The Karate Kid movie series always seemed like a bit of a hard sell to this writer. Not to detract from the inarguable skill of said Kid, but there are plenty of films out there starring at least one Karate Adult. It stands to reason that the Karate Adult would simply be better at Karate than the Karate Kid, and therefore more worthy of attention. Which brings us to the hit YouTube Red/Netflix/KickAssTorrents series Cobra Kai, upon which this brawler is apparently based. We’ve heard it’s quite good, but can the tie-in game hope to achieve such lofty heights? The lofty heights of "quite good"?
Now, there’s no doubt that Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues is a game with some problems, but to our genuine surprise, they don’t really get in the way of what ends up being a really fun, knockabout punch-‘em-up which offers a pretty strong pugilism experience while not quite scratching the itch that the true greats manage effortlessly (Streets of Rage 4 springs to mind). Here, you initially pick between the titular Cobra Kai or the (frankly, far less cool) Miyagi-do Dojos, then get to work beating up every single living human being in your path.
Immediately, there are noticeable issues. The game runs okay, but considering the generally not-great visuals, we’d have expected better. The animations are strange in places, too – you can move in eight directions, but jumping into the foreground or background snaps your character to a weirdly rigid stance; probably more sensible as a crowd-control tactic (you can attack left or right while moving “vertically”, so to speak), but it never stops looking unusual and more than a little cheap.
Otherwise, though, the proceedings are snappy and intuitive. You’ve got your usual punches and kicks, as well as the ability to run as a modifier. Holding the right trigger lets you unleash devastating special moves that can hit enemies multiple times, decimating their health bars. You can also dodge and parry with the A button, letting you interrupt attacks and return the favour. ZL and ZR together activate a "Mega Crash" style move that'll clear the screen – useful in a pinch.
In a neat touch seemingly cribbed from Netherealm’s recent fighting games, you can also interact with the background to smash your opponents into otherwise innocuous scenery, which is both useful and quite amusing – unfortunately, doing this seems to make the game engine soil itself somewhat, with the visuals chugging like mad.
In fact, there are plenty of cribs from and nods to classic brawlers here – the legendary Turtles in Time move where an enemy is launched into the screen turns up here, and the way you can kick scenery into your foes recalls the soon-to-be-rereleased Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. There's even the character-switching of this year's Battletoads, but we're prepared to call that one a coincidence. It’s a patchwork of other, sometimes better games, but it comes together as enjoyably accomplished. Combos and juggling are a focus, and the ability to simply roll out of dodge at any point gives a pleasant sense of control – if you get caught between a couple of enemies, that's always on you.
It’s fun to make your way through the game, collecting dropped cash to exchange for stat upgrades, but Cobra Kai has a few issues with pacing. There’s no real happy medium between difficulty and progress, because the levels are so bloomin’ long. This is far from ideal in a brawler and is exacerbated by how easy the game is on the default settings. Breeziness is nice, but challenge is paramount and this game seems to make you pick one or the other. You’ll want to crank up the difficulty, but doing so just makes the already too-long stages even longer. Bring a friend to expediate things, and double the pain factor.
Still, we can’t pretend we had anything close to a bad time with Cobra Kai. It’s daft, over-the-top nonsense but it all works. It feels good to play, it doesn’t condescend to the player, and there’s plenty of it to battle through, with extra challenges you can check out in the Dojo between levels that will earn you plenty of currency to buy upgrades with.
Don't think this is anything less than full-featured just because it's a licensed game; there's a ton of stuff to do and none of it feels lazy or sub-standard. It's clear that this was a game made by a team which understands what makes for a fun belt-scroller, but we'd speculate that the budget and development time wasn't quite there to make it truly essential.
Conclusion
Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues might look like a lazy cash-in, but in reality, it's a strong effort that breezes through the cheesiness of its license by making said honking gorgonzola work for it with its brilliantly evocative '80s soundtrack paired with a cheeky, silly style to match its cheeky, silly gameplay. With no shortage of levels, plenty of playable characters and respective upgrades, Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues goes above and beyond the standards set by licensed games. Grab a friend and wax on, wax off. (Actually, that sounds a bit rude.)
Comments 31
I'm amazed this got such a high score, as it honestly looked like crap from the trailers...Cobra Kai's a great show though and I'm glad to see that the game has a great OST, just like the show.
I honestly think this game is better than I thought it would be based on my initial bad impression from the trailers, but also should have been better than it is. A better story mode and something like River City Girls and some special stages to break from the monotony is what I imagine what this could have been.
I love the show so I bought this and it is really good. I agree the levels can feel too long, they do move quicker in coop though due to being able to finish off guys faster. I also wish more of the background was destructible.
There is truly nothing more 80's than The Karate Kid.
....except this game.
You don’t have to catch flys with chopsticks in this game, do you?
Hmm. Might give this a chance.
Bu... but you gave G.I. Joe 5/10! Do you like 2D games more than 3D ones?
Wow, surprised by the score. When I saw the Wii-esque graphics I assumed it would be terrible!
I'm a bit surprised it not that night of a review
When the reviewer put (Poor graphics and disappointing performance)
Sounds like to should be five star
But any way used to like the film's but I haven't watched the cobra Kai .
Genuinely surprised by this. Might check it out in a sale.
Well, obviously I'm going to like this game and yes it will be day one for me (early xmas present to myself). However, I would still prefer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in time (remastered) for the Switch, or the snes version..... in time for Xmas please???!!!
I bought this game the day it came out, a little weary that it might not be good. I haven't had a chance to play it much, since I've been busy lately, but when I have played it, I have enjoyed it. It kind of has a 'Streets of Rage' or 'Final Fight' feel to it, with combos, grab moves, and even Mortal Kombat 11 style 'environmental attacks' where you throw people into different objects in the levels. I started one save file as Miyagi-Do, and another save file as Cobra Kai, because I wanted to give both a chance. When I started the 2nd save file, I got a warning that said that to get the True Ending, I would need to play both sides on the same game file to get the True Final Boss. Which has me think it's like Resident Evil 2 for the PSX in that regards. Which is cool. Also, Miyagi-Do has Ice-based special attacks, and Cobra Kai has fire-based special attacks. Which seems fitting. But yeah, so far, I'm having fun with it. Hope to get more time with it soon.
The fact that the game also has a great 80s soundtrack, has coop and some guys over here that bought also enjoyed makes me think about getting this!
Great show to binge watch on Netflix 10/10
I agree with many about the trailer putting you off.
Whilst performance and graphics aren't great I still want this as it sounds otherwise solid according to the review & I also love the tv series show! A sale purchase though.
The trailer I saw made it look incredibly cheap and low effort. I wasn’t expecting better than a 5.
I love KARATE KID so I will probably pick this up during a sale to see how it runs.
This is one ugly game!
Just like the show, looks bad but it's surprisingly good.
Considering the price of this title i thought it may be better in the look department. The forthcoming Okinawa Rush looks way more interesting and also the 9 Monkeys of Shaolin which i played a demo of is a really fun game to in the mould of Streets of Rage. Looks like we may be inundated with these type of games now that Streets of Rage four done so well.
@Thumbsofsteel Yes. Actually, you'll need to catch flies with chopsticks before you can start the game, and you have to so using motion controls.
@DrDaisy A bit like Shenmue 2 were you have to catch falling leaves, then (IIRC).
If you're being serious, that is.
GameMill is appropriately named because all their games are run of the mill. Also with all those licenses and butt ugly graphics they are keeping the dream of LJN alive so I commend them for that.
I'm not sure I can get around those very ugly graphics. They are hideous.
Well this is a much higher score than this game seems to deserve. The stream I saw of this game looked awful, seemed like a very lazy game. The standards for this genre have really fallen since games like Dynamite Cop, which says a lot.
I feel like this will develop a significant cult following, kind of like the show has. But I haven't even started to progress in SoR4 yet. I need to get into that before I buy this.
The show is pretty awesome, though. I did not expect they could develop a deep and relevant sequel to the original Karate Kid, but they did.
Not sure if I'll buy the game but the show is awesome. A must watch for anyone who likes Karate Kid
Reminds me of double dragon Neon which i loved and I've always been a huge fan of the Karate kid movies and now the show! The price seems a bit high though but the second this goes on sale I'll totally be getting it!
I didn't know they were still making games on the Wii.
Obviously it'll look bad if you played it on the Switch.
@shgamer I don't remember that part, but sure. Why not?
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