Welcome to DS on DS. This is where I'm going to be taking a look at the Nintendo DS and all of it's games. And when I say all, I mean it. We will be going from Metroid Prime: Hunters to Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends. From Tetris DS to Barbie 12 Dancing Princesses. Yes, I said Barbie.  Every Friday, I will write a review on the game I have chosen for the week.

This week I am going to be taking a look at Tokyo Beat Down.

Side-scrolling brawlers are not a very common sight these days, especially on the Nintendo DS.  Atlus decided to remedy this by releasing Tokyo Beat Down.  Tokyo Beat Down pulls it's inspiration from the old cheesy 80's action movies, and ends up being downright hilarious.

Tokyo Beat Down starts you off playing as Lewis Cannon, a member of the Beast Cops.  You do get to play as other members of the squad, and as such you are charged with beating down crime to bring peace back to the streets.  To do so, you can punch, kick, grab, and shoot your way through the thugs that are trying to take you out.  Along the way you can also pick up some other guns like shotguns and assault rifles, but don't worry because the bullets are rubber.  That way, you won't actually kill anyone.  Or see any blood either, so if that kind of thing bothers you, you can beat the living hell out of people without any of that nasty red stuff flying around.  You can also execute some of the requisite special moves that every brawler has to include.  Outside of feeling a little sluggish at times, the controls are pretty tight, and they work like they are supposed to.

The graphics are where this game suffers the most.  They went with 3D character models and backgrounds, but they aren't exactly the best.  Don't get me wrong, there are far worse looking games on the DS, but with this game they just aren't anything special.  We ended up getting a look that harkins back to early Nintendo 64 games.  The character animations are very average, with absolutely nothing special here.  The animations from the Hannah Montana The Movie game were better.  Take walking for example.  When you walk to the right or the left, it looks okay.  When you run, you look like you should really be tearing it up, but instead you barely move faster than when you are walking.  And when you walk up or down, your character continues to face left or right without even angling the character model (like most brawlers) and instead you do some sort of sideways moonwalk move.  It's a little distracting.  Outside of that though, everything is pretty standard fare.  Your attacks, jumping, and everything else about the look of this game is average.

The sound effects in the game are done fairly well, although they really don't bring anything new or special to the table.  Your punches and kicks sound like the punches and kicks from every other game.  Same with the gunshots.  The music for the game is tolerable, but again it isn't anything special.  As long as it doesn't make you want to turn off the volume, it is usually okay, and that is exactly what you get here.

The part that elevates this game to being above average is the writing.  This game is intentionally cheesy, and because of this it is also ends up being hilarious.  Right near the beginning of the game, while you are still going through the opening tutorial level, your partner who is only around for the cut scenes, kicks you in the face.  You ask her why she did that, and she tells you it is to remind you not to be so violent all the time.  The game continues down this path of cheese and bringing the funny throughout it's entirety.

If you can look past the visual shortcomings of this game, and you like cheesy humor, you will end up with a game that is actually pretty good.

Final Score: 7/10