The Karate Kid: Street Rumble review

Thirty years on, John G. Avildsen’s feelgood martial arts spin on the sports drama template that had served him so well with Rocky is still relevant. Surprise hit reboot Cobra Kai has seen a resurgence of interest in the Karate Kid universe, reigniting the career of Ralph Macchio and bringing back William Zabka from indie movie obscurity. Cobra Kai did a frankly astonishing job of reinvigorating a series that got progressively worse with each instalment, fleshing out even minor characters and changing the story arc of others in refreshing and clever ways.

Videogames-wise, tie-ins have been something of a mixed bag. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is the third title and the second belt scroller of recent times based upon the beloved franchise, following the half decent Cobra Kai game from 2020. It’s follow up was poorly received. Can this new one live up to the legacy the franchise deserves? The answer, sadly, is not quite.

The Karate Kid: Street Rumble looks promising in many ways. The box art images present a great anime take on Daniel-san and co, and the in-game graphics are beautiful pixel art creations that are similar in execution to those in the excellent Shredder’s Revenge. The comparisons to that one end here, however. You get the choice of four characters: Daniel LaRusso, Ali Mills, Kumiko, and of course Mr Miyagi. It is then a standard scrolling beat ‘em up as you use standard and heavy attacks, charged specials, and dodges to take on the slew of foes across stages that take in plotlines from the first three films in the series.

There are no weapons to pick up, only power-ups that incrementally level your character up in the only nod to light-RPG mechanics at play. There are plenty of different types of enemy, and lots of them on screen at times. You face recognisable big bads from across the different movies, and more than one take on Johnny, including the memorable Halloween costume variety, Kreese and Terry Silver. The problem is, the whole thing is for the most part  is incredibly easy thanks to the inclusion of a bafflingly overpowered jumping special attack that essentially makes your characters invulnerable during its execution. If you’re old enough to remember the old Double Dragon game that you could complete just by doing the elbow attack, that is what it is like. Each hit with this jumping attack helps charge your special attack gauge, making the whole thing repetitive and almost without any challenge whatsoever. The only time you are tested is with some of the boss characters, some of whom just tend to have difficult to avoid specials that you just cannot dodge. This fact makes some of the challenge parameters feel almost impossible to achieve.

Each stage asks you to complete three tasks, which are usually the same: hit an aerial attack fifteen times; use a grab attack ten times; and in some cases complete the level without taking damage. Another problem with trying to meet these special conditions is that the grab attack is underpowered and it takes a truckload of hits to take out even the weakest enemy grunts, making the task of killing fifteen foes with grab attacks a laborious chore. Add into the mix some inconsistent hit boxes, floaty jumps, lack of real oomph to the attacks, and the fact the characters kind of always feel like they are skating on ice, and you have a pretty average take on a genre.

I coasted through the game without any real challenge, but some of the stages are pretty lengthy, which is always a concern with this type of game. Then, out of nowhere, one stage fairly late on in proceedings suddenly throws two absolutely bonkers-tough boss henchmen that can wipe you out in just a couple of hits. By this stage I had already quite easily dispatched Kreese, Snake, Johnny, Sato, and a rogues gallery of other legendary badasses only to get absolutely creamed by two hulking nonentities.

In its defence, the pixel art characters are for the most part, terrific. The main characters are instantly recognisable, and some of them are absolutely spot-on, particularly the menacing Kreese and Chozen. There is a bit of artistic license on display which I enjoyed, and it is possible to suspend your disbelief watching ostensibly peace-loving self defence advocate Mr Miyagi absolutely beating the crap out of hundreds of enemies. The level designs look good too, and feature lots of destructible objects. The quality of the in-game art is at odds with the weird cutscenes that bookend the action, which look like they have been drawn from a completely different game, with unrecognisable takes on the characters.

The action is broken up by some surprisingly well executed minigames, usually QTE based, and revolving around motifs from lore, such as catching flies with chopsticks. But they aren’t enough to elevate The Karate Kid: Street Rumble. If you’re desperate for a new game in the genre, there’s something here for you, but there are better examples available, making it hard to recommend this one.