Back in 1993 the Turbo Duo was churning out some of the best titles Ever in the lifespan of this NEC wonder.  Lords of Thunder, Dungeon Explorer II, and Bomberman '93 just to name a few.  But Riot Zone was one title that fell under the radar for most gamers during that time.  With pretty impressive large scale sprite images and an excellent soundtrack, its a shame that this game didn't get noticed more.  The Challenge and Gameplay were the downfall of this mid 90's Turbo classic.  With a difficulty level that a toddler could easily slice through and gameplay about as unoriginal as my ass, its a shame that Hudson and Westone didn't take some more time to polish what could have been an excellent title!

The Grafx are one of the strong points of this game, with large sprites and very colorful backgrounds and foregrounds its nice to see the developers took some time to create a very lush environment in which to pummel the enemy!  The only drawback is very limited paralax scrolling.  During the 16-bit days it was somewhat mandatory that games have that '3D' feel to it.  In the very first stage there was 2 instances in which the background and foreground were given that 3D feel.  Its too bad the rest of the stages didn't follow suit.

With gameplay very reminiscent of Capcom's Final Fight and Sega's Streets of Rage, its a shame that Westone and Hudson didn't take any risks in making this game a little more original.  This is basically a cookie cutter of Final Fight on the SNES.  It even has only a ONE PLAYER MODE.  So No 2 player simultaneos gameplay here!  Being that this is the only consolized port of Riot City (Which is 2 players) this comes as a MAJOR dissapointment!  The game plods along in a semi slowish rate with very average fighting moves and enemies.  But not all things are bad in Riot Zones Gameplay, as the pace does gradually get pretty intense in some of the later stages as you alone must battle some pretty awesome looking bad guys!  In one fight in particular you enter into the ring and take on a 500+ lb. monster who actually uses the ring as a prop and jumps off the top ropes while attacking you! 

The soundtrack of Riot Zone is somewhat legendary among the Turbo Grafx Community.  With some very mood setting stage background music, the tunes set the tone for what to expect in the upcoming level.  Some levels have a very heavy metal feel to them with some awesome guitar rifs!  The music that sets itself apart from most other games is the excellent Boss music!  This game is often found in my current MP3 music collection on my Player.  As far as Turbo Super CD soundtracks go, I would put this easily in the Top 10, maybe even Top 5!  Especially with the amazing song that plays at the end credits.  It really adds to the feel you get from conquering the game!

Grafx:       7.5
Sound:      9.0
Control:    6.0
Challenge:5.0
Overall:     6.5

Overall, this is a definate buy for anyone with a Turbo Grafx 16 capable of playing Super CD games.  The Soundtrack alone makes it worth the purchase.  I still pick this game up every once in a while to blow through it.  Its super easy and a fun one and a half maybe two hour Beat em up.  If your not into sidescrolling beat em ups, this will not change your opinion of them, it is what it is.  Its an above average game, but fans of this genre might be better off with Double Dragon II(Import) as far as Turbo Grafx Super CD beat em ups go.....