River City Ransom/YMMV

• Demonic Spiders: The very first gang that attacks you, on the first screen of the game, attacks faster and harder than almost every other set of mooks in the city. Your best bet for survival is to run immediately into the next screen.
• Ear Worm: The main action theme plays for roughly 85% of the game, so it's a damn good thing it's so catchy.
• Game Breaker: Stone Hands, Dragon Feet, or Grand Slam in the NES version. Acro Circus or Torpedo in EX, although your reputation will be trashed if you abuse them.
  • Acro Circus was a gamebreaker in the NES version also, since the move won't trigger a block animation. Once that got mastered, your biggest fear was accidentally bouncing a box, tire, or trashcan into yourself.
  • In the NES version, ledges. If a screen contains a brick wall, a fence, or any other ledge you can jump onto, then you can easily wipe the floor there with even the toughest gangs and bosses—simply because the enemies cannot jump. Get onto a ledge and the enemies will typically approach as close as possible, then just stand there, and they won't move again until you touch the ground. So all you have to do is to jump down, punch them once, jump back before they have a chance to react, rinse and repeat. And if the ledge is low enough, you can kick them without even jumping off.
  • Two Player mode, Grand Slam, each player with a lead pipe or chain. Get on either side of the boss you're fighting, and let the Curb-Stomp Battle commence.
  • In 2016, a secret password was found in the game that goes against the usual Password format (the password being "MShin/Technos/Japan") and also maxes out every stat, including some previously unknown ones such as a combo speed stat, maxes out money, and gives all of the book techniques, including the Game-Breaker moves above. Have fun mopping the floor with every gang member in the city.
  • EX: The double chain typically carried by The Eagles, which has insane reach and can be spammed just as fast as any other weapon. It gets even worse with Grand Slam.
• Memetic Mutation: "BARF!"
• That One Attack: Slick's telekinesis attack in the remakes. It knocks out a huge chunk of your life and is difficult to avoid. The best way to deal with it is to prevent him from using it.