About a month back, Wayforward and Arc System Works unveiled River City Girls, a spin-off of the Kunio-Kun series starring two of its leading ladies.

So far, the game has received a great deal of positive reception from both fans and newcomers to the series alike. Speaking to Destructoid, River City Girls director and writer Adam Tierney shared a bit more about how the idea for the game came about, and the team’s thoughts on the game’s reception so far.

Tierney: I’ve always been a River City fan, going back to the NES game, which was the third game in a roughly 50-game series in Japan…But I’d somehow missed being aware of Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka for the Super Famicom, until another director at WayForward (James Montagna) brought it to my attention one day.

I instantly fell in love with the characters, particularly the playable girlfriends, Misako and Kyoko. You had these cute girls curb-stomping street thugs into the pavement. I love playing with juxtaposition in my games, and the visual of these pretty scrawny girls beating up dozens of massive street thugs resonated with me. So we decided to pitch a game focused on those girls to Arc System Works, who own the Kunio-kun brand. They loved the idea.

We’ve been working on this game for roughly the past year-and-a-half, and I think the earliest concepts go back to almost three years ago, so it’s really exciting to finally unveil our game to the public. The reaction has been amazing — so many people seem to already love the game, and all the fanart has been incredible. I can’t wait until the full game is released and everyone can get their hands on it.

River City Girls is set to launch on September 5, 2019 for Nintendo Switch.

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