Ludography
Riot Zone cover

1993 · Westone Bit Entertainment · Action · Beat 'em up

Riot Zone

Timed NEC exclusive

Riot Zone is a side-scrolling fighting game that follows two heroes as they fight to take down an evil organization. The crime syndicate Dragon Zone has kidnapped Hawk's girlfriend and it's up to him and his partner detective, Tony, to get her back. Join them as they jump "fists first" into the grim Kowloon district.

Released
26 February 1993
Platforms
TurboGrafx-16Turbografx-16/PC Engine CDWii
Genres
ActionBeat 'em upFighting
Developers
Westone Bit Entertainment
Publishers
Hudson Soft
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Country
Japan
Age ratings
CERO BESRB E10+
Languages
English

About

Riot Zone, known in Japan as Crest of Wolf (狼的紋章(クレスト・オブ・ウルフ)), is a 1992, beat 'em up video game by Hudson Soft for the TurboGrafx-CD console. It was re-released on the Virtual Console for North America on January 14, 2008, in the PAL regions on January 18, 2008, and in Japan on April 1, 2008.

Keywords

  • brawler
  • wii virtual console

Media

Riot Zone screenshot 1

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Like Riot City, Riot Zone resembles Capcom's 1989 arcade hit, Final Fight, which is an archetypal side scrolling beat-em-up game. Players choose between two characters: Hawk, the blond-haired vigilante who has average statistics, and Tony, who is strong, but slow and has a break-dancing move. Player controls the chosen character from left to right through each level (most of which are split into three or more scenes), fighting with the enemy characters who appear, until they reach a confrontation with a stronger boss character at the end of the level. Once that boss is beaten, the player automatically moves on to the next stage.

Enemies appear from both sides of the screen, and the player must defeat all of them to progress. If the player tries to simply travel through the levels without fighting, the screen will stop scrolling until all current enemies have been defeated, before allowing the player to continue progress. Enemies may move outside the confines of the screen, but players may not. Unlike Final Fight, there are no weapons to pick up along the way, but the player will only pick up items for points and health.

Story

In the beginning, the setting takes place in New York City where two men known as Hawk Takezaki and Tony Aldus met up with their chief Jim Hyde, and told him that they finally forced a villain known as Bossman to stay in a place called the DragonZone. The chief advised Hawk not to enter the DragonZone and head back home, but Hawk refused to do so. Before he immediately began traveling toward DragonZone and try to demolish it, in order to save a girl named Candy, Tony told Hawk that he will join him.

Development

Riot Zone is a port of the 1991 arcade game Riot City developed by Westone Bit Entertainment and distributed by Sega. When Hudson Soft picked up the rights to the game for a home conversion to the TurboGrafx-16, they changed the title and character designs in a matter similar to what they have done with various ports of the Wonder Boy series to non-Sega consoles (such as the original Adventure Island on the NES or Dragon's Curse on the TurboGrafx-16). The development of the game was handled by Agenda Co. Ltd.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Turbografx-16/PC Engine CD31 December 1992Worldwide
Wii14 January 2008North America · Europe 18 January 2008 · Australia 18 January 2008 · Japan 1 April 2008

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Publishers

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.