The Karate Kid franchise has had a bit of a resurgence of late, mostly thanks to the Cobra Kai TV show – which has had a couple of games itself. But there’s some love for where it all started now as developer Odaclick Game Studio and publisher by GameMill Entertainment bring you The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, an old-school beat ’em up based on an old-school film.

“Dominate the dojo in The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, a pixel art beat ‘em up adventure. Grab your friends for local co-op multiplayer and dive into the classic The Karate Kid journey with retro-style gameplay, dynamic combat, and epic boss battles.”

The Karate Kid: Street Rumble lets you play through the original three films (The Next Karate Kid gets forgotten) as you guide Daniel LaRusso from being the new kid in town, to fighting in the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship tournament, a visit to Japan to delve into Mr. Miyagi’s past and then to finally face off against Terry Silver and Mike Barnes. Make your way through all three films via some classic side-scrolling, brawling action.

The gameplay is very typical, but solid and fun. You have a light and hard attack, a jump, dodge and even a special move. Beat up bad guys and build your focus meter, and you can withstand hits without taking damage. However, every hit that you do take will reduce your focus meter and soon leave you open to an ass-whooping. The focus meter is also what allows you to use your special move. Punch and kick your way through the stages, face off against recognisable villains, and visit locales right from the films. The better you perform on each stage, the more experience points you earn. You can then level up and unlock new abilities and skills – extra lives, a larger focus meter and even new special moves.

The Karate Kid: Street Rumble comes with a four-player co-op option, so you and three chums can team up and teach the bullies of Reseda, Los Angeles a lesson or seven. Yeah, iIknow what you are thinking, four-players – who are the four characters. Of course, you get to play as Daniel-san but also along for the ride are Mr. Miyagi, Ali Mills and even Kumiko from The Karate Kid Part II. This does bring up some errors in terms of storytelling. How can Kumiko be in the first film’s story when she does not appear until the sequel? It doesn’t matter, this game is about having fun, not an accurate retelling of the film’s events. There are several “errors” that hardcore fans could point out, like the fact that right from stage one and Daniel’s first arrival in town, he is already well versed in karate and can beat up dozens of people at the same time, he knows Mr. Miyagi and he can do the crane kick right from the off. Still, I reckon a game where you spend the opening 20 minutes getting your arse kicked by bullies would be a tad dull. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble throws you into the action and lets you kick some serious bum cheeks as soon as you start.

In between the stages, you get these little comic book-like cut scenes that tell a condensed version of the trilogy’s stories. You also get some mini-games dressed up as training sessions where you have to pull off combos or do things taken right from the films, like catch flies with chopsticks (there’s no “wax on, wax off” though). Really, these are nothing more than rhythm-based button mashers, but they’re still fun and break up all the beat ’em up action really well. Each of the four characters is different and with their own moves and fighting styles. You also get four difficult levels to try out from Easy through to No Mercy! There is a lot of work to be done if you want to max out one character’s levelling, never mind all four. So replaying stages, or even the entire game, is a must. Thankfully, The Karate Kid: Street Rumble is a good and solid slice of classic beat ’em up action, and it is worth playing through multiple times away. Even more fun with some friends for some great, local co-op action.

Visually, The Karate Kid: Street Rumble goes for a 16-bit/pixel art style, and it works well. There’s a lot going on in terms of animation and the stages are crammed with great little details. The audio is equally as retro with its chiptune music. Though I do have to say that I don’t recall hearing any of the recognisable music from the films, I think this is all original music. Even so, it does a good job and captures the 1980s very well. It would’ve been nice to have had a 16-bit version of Glory of Love or You’re the Best though.

Along with the story mode that lets you play through the original trilogy, you do get a few other modes to play around with, once you unlock them. There’s an option to play any of the mini-games/training sessions. There’s a pretty great boss rush mode that pits you against all of the bosses in the game, but grouped into little challenges. The endless mode is pretty self-explanatory, you get to fight an endless, and increasing in difficulty, mob of bad guys and bosses, to see how long you can last (I really liked this one). Then there’s an arcade mode which doesn’t seem to be much different from the main story mode.

The Karate Kid: Street Rumble comes with a £35 price tag and for that, you do get a decent amount of game – but I feel this is still a slightly high price for a title like this. If you have played and enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge or Streets of Rage 4 then I think that you’ll get a pretty good crane kick out of this. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble isn’t quite as good as those other two titles that I just mentioned, but it is still a really good beat ’em up regardless. I do have a few niggles. Controlling the characters feels a bit “stubborn” at times as they move quite sluggish unless you use the run option, and then they become quite uncontrollable and very slidey. When you jump, there is this moon physics thing going on as you float in the air a bit too long. Still, the controls are far from being terrible, they just need a slight tweaking. The main combat feels great and pulling off combos is fantastic, but the movement is just a bit off.

I would’ve liked to have seen more interaction with the scenery, as the stages are quite sparse. There are some great background details and little animations here, but the stages can still feel a tad empty. There are no weapons to pick up, even though your enemies use several. Maybe this was done to stay true to the films? There are no alternate costumes or looks for the four main characters. Even when you play through the three films, Daniel-san wears the same outfit. There is a day-one patch that adds a new look for Daniel based on the second film, but this still feels a bit stingy and I think it would be nice to see several more alternate costumes for all of the characters. The Karate Kid: Street Rumble could have some DLC in the future. How about some Cobra Kai content? I know there have been two Cobra Kai games already, but this is better than both of those. Or why not include The Next Karate Kid or even a tie-in with the new 2025 film? There is a possibility to add to and make this game even better.

The Karate Kid: Street Rumble may not be the best around, but nothing’s gonna ever keep it down. It’s a solid beat ’em up that does the film series justice in a great modern-retro way.