The scrolling beat ‘em up is a tried and tested genre. Since Kung Fu Master in 1984, and the many decades of iteration since, the mechanics of the walking whack ‘em up have become etched in stone. We could likely play one in our sleep. With all that history to draw upon, with so many refinements to include, with such a simple and accessible gameplay loop, it must be genuinely hard to make a bad scrolling beat ‘em these days. And yet, with The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, that’s exactly what developers Odaclick Game Studio have astonishingly managed to achieve.
Thanks to the ongoing success of the TV show Cobra Kai, Karate Kid has enjoyed a resurgence not seen since the release of the original film way back in, would you believe it, 1984 – yes, the same year that Kung Fu Master saw its fateful debut. So, with that sort of convergence, it makes a lot of sense for a retro-inspired scrolling beater set around the events of the first three films to be brought karate-kicking into the world.
And The Karate Kid: Street Rumble certainly looks the part, bringing to mind the pixellated gorgeousness of Ubisoft’s Scott Pilgrim VS The World: The Game in its old-school aesthetic. But here the similarities end between that seminal beat ‘em up and Odaclick Game Studio’s latest.
Firstly, Street Rumble is frustratingly finicky to play. Attempting to tell whether your diminutive fighter is on the same plane as their foe is remarkably difficult, resulting in their devastating flurry of punches and kicks hitting little but thin air. Worse, even when you are set up in the right position, collision detection is iffy and there’s little sense of connection or impact to be found in the animation, leading to a fighting game with literally the worst feature: lacklustre fighting. Unfortunately, that’s what you spend all your time doing.
You and up to three friends via local co-op strut your way through twelve short levels, punching and kicking everyone you meet. The story is hung over the events and characters of the original films, but is told in such a humdrum way, you’ll soon be clicking through the text-based comic book-like cut scenes with wanton abandon. Seeing the classic cinematic moments recreated in a retro style is kind of fun, but that soon fades as you battle the same handful of tedious goons and their limited attack patterns again and again.
Combos and special moves are available to you and can be upgraded but none of the player characters differ to any interesting degree in their play style, leading to apathy soon setting in. Worse still, the trademarks of scrolling beat ‘em ups guaranteed to liven up proceedings, like weapon pick ‘ups or vehicles or creatures to ride are all curiously absent. If you thought boss fights might save the game, you’d sadly be mistaken, as encounters are banal to the extreme – most foes falling to your foursome’s flurry of fists in rapid order.
In short, the game is a massive ‘meh’. There’s nothing here to warrant raiding your wallet, even if you are the most devoted of Cobra Kai fans.