Beat Down

A game that is certainly violent, absolutely profane, but also acceptably playable and filled with enough replay value and customization to warrant a purchase as opposed to a rental. But in terms of sheer polish and finesse, "Def Jam Fight for New York" is still the standard bearer against which these sorts of games should be judged.

Fists of Vengeance makes no pretence at being anything close to intelligent - it happily revels in its shameless idiocy, but it's fun through and through.

Streets have a cool atmosphere, an interesting cast, and some fun beat em' up action. I really dug how the pulled away the restrictions gave us an environment and let us beat down anyone we want.

Sadly, the open world and one-on-one fighting engine lack the proper execution, and the copious loading times just get in the way.

Beatdown is a solid fighting themed action role-playing game brought down a notch by too much area transition loading and some limited promised features (like the ability to interrogate every character in the game).

It's all very violent, weird, kinda fun, and frequently cheesy. [Oct 2005, p.108]

Capcom did the right thing by allowing 2 player battles and extending the replay value with 5 characters but some gamers will have had enough of the load times and mind-numbing decisions by the end of the first story.

Ultimately, though, it's all about how well you wield a crowbar.

Dumb A.I., bad hit detection, and gratuitous clipping turn a good game concept into a technical difficulty. RPG elements are cool, as is the multiple-ending storyline.

Loses the battle against mediocrity hands down. The combat is decent, but there's little else to keep you interested. Ultimately forgettable.

Unfortunately, none of these interesting design ideas were executed well, leaving you with a game that feels half-baked and suffers from terrible pacing.

It's even less successful as an adventure game because it's so superficial, small, and indistinct. There are very few memorable characters, although everyone has his or her own name.

The only thing that's surprising about Beatdown: Fists Of Vengeance is that the usually reliable and innovative Capcom have lent their name to it.

It's sparse moments of truly enjoyable fisticuffs just come too late in a game that tries too hard to be cool.

A dumb, forgettable game and nothing else. [Sept 2005, p.100]

It's too violent for children, too juvenile for adults and too short to warrant a purchase. Fans of repetition or the beat-em-up genre may be interested, but the game is likely to disappoint-even as a rental.

Despite offering a laundry list of moves and button combinations, the game's complicated controls feel shallower than the three-buttoned Capcom arcade classics like "The Punisher" or "Alien vs. Predator." Group battles feel too constricted with the auto target locking mechanics, and the simplistic one-on-one fights are somewhere on the level of "Pit Fighter."