Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering The Karate Kid: Street Rumble by developer Odaclick Game Studio:
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble: (Nintendo Switch)
Get ready to fight in the All Valley tournmant and take your skills to Okinawa as The Karate Kid returns again in this 16-bit side-scrolling beat-em-up The Karate Kid: Street Rumble. Relive the story of Jersey boy turned Karate champion Daniel LaRusso and his friends Ali Mills, Kumiko, and Mr. Miyagi in this action brawler that follows the story of The Karate Kid Trilogy. Take on the bully Jonny Lawrence and beat down iconic villains from the films like John Kreese, Sato, Chozen and Terry Silver.
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble features 12 stages that are heavily inspired from locales from The Karate Kid Trilogy where intense fights will take place with a myriad of enemies to beat down. Upon fighting your way to the end of each stage, a powerful boss awaits you who you must defeat by chipping away at their health bar in order to sucessfully beat the stage.
Combat is relatively straightforward. You can use light and heavy attacks to damage your opponents. By doing so, you will be able to fill up your focus bar which will allow you to administer your signature move like Daniel’s iconic Crane Kick. The focus bar also acts like a shield to protect you from enemies but once the focus bar is empty, you will be susceptible to taking damage. I should also note that heavy attacks can also be charged up in order to do more damage than standard heavy attacks.
Up to four players can play cooperatively in The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, with players having the choice of four different characters to choose as: Danial LaRusso, Ali Mills, Mr. Miyagi, and Kumiko. All control pretty much the same but have their own unique way of light, heavy and signature attacks.
Whoever you choose to play as, you will be able to earn experience to level them up by playing through each stage and beating it. At the end of each stage, you will earn XP by the amount of damage you have done, lives remaining, the time it took to beat the stage, and HP remaining. You can also earn extra XP be completing any and all of the three challenges on each stage like Defeat 15 enemies with Heavy attacks or Don’t recieve Damage.
To break up some of the combat heavy stages, there are also six minigame stages. Some of these minigames include catching the fly with chopsticks, completing combos as fast as you can, pressing the right button when prompted whilst balancing on a post, and dodging swinging barrels.
In regards to any extra content that The Karate Kid: Street Rumble may have, you can play the minigames separately from the main story mode, as well as take on all the bosses in boss rush, play Arcade Mode, or Endless mode, which as the name suggests, will keep on going until you lose all your lives. All other game modes are unlocked after you have beaten the story mode, with the exception of the minigames which are unlocked progressively upon reaching them in the main game mode.
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble does its best to provide a retro 80’s feel throughout from the 16-bit arcade visuals to the banging soundtrack that is pumped out as you play, which I do find rather fitting seeing as the films themselves were released in the 80’s. The menus and cutscenes are not 16-bit though and feature a much more modern look with the cutscenes having a rather charming comic book feel to them that doesn’t exactly resemble the original actors of the film too much but the characters they play are very easily distinguishable.
All in All, The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is a pretty tight arcade brawler that does well to stay pretty faithful to the original films whilst being a bit creative in the gameplay department. The price might be a bit hard to swallow but I think Karate Kid fans will enjoy this title on the sheer nostalgia alone.
The Karate Kid: Street Rumble Gameplay:
Game Specifics:
Developer: Odaclick Game Studio
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Arcade, Action, Fighting
No. of Players: up to 4 players
Release Date: September 20, 2024
Price: $39.99
File Size: 2.1 GB
Nintendo.com Listing
