Hidden gems and Easter Eggs thrown up, but not yet uncovered
Connecting people with games that may go on to be some of their all time favorites is one of the best things about writing for Destructoid. WithRiver City Ransom: Underground, I wonder if I did enough on that front. It’s one of the biggest,most detailed 2D beat-’em-upsI’ve ever played. I’d wager that it has 50 times the content of related games likeRiver City: Tokyo RumbleorDouble Dragon IV.Yet, not many seem to know this, hence the game’sthree paltry professional reviews on Metacritic.
My guess is that people sawtheRiver Citynameand figured thatUndergroundwas of similar size and scope as its predecessors, not knowing how much there is under the surface that they’ve missed out on. It’s an example of how a well known but not hugely popular name can work against you. IfThe Matrixhad been calledJohnny Mnemonic: Underground, it probably wouldn’t have done quite as well.
A lot of people don’t realize that Provie can actually barf. It’s a special circumstance to get her to do it.@rivercityransom#indiegamepic.twitter.com/nDq0TKSW11
— Bannon Rudis (@BannonRudis)August 08, 2025
The good news is, Steam is eternal. With frequent updates and continued fan word of mouth,River City Ransom: Undergroundmay still find its full audience. That may take a while though, at least when it comes tothe game’s many secrets. After all, people can’t talk about things they don’t know.YouTuber ObsidianDraconishas found a lot of the smaller Easter Eggs and bonuses in the game, likethe flying robot,Merlin’s Shop, and thecats’ giant yarn sword, but we’re still a long way to go from seeing everything. For instance, it took the communityabout a month to find all of the game’s hidden books, and they practically aren’t even secrets.
On top of the hidden vomit combat system, the game has at least one secret boss, some playable characters, and a totally bizarre, hilarious event that no one has uncovered yet. They’re all really cool, potentially game-selling features, but I can’t tell you much more than that.River City Ransom: Underground‘s lead artist and combat system designerBannon Rudisshowed them to me last month in exchange for the promise that I wouldn’t talk. In fact, as one of the few people who’ve seen these features first hand, I may have already said too much.
Personally, I think if he were to go public with these secrets, it would do a lot to draw people into picking up his game, but that’s not his goal here. Not unlikeSeth Killian’sMega Man 9secret tease, all Bannon wants is to give players the sense of mystery and discovery that he experienced with the originalRiver City Ransomon the NES for the first time, all those years ago. I just hope that he hasn’t done so at the expense of people knowing about, and then later enjoying, all the great stuff he made.
