Review: Kung Fury: Street Rage – Ultimate Edition (Nintendo Switch)

“…I became the the best cop in the world. I became Kung Fury.”

Kung Fury started as a delightful mash-up of everything you’d get by mashing up “The 80s” if you weren’t actually alive then. Neon, computer hacking, barbarian women with Vulcan mini-cannons, and obviously, Kung Fu.

Arcade games were part of that, too, and now Kung Fury: Street Rage – Ultimate Edition comes to the Switch as a set of (very) simple brawlers that harken back to the days of plopping tokens into cabinets at Bally’s Aladdin’s Castle.

I say “very simple” because while you have a choice of four characters how have styles, the play is exactly the same for all; 8 bit enemies rush at you, and—using Left or Right—you have to time your attacks to take them down. There’s no jump, no power ups, no pieces of meat to eat to restore your health (yum!), just waves of thugs whom you can take down. Mistime your attack and you’ll lose a heart. Lose three hearts, and it’s game over.

Even though it resembles a Double Dragon type game, your movements in Kung Fury are literally limited to attacking left and right. You can move only by making an attack, which may briefly take you out of an enemy’s attack zone, but that’s it.

The Ultimate Edition is divided into four modes: a tutorial, then Kung Fury: Street Rage (an endless brawler), Kung Fury: the Arcade Strikes Back (a single player “story” mode with multiple levels) and Kung Fury: A Day at the Beach (story mode with a 2-player option).

Despite the simplicity of the gameplay, it is quite challenging, especially in the final waves where enemies swarm you and choosing which to attack is crucial to victory.

There’s no great deal of difference in the versions of the game, and the story consists simply of going to a different location and beating people up. But it’s an entertaining enough diversion, which is also how I’d review the original film.