River City Girls runs well enough, has a fantastic presentation, lots of energy, and some really fun movesets in the playable characters. On the other hand, some things feel like it's unnessecarily holding you back rather than genuinely challenging in single player
Double tapping to run made sense in the arcades, but for a 30 USD release it can feel clumsy. While the move upgrades are solid and feels great to fight with, regular enemies have no audio cues. So their attacks can feel like they have no startup at times. Combined with a delayed parry/one way block, and the defensive options for players are lacking.
You have to purchase items to see what they do. It's a cool risk reward, but if you guess wrong it's a grind to get items for the bosses, who feel like they designed with co op in mind. I understand challenging the player with big boss fights, but Cuphead's fights are genuinely shorter. RCG's bosses drag in a way that isn't engaging. It also doesn't help that the stat upgrades can feel like an afterthought.
River City Girls is not a bad game. It's fine, and in co op it's a blast. I just don't think it will revive the genre, or get people into them who aren't fans. A sequel with improvements would get me hype. For now it's worth getting on sale, especially if you use this: https://github.com/MoArtis/RCGMod/releases