It needs to be said that The Karate Kid: Street Rumble certainly looks nice, at least in terms of gameplay, with a sort of care applied to ensure the stages and characters look just right. The same cannot be said for the art in the cutscenes, however, so we will need to take what we can get. The music is also decent and while not the best ever heard in a side scrolling beat ’em up, is far from the worst.
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble adapts the classic films and gives us four characters to choose from in the form of Daniel Russo, Mr Miyagi, Ali and Kimiko. What is good is that each character manages to feel different in their own way and offer some great gameplay diversity. Some characters are fast and require rapid hitting, some are rounded and some are slow but hit hard, which gives a lot of choice to you when you play.
Gameplay in general is well done in The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, with the game giving basic attacks, hard attacks, combos and more. It is definitely more involved than some games and things like a double-tap dash, flying kick, and charging up your attack a are great touches. Grabbing also works well here and is easy to learn, though does work differently than a typical brawler which can throw you off the first couple of times.
No, the problem with The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is that for all its refinement of combat and some gorgeous environments, it never feels like it pushes itself far. There are objectives in the stages like in Shredder’s Revenge, character leveling and multiple difficulty settings to try out, but there really is not much to make the game stand out on its own. The Karate Kid is still a popular series, yes, and Cobra Kai has brought a renewed interest, but this beat ’em up just feels like it could have been more.
This would not be a problem if the price was reasonable, but asking for 49.99 USD is certainly a choice and I am not certain it was a wise one. The game never becomes a rush filled experience and as is the problem for many beat ’em ups, the gameplay gets too repetitive for its own good. Granted, most beat ’em ups are repetitive by nature and have a fanbase, but for the price that is being asked, The Karate Kid: Street Rumble should simply have a lot more going for it than it does.
There are neat ideas like the parrying mechanic, but it is not always clear if it was done right and so you will often end up just ignoring that mechanic altogether. Little issues like this bring down what should be a great experience through a sort of death by a thousand cuts, and as a result. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble just does not reach its full potential. Another flaw was the fact that there are no weapons or objects to pick up and throw, despite the well established aspect of beat ’em ups being in almost every other game in the genre at this pint. But most baffling of all was the lack of online multiplayer and only having local co-op play.
I really wanted to like The Karate Kid: Street Rumble and it does have a lot of strong parts, but it just fails to come together in the end. The things it does right, it does very well, but its the areas it misses out on that bring down the overall experience, combined with the high cost of entry that just does not make this game feel worth playing. There are plenty of great beat em ups available right now, and if you really want a brawler, there are others to try.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
