Member the games you used to play? We member. The basement at the Hardcore Gamer office has a section known as the Crust Room, with an old grey couch and a big old CRT TV. All the classic systems are down there collecting dust, so in an effort to improve the cleanliness of our work space, we dust off these old consoles every so often and put an old game through its paces, just to make sure everything stays in working order. We even have a beige computer with a floppy disk drive.

Kung Fury is a 2015 film that runs approximately 30 minutes in length. It has a relatively modest budget as far as movies go which was funded through Kickstarter support and is an homage and parody of martial arts movies and '80s cop films. It was released on YouTube and other streaming platforms where it can still be viewed for free. People who watch Kung Fury tend to have two different reactions: this is the stupidest thing they've ever seen or it's the greatest film ever made where each part is better than the last.

Kung Fury is the name of the protagonist, a detective with the Miami-Dade Police Department. During a deadly confrontation with a ninja in a back alley, Kung Fury's partner is sliced in half, but a convenient series of unfortunate events unlock his true Kung Fu powers, signifying he is the chosen one. Later on Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. Kung Führer, ends up causing trouble in Florida so Kung Fury decides to travel back in time to kill Hitler. Expressing an opinion on the internet these days is bound to start a fight, but we can all agree that Hitler sucks and traveling back in time to end the Third Reich is a good idea. Unfortunately, using 1980's computer hacking techniques do awry and Kung Fury ends up going too far back in time. But this is fine since this gives context to throw in Vikings and dinosaurs into the showdown against the Nazi regime.

Robots, Vikings, Nazis, Dinosaurs and Kung Fu are ingredients that are begging for Kung Fury to be adapted into a video game. This would be perfect for an '80s style beat 'em up arcade game like Double Dragon or Streets of Rage. But as has been stated in the past, most video games based on movies are terrible, and while Kung Fury: Street Rage isn't the worst film to video game translation that has ever happened, it probably isn't the adaptation fans were hoping for.

Based on the film with the Street Rage as a subtitle, the expected choice would be a beat 'em up in the aforementioned style. A simple look at screenshots would even suggest that is the direction the developers went. In actuality Kung Fury: Street Rage feels more like a rhythm game than traditional beat 'em up. The player cannot walk around in a traditional manner, instead the only means of conveyance of attacking. One button attacks right, another attacks left. Each attack launches Kung Fury or whichever character the player is controlling across the screen and performs an attack, which the attack animation seems to be completely randomized.

There isn't a whole lot to the gameplay, but it's fun in small dose and challenging. Playing as either Kung Fury, Triceracop, Barbariana or Hackerman pits the players against wave after wave of Nazis and their experimental kung fu robots. There's a score multiplier for consecutive hits that gets reset after the player misses, so it does cater to the '80s arcade mentality of chasing after the high score. This can be fun for a while trying to rack up the highest score while knocking out as many Nazis as possible, but doesn't offer a ton of gameplay variety.

An expansion called A Day at the Beach was released later that offers a new gameplay style. This expansion introduces David Hasselhoff as a playable character, and he's going to make the Nazis learn the hard way you don't hassle the Hoff9000. A Day at the Beach plays more like a traditional beat 'em up. This expansion seems more like what people were expecting from a Kung Fury game adaptation, and while both play styles have their merits, this is the one that was personally more fun.

Kung Fury: Street Rage isn't the greatest beat 'em up ever conceived, but there's fun to be had, especially for fans of the film. Kung Fury and company travel to many strange places to take on the Nazis and their kung fu robots which kind of felt like a nod to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time when the player might wonder why Shredder sent his foot soldiers back in time to the prehistoric era. Ridiculousness is part of what made the movie great and it's nice to see the game is approached with the same sense of levity. I'm not sure why but there's something weirdly satisfying about beating up a giant robot crab.

Kung Fury: Street Rage is a decent game adaptation of an incredible film. On its own gameplay merits it's just okay, but the '80s style presentation and nods to the film's silliness make it worthwhile for Kung Fury fans. It makes for a good companion piece to the movie, and something that can be best enjoyed in co-op mode with a friend after watching the film. Kung Fury: Street Rage - Ultimate Edition was recently released for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch and Xbox consoles that includes the base game along with the DLC expansions. The chiptune soundtrack is as epic as Thor's pecs.

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