Review: The Karate Kid – Street Rumble
It’s hard to believe that The Karate Kid was released 40 years ago! Not only did it make its lead actors, Ralph Macchio, and Pat Morita massive stars, but it also spawned two sequels, (three if you count The Next Karate Kid), a remake in 2010 starring Jackie Chan, and a hit Netflix show called Cobra Kai. A new movie in the franchise has been scheduled for 2025 starring Chan and Macchio called Karate Kid. As of writing this review, the eternally youthful Macchio has just turned 63.
Despite the series’ popularity, few video games have followed the adventures of Mr Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble attempts to change this fact by combining the first three movies into one game.
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up where up to 4-players can play as Daniel LaRusso, Mr Miyagi, Ali Mills (Daniels girlfriend from the first movie), and Kumiko (Daniels girlfriend from the second movie). The story mode takes you through the original trilogy of movies and fans of the series will instantly recognise the locations and characters.
Anyone who has played a side-scrolling beat ‘em up in the last 30 years will be familiar with the controls. There are standard light and heavy attacks, jump, dodge, and dash. Basic combos can be done by tapping light and heavy attacks. Each character has 4 signature moves which can be done when you have filled up the power bars. This is achieved by hitting enemies and not receiving any blows.
Each character can be levelled up by completing challenges such as not taking any damage or using various attacks to dispatch enemies. Levelling up your character is essential when playing on harder difficulties, as it unlocks more lives, extra damage, more focus segments, or additional signature moves. Aside from aesthetics, I couldn’t see any difference in terms of abilities between each character.
In between each stage, there are bonus levels that can be used to gain additional experience. Inspiration for these levels is taken from the movies, such as timing button presses to catch a fly, dodging a swinging hook, or hitting a wooden man. These add some variety to the main game and act as a friendly competition between anyone playing with you.
The music is fine, if a little generic and there is a music player in the main menu should you wish to listen to any of the individual tracks.
The most interesting aspect of the game (for me) is the graphics. Taking inspiration from 8 and 16-bit side-scrolling beat ‘em ups, there is a retro pixel style to the graphics that looks very nice. Each level starts with a set of still cartoon images of the movies before you embark on kicking some ass. These are ok but don’t necessarily blend very well with the retro visuals. There is a 50-page digital artbook included in the main menu which shows enlarged images of the characters and locations.
On paper, I should love The Karate Kid: Street Rumble. I enjoy side-scrolling beat ‘em ups. I am a fan of the movies and enjoy the style of graphics. So why do I feel a bit cold towards the game? First off, the jumping feels a little floaty for my taste and something is missing when hitting enemies. I know some side-scrolling beat ‘em ups can be a bit “button mashy”, but the lack of impact when I hit an enemy felt like I was just literally mashing buttons. The enemies aren’t particularly smart either. Again, this is a standard trope in this genre of game, and I wasn’t expecting super smart AI, but the bad guys just kept walking towards you with their standard attack patterns. Some enemies use weapons, but you are unable to use them against them, which is a missed opportunity.
For me, there are better examples of games in this genre that have recently been released. Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge all stand head and shoulders above The Karate Kid: Street Rumble. Whilst I admire the obvious connection the developers have for the source material; I honestly find it hard to recommend this over the aforementioned games.
Review by Chris.
