The Karate Kid is back, but this time in video game form. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is a retro-style pixel brawler that lets you relive the classic movies as a side-scrolling beat ‘em up.
I should also say up front, I’m a massive Karate Kid fan. I rewatched Daniel LaRusso’s story a few years back I realised just how good it really is. It holds up as a proper underdog tale, and that love for the franchise is what made me so excited to dive into Street Rumble.
Welcome to Reseda
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble begins its story at the same point as the first movie, with Daniel Larusso moving with his mother to Reseda from New Jersey. There are 3 Parts to the game with part 1 exploring the main events that take place throughout the first film, from taking Ali Mills on a date to Golf n’ Stuff to taking part in the All Valley Karate Tournament.
Part 2 takes us through the second movie, we leave LA to travel to Okinawa where we admittedly rush through the story which from a gameplay perspective I can understand, it’s hard to save a distressed child from a typhoon in a beat ’em up without, well I suppose actually beating up the weather?
Onto Part 3 then, we return to Reseda and are introduced to Terry Silver (truly one of the best villains in any movie in my opinion!) His schemes take us through Daniel’s inner struggle and lust for power as he joins Cobra Kai, this segment had the best boss battle in the game hands down. The story concludes with Daniel retaining his Karate title after being forced to compete in the All Valley Karate Tournament.
Like I said if you are a fan of the movies, this game follows the story decently. A lot of the beloved characters are here and they feel true to their film counterparts.
True Karate Here, Here, Never Here
The gameplay is as you would expect from your typical side scrolling, beat ‘em up. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel but it also doesn’t need to, there’s a couple nice additions in the form of temporary health shield called Focus that you can build up by landing combos on enemies, however you also use this resource to perform your signature moves. There is a decent progression system here too, you can level your characters up to level 20. Each level you gain rewards you with something new, from new signature moves to more focus bars so you can stockpile your resources for bosses!
There are 4 Characters available to play as, which you can enjoy playing with up to 4 players in couch co-op. Daniel LaRusso, Mr Miyagi, Ali Mills and Kumiko. Sadly however, these 4 are all you will get to play as throughout your gametime as there are no unlockable characters. Each of the characters play much the same but with their own unique signatures and animations.
Combat can take some getting used to if you haven’t played a similar game such as Streets of Rage or Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game just to name a couple. Its movement is stiff but by design, it’s got that classic arcade retro feel and if played on a controller (like I did) it will help build your calluses as the d-pad is far more accurate to use than the analogue sticks but with the trade-off of sore thumbs.
The combo’s though limited feel good to land, and you can even charge up the heavy attacks during a combo to do some decent damage in a larger area. There is also an Evade function where you’re forced to perfectly time an incoming attack in order to take no damage which works well on Bosses in one on one situations but less so against full screens of aggressors.
Once you have completed the game’s Story there are some additional challenge modes you can play through, Boss Rush, Endless and Arcade. There is also a dedicated Minigames mode.
You Just Broke My Radio! Yeah.
The music in The Karate Kid: Street Rumble was solid, it perfectly captures that 80’s arcade cabinet feel with its 16bit soundtrack. The attacks when they connect sound weighty and the perfect evade audio cue is incredibly satisfying, it will make you want to try for evades constantly! There is also a Jukebox you can enjoy should you wish to listen to some of the music the game has to offer.
The visuals are gorgeous, there has clearly been a lot of effort put into recreating the iconic environments of the movies in a pixelated style. The backdrops are animated in some instances with some having objects you can throw enemies into and destroy.
Much like similar games there are containers that reflect the environment around them such as a barrel at the docks, or a partially open bag in the gymnasium. You can destroy the majority of these to obtain pickups like health recovery and focus recovery, some however look like they should be destructible but are just part of the scenery.
No Mercy in Karate
There is sadly no online play feature, so if you don’t have any friends to hand you won’t be playing the game in co-op. Some of the mini games though simple in design just tend to be frustrating, though this might be remedied in co-op multiplayer.
The AI can sometimes get a little confused in certain levels where the maps change from being side scrolling to having a small degree of verticality. I had a few enemies walking into walls trying to figure out how to path down to me which was a little irritating as you have to fully clear on screen enemies in order to progress to the next area.
I didn’t encounter any issues in the form of game breaking bugs or glitches, thankfully this game just Crane Kicked its way to victory!
The First 60 Minutes of Gameplay
Final Thoughts
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble does a good number of things right, it’s a brilliant game to play if you’re a fan of both the pixel art retro beat ‘em up genre and of The Karate Kid franchise. I have enjoyed my time spent in the game, however playing through the entire story solo in around 2.3 hours I find myself feeling reluctant to go back and do it all again with another character, I do know however if I had friends round this would be a game I would insist on us playing!
The pricing however is in my honest opinion a bit of a problem, at the time of writing this review it’s sitting in the steam store at £34.99. Whilst I know this is linked to the Karate Kid franchise, I can’t help but feel like this is a steep price tag for potentially 2 – 4 hours of play. If this game were to go on sale however, I’d wholeheartedly recommend picking it up!
7.5 / 10
Whilst it’s important to note that Miyagi Do Karate only be used in self defence, it’s equally as important to note that Cobra Kai… Never Dies!