Monday, 21 October 2024

The Karate Kid: Street Rumble Review (Switch)

Of all the retro inspired sub-genres to have a comeback recently, we weren’t expecting 80’s nostalgia-based side scrolling beat’em ups with cartoon graphics to be one of them. We’ve had various Turtles games, Double Dragon: Gaiden and there’s the upcoming Toxic Crusaders. You can now add The Karate Kid to that mix. The Scott Pilgrim game has certainly had an influence.

The game does look great though. Locations are initially a bit dull but get better as you progress and take in the familiar locations of high school, beach, arcade and other areas around Reseda. The jump to Japan for the second film offers up some lovely sprite work and though the general designs of characters does repeat, everything individually looks pretty great.

Perhaps a little surprisingly, Street Rumble follows the plot of the first three movies instead of the more recent Cobra Kai series. You get to pick from four characters – Daniel, Ali, Mr Miyagi and Kimiko. Each character has the same basic set of attacks, but they range in speed and strength and have individual signature moves. So, there’s just enough here to make players try a few different playthroughs to find their favourite.

Combat is solid and fluid, with players able to mix light and heavy attacks together smoothly to create their own combos. You can add your signature attacks to this as well, meaning there’s good opportunities to juggle enemies or switch to new targets as required. You can also grab and throw enemies. The overall movement is limited but then that goes for about ninety percent of these types of games. One notable thing is that you can’t pick up weapons, so combat is really about keeping your combo meter going for as long as possible with the moves you have.

There’s an interesting health system in play as well with the player only taking proper health damage when their special meter is empty. This means you can take the odd hit without it causing too much trouble as long as you are on the offensive. Once you lose your three lives in a stage though you are done. Even if you are at the boss, it’s back to the beginning. This is well balanced though but can still be a touch frustrating as some of the stages are a touch long.

There’s also a low level exp grind at play where your characters can level up and gain new signature moves and other bonuses. The main way to do this is via secondary challenges within the levels. These normally come down to beating enemies a certain number of times with certain attacks or not taking health damage. It’s a pretty basic part of the game that lacks much invention, but it gives something for the box tick completionists to do.

Overall, The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is a well put together and good-looking game that plays nicely. The only real issue is that it can get repetitive quickly and some of the levels are pretty long and uninspired in terms of design. For short bursts it works really well and there are some nice systems here. It will be good enough for fans of both the films and side scrolling beat’em ups though. There’s also a lot that could be built and expanded on if they decide to move forward into other Karate Kid properties as there’s a really solid foundation in the design here.

Overall 7/10

Monday, 14 October 2024

Yars Rising Review (Switch)

Atari’s raiding and revitalising of its back catalogue continues unabated with one of its most bizarre and ambitious reboots yet. Instead of just updating the graphics and mechanics of one of its arcade games, Yars Rising takes the world of the famous Yars Revenge and attempts to expand it out into, of all things, a Metroidvania.

The original Yars does make appearances from time to time in the form of hacking mini games that need to be completed in order to open doors and disable obstacles. These play around with the conventions of the original game but basically amount to charging a meter then blasting a target with a super shot. Sometimes there are barriers, sometimes there are mines to avoid or other enemies to defeat but it all amounts to a single screen take on the original arcade style experience.

These hacking games become more and more complex as the game progresses. But if you feel you have really had enough of them it will let you skip if you fail a certain number of times. On the flip side you can also access them from the main menu if you just want to play them over and over.

The main bulk of the game has players take control of Emi Kimura who has been hired to break into the QoTech corporation. This plays out in the classic Metroidvania style with players exploring the 2D environment and picking up new skills along the way to let them through previously unpassable barriers. There are boss fights as well which normally need to be finished off with a hacking mini game or they will spring back to life.

In terms of design, the environments are a fairly generic, sterile, future sci-fi setting. It does help to keep things clear and easy to see but there’s not a huge variety between the looks of each location which can make traveling around a touch dull at times. Enemy design is very much in the realms of robots and technology which shares the same clear but not inspiration feel (with the occasional Atari reference). In a nice touch, all the characters are voiced, and Emi will chime in with her own commentary on how thing are going from time to time (this can be turned off if it gets too annoying).

Much better, is the general feel of the game. Emi controls well and it’s easy to get her to execute whichever move you are trying. This means you can get a good flow while traveling around the environments, allowing for speedy trips across the map. There’s also a well-balanced mix of action and stealth with a few areas requiring you to hide in doorways or vents to avoid invulnerable enemies. It’s not exactly Metroid: Dread but it helps to break things up and all the mechanics work well. The music is also excellent with a host of jaunty, anime inspired tunes present.

Overall, Yars Rising is a fun and inventive take on an IP that may have otherwise struggled to survive the expectations of modern audiences. The classic Wayforward vibe is in full effect and while this may not be anything revolutionary, it is certainly fun and breezy and there’s nothing bad here. If you feel you need another retro tinged Metroidvania then this makes a good choice, even among the mass of competition of the Switch.

Overall 7/10

Monday, 7 October 2024

Iron Meat Review (Switch)

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few decades you may have noticed there are quite a few indie games which are moulded in the ‘Metroidvania’ way. There also a fair few pixel platformers out there but, perhaps surprisingly, there are far fewer run and guns games inspired by the Contra series and other games of its ilk. Indeed, aside from Blazing Chrome it’s been remarkably quiet, that is until now.

The plot of Iron meat is as hilarious as it is basic. There have been some strange experiments going on, on the moon and now an iron hungry meat mass is mutating and destroying everything in a post-apocalyptic future. This is basically an excuse to merge iron and meat together to create horrific monsters to blast like a giant meat train boss with teeth.

Iron Meat unashamedly takes inspiration from Konami’s classic series in the best way. It is tough, but it’s not quite as brutal as Contra or Blazing Chrome, so it at least lets players get used to it before really ramping up the challenge. Levels are creative and well designed and provide a good deal of variety. In a further concession to the difficulty, any unlocked stage can be started from when you die, meaning you can practice the tough later levels without needing to blast through the others first.

As always with games of this type, the controls are key. We are pleased to say that everything here is tight. Your little dude who looks like Robocop is nimble and responsive and it’s also easy to blast in the direction you want to. That’s handy as the later levels require constant and precise movement to survive. As a nice touch your character can be quite heavily customised with unlockable skins and parts as well to mimic some famous characters.

There’s also a host of powerups available that keep blasting fun and you can carry up to two of these at a time. There is another small concession to the difficulty here in that when you die, you’ll keep whatever weapon loadout you weren’t using at the time.

The game looks beautiful as well. There are some amazing, animated cut scenes throughout and the levels themselves are detailed and full of character and touches such as sparks and flickering lights. In this respect the Switch doesn’t seem to be lagging. There’s no evidence of slowdown or poor performance either. Matching the visuals is an adrenaline pumping soundtrack and top level foley. This really is well thought out and presented excellently.

Overall, Iron Meat is a top tier run and gun game. There is an argument that it might be more fun than the recent Contra: Operation Galuga. It’s big, bold and intense but also gives you enough to feel like you can make progress and have a chance against what you are blasting. Retroware seem to have a host of retro inspired games coming and long may it continue if they carry on being at this level of quality.

Overall 8/10