When thinking of the beat-‘em-ups of the past, Final Fight and Streets of Rage are often the games that come to mind. Despite being no less repetitive than the button-mashers of today, those games are memorable classics. Only a few others belong in their ranks, and they too were released during the 16-bit era.

Tokyo Beat Down, a new action game from Atlus, is a throwback to those days. It forgoes the modern-day mashing and Devil May Cry cloning to focus on a 2D adventure. The levels are short, the backgrounds are repetitive, and you’ll pound the same group of enemies several dozen times. It’s just what you’d expect from a game in this genre. But if you’ve been craving a Final Fight remake, Tokyo Beat Down is the next best thing.

Calling for a Beat Down

Sr. Patrol Officer Lewis Cannon, Captain Takeshi Bando and Patrol Officer Rika Hyodo make up the trio of playable characters in Tokyo Beat Down. Each is promoted as having a different fighting style, but with the same control scheme and single-button combos applied to all three, you won’t notice a huge difference between them. That hardly matters once the battle starts – you’ll take on anywhere from two to five enemies at the same time. The side-scrolling setup allows enemies to attack from either side, but you’ll be able to side-step toward and away from the background, adding a degree of evasive technique.

Technologically, the game looks decent. The characters aren’t overly detailed and the backgrounds, while not unimpressive, are not much better than a PSone game. Mechanically, Tokyo Beat Down won’t surprise anyone. And yet despite all that, the game is frequently cool and addictive. The pre-battle sequences – which normally include a real-time animation of the police speeding to an area – set the stage for the action ahead. Though some of the enemies are cheap, players can easily punch, kick or slam into more than one enemy at the same time, inflicting damage on whoever’s in your path at the time of attack.

Tokyo Beat Down may be a beat-‘em-up, but that didn’t stop the developers from adding a few firearms. When acquired, guns (handguns, shotguns, semi-automatics, etc.) are inactive until you pull them out. While far from a modern-day marvel, considering the way beat-‘em-ups used to force players to unleash their weapons immediately or throw them away, you’ll appreciate the adjustment.

Hand-Eye/Handgun Coordination

Weapons are a great way to stop an onslaught from occurring, especially when the enemy is also packing heat. But since ammo is scarce, the primary form of gameplay is centered on how many kicks and punches you can throw. The plain combo system doesn’t require any practice, though you may find that special moves – executed by holding the R button and pressing X or Y – cannot be performed if an enemy is about to attack. It’s kind of a silly restriction. The game should allow you to execute a move as soon as you’ve entered the appropriate buttons. But it takes a second for your character to get into his or her special move position before the move can be performed, and it’s in that small amount of time that the enemy can attack and prevent the move from going through.

When it does, however, your enemies will be dealt a serious blow. The attack is also somewhat damaging to the player, depleting a small amount of health. But the tradeoff can be worth it – if weapon-toting enemies keep knocking you down, this may be the only way to fight back.

Beat-‘em-ups wouldn’t be the same without boss battles, so you’ll get to take on a few significant baddies as well. Most are fairly traditional, producing one specific enemy whose large health meter ensures he won’t be exiting anytime soon. One of the more interesting battles involves a guy and a forklift. He uses it to pick up barrels and throw them at officer Cannon. Cannon is incapable of jumping over the attack, which is fairly quick and well dispersed (the barrels are shot everywhere). He can, however, sidestep the attack. But first he’ll have to deal with one or two enemies attacking on foot. If all goes well, you’ll be able to shoot the forklift – this is one of the few areas of the game where ammo is plentiful – a few times, dodge another attack, and repeat the process until the boss is defeated.

Tokyo Beat Down stumbles in the same area as its unofficial predecessors: repetition. That’s not the biggest problem though. While the pre-battle intros are not a nuisance, the mid-mission discussions and battle-free exploration are seriously boring elements that should have been omitted from the game. These days, publishers and developers are obsessed with telling a story. But unless you can make that story relevant, entertaining and unobtrusive, it should not be included.

Gameplay: 7.2
Button-mashing at its best. When the action is uninterrupted, the game is great. Hugely repetitive but great. However, when the lousy character dialogue begins, or when you're on a mission that doesn't involve any battles, you will be bored.

Graphics: 5.5
Tokyo Beat Down won't be accused of being ugly. But it could have looked so much better.

Sound: 3.0
Keeping with the 16-bit-inspired tradition, Tokyo Beat Down is not a musically rich game. The soundtrack is bland and the sound effects are no better than an NES game.

Difficulty: Easy
The enemies may be cheap but the game is not challenging.

Concept: 6.6
Same old beat-'em-up concept. New game.

Overall: 7.0
Tokyo Beat Down is a fun and shallow beat-'em-up that occasionally veers off path.