The Karate Kid: Street Rumble does something I’m amazed hasn’t been done in a videogame before: It takes the story and characters from The Karate Kid films and turns them into a retro beat ’em up. I and up to three other players in local coop choose to play as the bullied new kid in town, Daniel Larusso, his karate mentor Mr. Miyagi, his love interest Ali Mills, or his other love interest, Kumiko, and march them through a dozen levels adapting the plots of the first three Karate Kid films. Daniel and his companions’ adventures take them across the sun-bleached streets of Reseda, California, the halls of West Valley High School, the commercial docks in Okinawa, Japan, and in two different annual visits to the All Valley Karate Tournament. At each step they fight for balance and peace against the bullying students of the Cobra Kai dojo and dozens of other random thugs, each wielding aggression and fear as their weapons.
Street Rumble’s player characters have traditional and straightforward abilities for a contemporary beat ’em up. Each fights off the foes which fill the screen using efficient Light attacks and slower Strong attacks. Strong attacks are where the player characters establish most of their personality. Daniel uses the series’ emblematic Crane Kick for his Strong attack. Mr. Miyagi fills his palms with spiritual energy then expels it into his opponent’s body with a gentle press. Most of Ali’s attacks reflect her status as a cheerleader; her Strong attack sends a single high kick into her opponent’s face. Kumiko dual-wields Japanese sensu fans, slashing them at her opponent like knives.
Using different rapid combinations of Light and Strong attacks expands a player character’s repertoire into four basic combos. They can also jump to set up an aerial attack. Walking into an enemy causes the player character to grapple with them, where they may be pummeled for concentrated damage or thrown across the screen and potentially into other enemies. Grappling is a typical inclusion to a beat ‘em up but, in a curious departure, Street Rumble’s grapple leaves the player character so vulnerable that it’s almost never wise to use it unless there is only one opponent remaining on screen. It seems to be included because it’s expected, not because it’s useful. The final core ability is a dodge, a simple sidestep that, with precise timing, causes an opponent’s attack to pass harmlessly through the player character’s sprite.
Street Rumble is not shy about filling the screen with more than a dozen random thugs at a time. Like many beat ’em ups, success demands controlling these crowds. Allowing the player character to get surrounded is a good way to ensure they are quickly knocked to the ground and a sizable portion drained from their hit point meter. It’s tempting to mash attack buttons in these situations but it’s often more effective to make a simple defensive move like taking one or two steps up or down the screen—this consistently confounds enemies in most beat ’em ups—or jumping over opponents’ heads. Once the crowd is safely placed on one side of the player character, it may be more safely managed with simple combo attacks.
The unique wrinkle that Street Rumble brings to beat ’em ups is the Focus meter. This purple bar appears beneath the player character’s hit points and constantly fluctuates with the action. It fills when the player character hits enemies with their attacks. There are two functions which cause it to drain.
The Focus meter’s first use is a resource that powers each player character’s most powerful skills. In exchange for a single wedge of the Focus meter, a player character can unleash one of several Signature Moves. These are mostly expansions of their basic Strong attacks—Daniel’s is just his Crane Kick again—but with more lighting and motion effects added to them. Focus’ second and more consistent use is as a shield. Before an enemy attack damages the player character’s hit points, it first drains any Focus remaining in the meter.
Focus’ dual function as resource for special attacks and shield that protects the player character’s health forces me to make constant impactful choices. Do I save what charge is in the Focus meter now to protect the player character from the next enemy blow, or do I use a large portion of it right away to deal screen-clearing damage? There are times when it is better to use Focus conservatively and times when a huge damage burst will end the current scenario more quickly and with less risk to the player character’s remaining hit points. The better I am at evaluating these risks, the more success I will have on Street Rumble’s most difficult obstacles.
Though Focus is a good idea for a beat ’em up videogame, it conflicts with the values espoused by the films. Mr. Miyagi’s lessons instill in Daniel that karate is a life philosophy more than a martial art. As a fighting form it is more useful for defense than offense. The protective qualities provided by a filled Focus meter are invaluable and keeping that meter filled encourages constant aggression against the player characters’ opponents—the very philosophy encouraged by the Cobra Kai dojo and its brutal senseis, John Kreese and Terry Silver. A beat ’em up videogame, with its hundreds of random thugs who need to be clobbered out of the player character’s way, already clashes with the peace and balance taught by Mr. Miyagi’s karate. The punch-hungry Focus meter exacerbates the discordance further.
Focus’ overwhelming effect on Street Rumble’s beat ‘em up mechanics only becomes moreso as my chosen player character progresses through the Story mode. With each stage they finish, the player character earns experience points. Earning enough experience points grants a level up that confers broad powerups. Some powerups are straightforward, like additional lives to clear a level and new special attacks. The most numerous and useful powerups grant additional charges to the Focus meter and increase its damage absorption capabilities. At early levels, a player character’s Focus is a useful buffer for their hit points. As they near the level cap, a capped Focus meter and skillful crowd control makes them practically invincible. On Street Rumble’s highest difficulty settings, this invulnerability is the only chance they stand against the onslaught of powerful attacks from the gangs of thugs who overwhelm the screen.
A few of Street Rumble’s levels introduce new scenarios which are rare in beat ’em ups, if not totally unique. At several points, the player character’s progress forward is impeded by a durable barrier. They must destroy the barrier with dozens of individual attacks while simultaneously fending off neverending enemy waves.
A more infrequent complication are the timed events. A clock ticks down in the corner of the screen on these levels. If it completely empties, a boss will leap in to join whatever is happening—even if the player character is already engaged with the stage’s regular boss. This countdown is best applied in the Halloween party stage, representing the first film’s scene where Daniel races away from the Cobra Kai bullies after he empties a hose on their leader’s head in a bathroom stall. Because Street Rumble is a beat ’em up, this straight chase scene is reimagined as a desperate brawl through the school grounds against a mob of Cobra Kai supporters trying to impede the player character until the bullies can catch up and inflict their revenge.
Street Rumble makes many interesting choices to adapt the first three Karate Kid films, and their quintessentially 1980s values, into a videogame that meets the needs of a retro beat ’em up created for our nominally more enlightened present age. Nowhere is this more apparent than Ali’s and Kumiko’s promotion to fully-fledged player characters invested in every moment of the action.
Similarly to Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, it’s nice to see Street Rumble pushing Ali from her film role as a fretfully supportive bystander into a more active and forceful participant in a conflict where she is a central figure; Daniel’s chief tormenter and the top student of the Cobra Kai dojo is Johnny Lawrence, her ex-boyfriend. I don’t even care that she was never shown to fight in the films and Street Rumble doesn’t even add a passing mention that she also receives training from Mr. Miyagi. This is Ali’s problem as much as it is Daniel’s and she should be this involved. Her combat abilities being based around her cheerleading is even consistent with the series’ theme of turning everyday activities into a lifestyle that informs your karate.
Kumiko’s addition is more awkward. Her Street Rumble incarnation is a ghost. She somehow appears in the streets of Reseda long before she ever meets Daniel and Mr. Miyagi, kicking and punching Cobra Kai students whom she never actually encounters. When the Story mode’s events do reach the plot of The Karate Kid Part II, she barely appears in the slideshows between stages that move the story forward. Her character is so incidental to the second film’s plot that she lifts right out with no noticeable absence when it is summarized. She isn’t even allowed the dignity of a full name. Kumiko is a collection of Japanese maiden stereotypes as envisioned by and for a western audience, dropped into a beat ’em up setting to pummel enemies with sensu fans while wearing a kimono. She’s a weak character in The Karate Kid Part II. Street Rumble manages the lamentable feat of making her weaker.
The task of adapting The Karate Kid films into the needs of a videogame have disappointing effects on the films’ plots, particularly the first one. Broader conflicts, like the divide between working class Daniel and upper class Ali, vanish entirely. The hardwork and discipline required to develop a skill are also missing. Daniel enters the first level as a karate expert before ever encountering Johnny Lawrence and the Cobra Kai students, undercutting the need for him to be trained in the first place. Even though the player character succeeds in their first boss battle against Johnny Lawrence at a beach party, the slideshow introducing the next level still shows Daniel trying to hide his bruised face behind a pair of sunglasses as though he lost that fight. The cutscenes describe events from the film which the levels do not portray.
No level squanders the plot of the first movie more than the All Valley Tournament, its climax. It is reimagined as a brawl against dozens of random thugs that stretches from the parking lot, through the halls of the convention center, and onto the mats of the competition floor. All of them must be defeated in straight order. Daniel is never deliberately injured in a semifinal by a junior Cobra Kai student. John Kreese, Cobra Kai’s imposing sensei, never orders Johnny Lawrence to “sweep the leg.” Daniel’s victory is not dependent on the Crane Kick and he does not earn Lawrence’s respect and the tournament trophy. Instead, Kreese absconds with the trophy back to the Cobra Kai Dojo. Daniel and his companions are forced to pursue him to reclaim it, setting up an entire plot beat unique to Street Rumble that is unsatisfying compared to the resolution it overwrites.
The harsh truth is that by rigidly adhering to the structure of a traditional beat ’em up, Street Rumble is unable to satisfactorily tell the story of the first Karate Kid film. I’m surprised by how much this bothers me.
The Karate Kid Part II and Part III are similarly warped by adaptation. Since John Kreese is now defeated in a whole new encounter at the Cobra Kai dojo, Mr. Miyagi never gets the chance to humble him then show him mercy in the parking lot of the All Valley Tournament. With this lesson lost, Daniel’s confrontation with Chozen at the end of Part II’s story is similarly twisted into a straight boss battle where there is only a victorious hero and a shattered villain. It’s easy not to notice; of Street Rumble’s twelve levels, only two adapt Part II.
The Karate Kid Part III is often criticized as a less interesting retread of the first movie. By the time I reach its levels, I begin to feel the same way about its representation in Street Rumble. The beat ‘em up mechanics have become routine. They have ceased to offer me any surprises. Only sheer volume of opponents and multiple fights against two bosses at once makes the videogame feel like it is ascending towards a climax.
When I first begin Street Rumble’s Story mode, I am presented with an intimidating number of levels in a long list. This is a misleading first impression. One-third of the eighteen entries on the list are actually training missions representing the player characters practicing a karate technique or philosophy. In Karate Practice, I must accurately input button combinations displayed on the screen while the player characters spar with training dummies. Catch The Fly is a rhythm minigame representing the player characters capturing flies with chop sticks. Crane Training is another rhythm minigame, this one based on a swinging pendulum, that recreates the memorable shot from the first film of Daniel balancing on a beach post at sunset. Each training mission may be finished in less than a minute.
Astonishingly and confoundingly, there is no training minigame based on Mr. Miyagi’s deceptive wax on/wax off training method, the most enduring and memetic scene from the original film. There is also a surprising absence from the second film; instead of chopping ice sheets in a bar filled with jeering onlookers betting on the outcome, the player character practices the much-less-remembered Drum Technique in a Japanese shrine. Some exclusions are understandable. Even a chiptune rendition of Joe Esposito’s “You’re The Best” would probably have crippled Street Rumble’s budget. Other absences are so glaring it makes me wonder if Street Rumble’s developers were unable to obtain the legal rights to include them from the byzantine Hollywood contracting process.
There’s a lot to keep me playing Street Rumble after I finish the twelve Story mode levels. A Boss Rush mode has sixteen different scenarios based around boss battles. Endless mode sets the player character against endless enemy waves at the All Valley Tournament. The expected Arcade mode is available too, challenging me to guide the player character through all twelve levels in a single sitting with one set of lives, like the beat ’em ups of the 1980s and 1990s that founded the genre. Frustratingly, each player character’s powerups are carried over to these modes, but may not be developed in them, requiring level grinding in Story Mode with each character before the other modes become manageable. A progress bar on my save file provides a tantalizing recording of how many of Street Rumble’s modes, difficulty levels, and characters powerups I still have to complete.
I was surprised to realize that the Karate Kid films had never been adapted into a proper beat ‘em up before. After playing The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, I have a better idea of why. Despite the films’ most memorable scenes focusing on fighting, their stories aren’t really about that. When a beat ‘em up forces every scene to be about punching and kicking dozens of enemy mooks out of the player character’s way, the essence of the Karate Kid is lost. With that vital component of the property squandered, I am left only with the core beat ’em up mechanics to enjoy. At this Street Rumble is adequate. The Focus meter is an interesting inclusion but is not as transformative to the mechanics as I expect. Street Rumble is an average beat ’em up at the core of an adaptation that frustratingly misses the point of its source material.