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Kung Fu Strike: The Warrior's Rise
Kung Fu Strike, at its base description, is a brawler. It’s you versus a ton of dudes who really want to punch and kick you into submission. It feels more modern though, than the old school brawler. You won’t be spamming the punch button waiting for enemies to walk into your fists, but you will be taking on many enemies at once, and with a buddy if you so desire.
Kung-Fu Strike: The Warrior’s Rise is forgettable name, but it has an interesting art style that takes some inspiration from Street Fighter IV. You’ll see splashes of black ink highlight your punches and kicks, with special moves offering more substantial blots.
Combat is relatively simple. You can punch with A and X (combing the buttons for special moves), counter with B, and dodge by holding the right trigger and pushing the control stick in the direction you want to lunge. You can also call in AI helpers by pressing the Y button when things get really heated. It feels fast and fluid, and lets you take on many enemies at once while comfortably bouncing foe to foe, even “dancing” in melee rhythm around your enemies when you’re holding down the X button.
Performing the special move by holding down A and X feels especially powerful. Once the combination of buttons is pressed, the game slows down, you point your character in the direction of the enemy who will receive your special move, let go of the buttons, and you lunge feet first into the face of your newly defeated enemy.
It’s all arena-based combat with tons of enemies serving as appetizers to a boss. Sometimes bosses are your size (like the deceptively frail old man) or so large that you can only pound away at their large feet (like the gigantic statue that throws tornadoes and bombs at you). It can get tough quickly.
There are some light RPG elements in Kung Fu Strike where you can make purchases with coins earned during combat for stat-boosting equipment, new moves, extra health and Chi slots (needed to execute special moves), and additional AI helpers.
Kung Fu Strike offers 2-player cooperative multiplayer, which scales the difficulty for multiple fists by throwing additional enemies at you and your friend, but it cannot be played online unfortunately. Offline 2-player co-op only, with an unlockable versus mode as you progress into the game.
Kung Fu Strike: The Warrior’s Rise should be releasing this month on March 28 for 800 Microsoft Points. For the time being, the game will only be available on Xbox Live Arcade.
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