Streets of Kamurocho is out. This is a combination of the very popular Streets of Rage brawler, and the Yakuza franchise. I’m astonished on how right this crossover feels, and yet how it hasn’t been done before.

Streets of Kamurocho came out as one of four free games from the Sega 60th anniversary celebration. It also doesn’t hurt that Yakuza: Like a Dragon is scheduled to come out next month.

This crossover works because Yakuza as a franchise was already a brawler, or a beat ‘em up. But by bringing down to a 2d dimensional side scroller might be challenging. Streets of Kamurocho is actually more just a level of Streets of Rage with a Yakuza skin pulled tightly around it, but that’s combining a very successful franchise that still works well with another popular one.

As the game starts, players will have to choose between Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro, with a third character hidden. There’s also the ability to play either one or two player mode and a leaderboard as well so if players want to bring a friend alone or strive for the top of the leaderboard, Streets of Kamurocho has them covered.

As mentioned this is a very thinly hidden copy of the successful Streets of Rage formula. All three characters have very similar move sets, and are given one attack button, one jump and one special move, which will drain life. The enemy set is contains “Chinese mafia” and Yakuza, as well as three bosses from the original Yakuza (or Yakuza Kiwami), including the final boss of the game, which is a bit of a spoiler, but still a good fight here.

After you beat the third “stage” the game restarts, and this mostly feels like a single level of any Street of Rage game, rather than three levels. From there the game will increase in difficulty, adding more enemies and then on the third looper newer enemies will start appearing as well.

That’s pretty much it. After beating the three levels (or single stage) the game will continue to repeat and becomes a simple score attack where players try to rack up as many points as they can, and rise through the leaderboard.

After beating the final boss the first time, the additional bonus character appears and it’s Ichiban, who is the protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and sadly he also controls very similarly to both Majima Goro and Kazuma Kiryu.

If I was told to put a price on this game, I’d probably not pay much, the simple fact is there isn’t much content here, and there’s not many levels. There is a good challenge that the game build up, but it’s probably not going to grab most people’s attention for more half an hour, or maybe an hour in rare cases.

Yet it’s free, so ultimately I do recommend everyone pick up this game before it disappears forever. Streets of Kamurocho is a very fun and enjoyable take on the Streets of Rage formula, and it’s a great addition to the Yakuza minigames. I just wish they made this into a full game with more levels. Or released more Yakuza games on PC. Hint hint.

I give Streets of Kamurocho the arbitrary

7/10

It’s recommendable, it’s fun for what it is, and it’s free. I wouldn’t pay for this, but I’m super glad to have it on my steam account.

PS. Sega, why not just leave it, it’s a fun game that people are going to enjoy playing but it shouldn’t hurt anything to keep letting people experience this.

If you enjoyed this review and want to see more from me, including more in-depth reviews of select games, check out my youtube channel at youtube.com/c/KinglinkReviews