The River City crew has traded street fights for a zombie outbreak, as River City Survivors: Downtown of the Dead is now available exclusively on Apple Arcade. Arc System Works America has released the Survivors-like action game on Apple’s subscription service, giving players a new way to experience the long-running River City series.
River City Survivors: Downtown of the Dead puts players up against screen-filling hordes of zombies while they build increasingly powerful characters during each run. As enemies are defeated, players earn EXP and level up, with randomized upgrade choices allowing them to combine skill attacks, projectile attacks and stat boosts into different builds. The result is designed to make each run play out differently depending on the upgrades selected along the way.
The game also brings some of the River City series’ signature special moves into the formula. These attacks can dramatically increase a character’s power while adding some of the flashy action associated with the franchise, giving the zombie-slaying gameplay a distinctly River City flavour.
Character progression extends beyond individual runs through an equipment system featuring six different gear slots covering items such as the traditional gakuran school jacket, bontan baggy pants, belts, shoes, accessories and inner buttons. Equipment can also come with special effects, giving players another reason to keep searching for better gear and upgrading their characters.
More than 20 playable characters can be unlocked as players progress, including familiar River City faces such as Kunio and Riki. Each character has their own stats and skill sets, while up to two NPC allies can also accompany players into battle. Allies can be equipped and powered up themselves, adding a team-building element to the fight against the zombie hordes.
There is also a reason to return every day, with the first completed play each day rewarding items such as money, equipment EXP and equipment evolution materials. Consecutive daily clears are tracked through a “Consecutive Survival Record,” with the rewards becoming more valuable as the streak continues.
River City Survivors: Downtown of the Dead is now available through Apple Arcade, giving subscribers another River City spin-off to add to the service’s growing game library.