"Police Brutality Made Fun"

Tokyo Beat Down is a side scrolling beat em up for the Nintendo DS, developed by Success, and published by Atlas. Is the game poised for.....Success?

The story takes place in Tokyo. The player takes control of members of the Yaesu police squad known colloquially as the ''Beast Cops.'' The squad has earned this nickname due to their extreme methods of dealing with the criminal element, comprised of thieves, terrorists, smugglers, vigilantes, charlatans, rapscallions, scoundrels, knaves, assassins, con artists, drug dealers, murders, etc that runs rampant on the streets of Tokyo. One day, the station receives a mysterious phone call, during which a strange person requests fireworks. The beast cops see this as a vague, but serious threat, and take to the streets to find out just what this fireworks business is all about. If fireworks is what this person wants, the beast cops will give them just that. And so, you, the player, will take on the role of the various beast cops, namely, the main character, Lewis Cannon (who really should be nicknamed Loose), but also, Rika Hyodo and Takeshi Bando, as you seek to track down this mysterious caller.

The story plays out through a series of really humorous cutscenes. The dialogue and situations found within the game are really quite endearing, and I found myself laughing out loud during various points throughout the game. Normally, beat em ups do not warrant much consideration of their narratives, but this one actually has some substance to it, as well as a ton of style. It really kept me engaged throughout. That being said, this is a beat em up, and as such, the focus still remains on gameplay aspects, namely the combat.

The gameplay is all classic beat em up. You walk left to right (and sometimes right to left) while beating up numerous amount of foes. Along the way, there are barrels and rates to smash, which contain food to pick up. Food in this game, as in so many of the genre classics that precede it, acts as a health restoration tool. Apart from one other mechanic, which I will get to later, this is all the gameplay consists of. Very much standard genre fare.

The controls are pretty conventional for the genre. You have buttons designated to punches, kicks, a jump, and a block, as well as a command for dodging (double tap up or down on the dpad). You can also wield firearms (located throughout the levels) in this game, although, just like blocking, their usefulness is limited. I will get to this in a moment, however.

Your punches and kicks can be mixed up to form various combos, and, if you are currently carrying a weapon, you can also mix a gunshot into your combo attacks, increasing your damage output as well as adding to the visual excitement. Unfortunately, the mechanism by which this is supposed to happen, namely, button press timing, is finicky, and never really made clear to the player. It's a bit less rewarding than it should be, as half the time it comes out, it seemingly does so out of blind luck, and not any effort on the player's part.

The number of combos you can do is increased by finding various scrolls throughout the game, although this is much more limited than it would at first seem, as all the scrolls really do is add an extra step to existing combos. It's useful, and does aid in helping these stay fresher a bit longer, but some extra work could have went into really expanding the combo potential of this game. This would only have worked to its benefit.

The issues with blocking and firearm usefulness I previously alluded to can be attributed to the fact that the characters in this game move sluggishly. For whatever reason, the characters take longer than one would expect to do simple things like raise their arms to block, or shoot a firearm. Even walking is an exercise in tedium, as the walk speed is very slow, and this is accompanied by a very strange looking walking animation. There are two things that save this from ruining the game entirely: one is the fact that there is a run feature, and two, blocking and shooting aren't particularly necessary for survival. Fights can be won by an ''attack first, attack hard, don't stop until they are defeated'' mentality. If you start attacking first, you can come out of fights virtually unscathed.

Another thing that makes blocking and firing a gun more difficult than they need to be is the fact that you cannot interrupt/cancel animations in this game. So, for instance, if you are punching, you cannot hit block in the middle of a punch to ward of any incoming enemy attacks. You must be between animations to do so. In other words, the character must be in a neutral position before you can raise your arms to either block or shoot a firearm. This sounds like it should result in a broken game, and technically it does, but as I stated earlier, the blocking and shooting functions are largely unnecessary anyways.

Another issue, also related to the sluggishness, is the fact that when you are knocked down (you get knocked down at the end of enemy combos, or when getting shot) it takes several seconds to get up. This can get irritating after a while. Related to this is another problem, which fortunately can be avoided, although this may not be clear to all players when they first encounter this. Once you are knocked down, the enemies standing near you will continuously attack, waiting for you to get back up so they can catch you in the middle of a combo and knock you back down. Enemies standing out of range will fire their guns, if they have any, hoping to catch you with a bullet and knock you back down. This has led to many gamers and reviewers alike crying ''cheap AI,'' but what they failed to realize is that this was obviously done on purpose to encourage the player to utilize the dodge mechanic, which unlike blocking, works flawlessly. This was a conscious design choice on the part of the designers. Unfortunately, because many people were unable to think of using the dodge move upon ''wakeup,'' to appropriate the fighting genre term, they were often caught in incredibly irritating and seemingly cheap knockdown loops. It's unfortunate that the developers' own conscious decision led to harsh criticism, and, while it is unwarranted, it's definitely a strange design choice.

In addition to the aforementioned fighting moves, you also have access to two special attacks, as well as a throw. These aid in adding a bit of variety to the combat, although the combat still ultimately feels a bit less varied than something like Streets of Rage 2. One major feature absent from the game, the jump kick, is something that has been with the beat em up genre for two decades, and its absence is inexplicable, and sorely missed. This definitely detracts from the variety of combat.

Enemy variety is lacking. You never get the feeling of fighting a wide variety of criminals, as the number of enemy types is quite low.

The fighting action is broken up by the very entertaining cutscenes, and a few instances where you are required to talk to the citizens of the town, as they mill about the streets, in order to obtain clues that will enable you to progress. These sections feel tacked on, and don't really serve to break up the action well, as they just aren't fun. Fortunately, they aren't very lengthy, and so aren't a terrible nuisance. However, the game would have been better served had Success implemented more enemy variety, or more combat maneuvers, to break up the perceived monotony of the combat sections, rather than implement some mundane clue searching mechanic. And I say clue searching loosely. All you do is talk to various people until you find the ''right'' one.

Visually, this is a very nice looking DS game, featuring very large, detailed character models, and detailed 3D backgrounds. Unfortunately, the very odd animations, mentioned earlier, to detract from the visual experience, and the sound definitely leaves much to be desired, featuring bland sound design and mediocre music.

Clocking in at somewhere around 5-6 hours, the game is very lengthy for the genre, although this time includes the time spent investigating, if you can call it that, as well as watching the cutscenes. Skipping the scenes and rushing through the investigative sections could forseeably shave 2 hours off of the game completion time.

While it may seem as though the game is both riddled with issues and repetitive, both charges that cannot really be denied, the game manages to be fun for a few reasons. For one, the core gameplay is fun, although one would need to be a fan of the genre to appreciate it, especially at the somewhat drawn out game length. This is very much a genre fans' game. Another factor is the fact that the cutscenes are filled with quirky characters, witty dialogue, and humorous situations. For a sidescrolling beat em up, this game was remarkably entertaining in terms of narrative. If you enjoy classic beat em up gameplay, and think it could be fun to play a story driven beat em up, then this game can be recommended, with but a few caveats: be mindful of the fact that there are some design and control issues present, and remember that this is not going to top the genre greats we all fondly recall. Keep this in mind, and you can still have a fair amount of fun with this game. I did, despite the myriad of complaints I levied against it.

In terms of score, this is a tough one. Objectively, in terms of mechanics, it's average. However, it goes above and beyond for the genre in terms of story, and it's really quite humorous. I also had a lot of fun with the beat em up gameplay, despite the issues, but that can be chalked up to the fact that I really, really love the genre. No matter the numerical score I assign this one, I will not feel satisfied. So, in the interest of brevity, I'm just going to close my eyes and do it:

Overall score: 6.5/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/10

Game Release: Tokyo Beat Down (US, 03/31/09)