun franchise.

【スピリッツイベント】
『熱血硬派くにおくん』シリーズのキャラクターがスピリッツボードに殴り込み！ 1/24(金)から5日間、イベント「ダウンタウン 熱血スマブラ行進曲」を開催。新規スピリッツ4種類が登場するので、ぜひチェックしてみてください！#スマブラSP pic.twitter.com/5EIQeDCfrC

— 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ【スマブラ公式】 (@SmashBrosJP) January 22, 2020

According to a translation provided by Smashboards writer Venus of the Desert Bloom, the tweet reads "Characters from the series 'Hot Blooded Kunikun' hits the spirits board! For five days, starting from 1/24 (Fri), the event 'Hot-Blooded Smash Bros Downtown March' will be held. Please check out the 4 new spirits!"

The name of the event is in reference to Downtown - Nekketsu Monogatari, the original Japanese title for River City Ransom, one of the most iconic games in the Kunio-Kun franchise. It was confirmed in a later tweet that the Spirit on the left is Kunio, also known as Alex in some Western releases, the main protagonist of River City Ransom. A later tweet confirmed that the two characters on the top right are Ryuuji and Ryuichi, also known as Andy and Randy. They serve as the main villains for much of River City Ransom, and are both fought at the same time in a boss battle inspired by Double Dragon, complete with that game's title theme as their boss music.

【スピリッツイベント】ダウンタウン 熱血スマブラ行進曲
出現スピリッツその1
スピリッツ名：くにお
種類：アタッカー
階級：ACE
スキル：打撃アイテム強化
出典：くにおくん シリーズ#スマブラSP pic.twitter.com/bGHyhfnRUb

— 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ【スマブラ公式】 (@SmashBrosJP) January 22, 2020

As for the other two characters, the one in the middle is most likely Riki, also known as Ryan in the North American release of River City Ransom. He is the secondary protagonist of most of the Kunio-Kun games, and is usually controlled by the second player. On the bottom is what seems to be Goda, named Ivan in most localized versions. He's another late game boss that appears leading up to the encounter with Ryuuji and Ryuichi.

At the time of writing, there is no information as to whether this Spirit Board event will be available in other regions, and if so, whether the original names and sprites will be used in Western territories, or if the names and sprites from the North American release of River City Ransom will be used instead.

 

Ain't it strange how there's a dedicated Spirit Board event to a Technos/Arc Sys character that's never, ever been mentioned before? That's certainly never happened before. Like, there was Resident Evil, but Capcom's already got a presence in Smash. Maybe it's a bit too early to tell if Kunio himself is out of the race?

 

Ain't it strange how there's a dedicated Spirit Board event to a Technos/Arc Sys character that's never, ever been mentioned before? That's certainly never happened before. Like, there was Resident Evil, but Capcom's already got a presence in Smash. Maybe it's a bit too early to tell if Kunio himself is out of the race?

I feel like, if anything, this would bode better for an entirely different ArcSys character tbh. Why would they dedicate an entire event to the series if they were going to have a dedicated Spirit Board later?

I'm not familiar with ArcSys, but I know they have both Guilty Gear and Blazblue.

 

I feel like, if anything, this would bode better for an entirely different ArcSys character tbh. Why would they dedicate an entire event to the series if they were going to have a dedicated Spirit Board later?

I'm not familiar with ArcSys, but I know they have both Guilty Gear and Blazblue.

Guilty Gear and BlazBlue are their big two. They also have Double Dragon per the Technos buyout

I could *maybe* see Kyoko and/or Misako based on their River City Girls appearance as well

 

I'm not familiar with ArcSys, but I know they have both Guilty Gear and Blazblue.

They also developed games like the Persona 4 Arena games, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and the upcoming Grandblue Fantasy Versus.

They publish other notable games like Under Night In-Birth, Arcana Hearts 3, and Kill la Kill the Game: IF.

In other words, if it is an anime fighting game, ArcSys most likely has a hand on it (to the point where most of EVO's lineup nowadays comes from ArcSys games).
They didn't have a hand on Jump Force interestingly...

 

This and the release of Guilty Gear Strive being in the same year can't be a coincidence. Also, GG celebrated it's 20th anniversary last year. I think Sol Badguy might join Smash for these reasons. Personally, I am hyped!

 

I’m surprised we’re getting another board event this soon after the Astral Chain one.