River City: Tokyo Rumble to receive stateside limited physical release later this year

Earthquake24

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http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/20/11977940/river-city-tokyo-rumble-physical-release-3ds

River City: Tokyo Rumble getting a physical release

By Allegra Frank on Jun 20, 2016 at 1:30p

Natsume will release River City: Tokyo Rumble both physically and digitally later this year, the publisher told Polygon during E3 2016. The Kunio-kun series' first 3DS release to make it stateside is set to receive a limited-edition printing when it launches later this year, although that wasn't always the case.

"[Tokyo Rumble] was going to be digital-only," Graham Markay, Netsuke's vice president of operations, said. "You don't have to sell to retail or try to explain or try to get the physical product placed on store shelves [with online exclusive releases]. That gives you the ability to take a few more chances."

Natsume had already taken a chance by localizing the game, which first launched in Japan in 2013. The publisher's relationship with rights holder Arc System Works, and producer Taka Maekawa's own fondness for the classic beat-em-ups, led to an arrangement between the two companies to bring back the Kunio-kun games. That's despite the fact that Western audiences hadn't played a new entry in the series in quite some time.

But there are still people who love these games, Maekawa and Markay insisted, themselves included.

"It really reminds me of my elementary school years," Maekawa said about the 30-year-old Kunio-kun series, which includes games like Renegade, Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom. "That game was released in the U.S. a long time ago, but there should [still] be diehard fans."

These are the people Natsume heard from most loudly when it announced Tokyo Rumble this past spring.

"When we announced [Tokyo Rumble], there was an outcry of, 'It better be physical,'" Markay said. "So we're going to do a limited edition physical release."

There's still no release date for Tokyo Rumble, which adds role-playing game elements alongside the familiar side-scrolling action. It will launch sometime later this year, just in time for Renegade's 30th anniversary.
 

Yoshi

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Thanks for the heads up. Since Nintendo is nearly completely incompetent in terms of DRM, a physical release is great news where their hardware is concerned.
 

Colorado Rockie

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That's great news, especially with a physical version too. I haven't really been following this game at all but it will be nice to fire up my 3DS again whenever this comes out.
 

Tanooki

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Done, buying it, enough said. I wouldn't have as a digital rental only ever. I was happy to see this was made 3 years ago, but to find out we're getting it legit here too is great -- thank you deeply Natsume.
 

Westcb

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Game looks pretty cool, someone wake me up when this goes on sale though :-/
 

NeoSneth

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i'll believe it when i see it.
also. remind me if you see it. lol
 

GregN

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Thanks for the heads up, I'll be looking and waiting for it.
 

Jarofmayo

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Gotta pick this game up! Loved River City Ransom on the nes. Any release date announced?
 

GregN

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3DS, right? Does it have a kickstarter?
 

k'_127

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Collection of Famicom games is coming to 3DS as well:

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/08/3...icom-series-featuring-11-games-announced-3ds/

https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/770818410024280069

CrJ_QgzUsAQWnlU.jpg


So the physical release of Tokyo Rumble had been available for preorder at Amazon but now it says "currently unavailable" : /

Play-Asia still has it for pre-order though: http://www.play-asia.com/river-city-tokyo-rumble/13/70ab9p
 
Last edited:

Earthquake24

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Collection of Famicom games is coming to 3DS as well:

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/08/3...icom-series-featuring-11-games-announced-3ds/

https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/770818410024280069

CrJ_QgzUsAQWnlU.jpg


So the physical release of Tokyo Rumble had been available for preorder at Amazon but now it says "currently unavailable" : /

Play-Asia still has it for pre-order though: http://www.play-asia.com/river-city-tokyo-rumble/13/70ab9p

Natsume says that pre-orders will start showing up 'very soon', so it looks like Amazon never actually had pre-orders up yet, just that page saying 'currently unavailable' which will change when the pre-orders officially open up. Same with Nintendo and the NES Classic Mini, Amazon has the "currently unavailable" page up but pre-orders haven't started for that either. Keep checking back, hopefully they open them up by end of this week or early next!
 

k'_127

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Natsume says that pre-orders will start showing up 'very soon', so it looks like Amazon never actually had pre-orders up yet, just that page saying 'currently unavailable' which will change when the pre-orders officially open up. Same with Nintendo and the NES Classic Mini, Amazon has the "currently unavailable" page up but pre-orders haven't started for that either. Keep checking back, hopefully they open them up by end of this week or early next!

Thanks a lot a lot for the info.
 

Tanooki

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Lame can't lock in a pre-order on amazon for it yet. Yet the suggestions reminded me there were like 2-3 games of Kunio on the DS too, recreations of their classic stuff like Dodgeball and Crash n the Boys if I remember right.
 

Earthquake24

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There's been a update in regards to release date and pre-orders. It seems that Natsume has been having trouble with Amazon setting up pre-orders for the game, so they are not going to do pre-orders. There will be other places you can purchase the game without the keychain bonus but GameStop/EB Games will not be one of those places. The game will go on sale on September 27th on the Amazon storefront and will get you a keychain bonus with it. Here is the company rep's official response:

Hi all! Still waiting for a few answers, so hopefully I'll have a little FAQ by the weekend, but it all depends how quickly we get the answers needed. The short answer is, the Amazon Store will not be taking pre-orders. Orders for the game with keychain will open up on the 27th (and as I know the first question is "when on the 27th?" and hopefully I will have the answer). The keychain combo will only be on our Amazon.com storefront.

There will be other places to pre-order the game, by itself, and I'm compiling that list. We're using a new distributor for all our 2016 titles, and it's given us some new opportunities for people to buy from places they couldn't before such as Play Asia :) It won't be at GameStop/EBGames.

Also, since we've been asked a few times, there's no digital pre-orders -- the game will be available for purchase that Tuesday morning when the eShop updates, which occurs some time between 8am and 2pm PDT.
 

Tanooki

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Damn that sucks, I wonder if the preorder/early buy rule still work work on Amazon because if you preorder or buy within the first week or two you get 20% off. I was kind of counting on that slice otherwise I can wait until the price drops as it's not vital to me as I have plenty.
 

Renmauzo

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My copy just came in the mail from VGP today!!! Super excited to crack it open and play tomorrow :D
 

Tanooki

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I wonder why it isn't showing on amazon I would have preordered it. The thing is now, though it will wait. I don't want to give myself more of a reason to back off DQ7 as I'm not tiring of it yet and I'm over 10hrs into it now. The bite sized mini-RPGs each island stands for is keeping me motivated as it's less of a slog.
 

DracoBlade

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Ordered a copy from play asia, still waitin! The dodgeball mode looks on point.
 
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