Jahanzeb writes: "The friends of Ringo Ishikawa on Xbox is an unconventional beat ‘em up, with an opaque design and almost aimless sense of progression. The game has a strong atmosphere as it provides a setting for players to lose themselves in, yet there is no real gameplay loop or substance here as players need to create this for themselves."
Jordan writes: The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa sets you off on an open-world adventure with your friends, will they have your back? Only time will tell!
The friends of Ringo Ishikawa has plenty of beat-’em-up DNA in its makeup. You’ll often get into scraps while roaming the streets of its Japan-inspired setting. You’ll throw rival gang members over you shoulder, deliver roundhouse kicks to the face and land jab after bloody jab. But those little skirmishes are only one small part of its whole, a rich tapestry of ideas that isn’t content to simply be one thing or another.
In fact, ‘TfoRI’ has more in common with Street Gangs (or River City Ransom as its known outside of the EU) than Streets of Rage. If anything, it’s a simulator for the rigmarole, angst and perennial boredom of your teenage years. Sure, there’s an RPG levelling system. There are survival game-esque metres tracking your hunger. You can even string combos together to knock back enemies when you’re being swarmed in a brawl. But it’s the way it embraces the mundane that makes this indie offering so unusual
Noisy Pixel reviews The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa on Switch from developer yeo and publisher Circle Entertainment, available April 4.
