River City Super Sports Challenge is a side-scrolling racing game with abundant opportunities for beat-'em-up action. Four hooligan characters race, on foot, through courses stocked with hurdles to climb, throw-able boxes, moving walls, and other platform game-style obstacles. Players can try to grab and trip up their competition as they run through the courses, and at locations along the way, all four racers brawl in full-screen areas until one emerges victorious. The general flow of play is from right to left, but pathways have depth such that characters can also move slightly outward or back into the screen, just as in the original NES River City Ransom. Super Sports Challenge runs on a 3D game engine, however, and characters can move freely around the courses. The game gives players a choice of six school teams, each with six customizable team member characters. Players can also adjust their teams' stats by balancing their stamina, punching, kicking, and weapons skills. Up to four nearby DS players can compete against one another in wireless download battles. Published in the U.S. by Aksys, the game is part of the Kunio Kun series, which is popular and long-running in Japan. Along with the spring-2010 released River City soccer Hooligans, Super Sports Challenge marks a return of the series to North America, where it is known in multiple localizations such as Renegade and Super Dodge Ball, as well as the original River City Ransom. While the characters and settings featured in international versions of these games vary greatly, themes of toughness and team spirit carry throughout the series.