Rushing Beat X: Return Of Brawl Brothers Review

Rushing Beat X: Return Of Brawl Brothers is the fourth entry in the Rushing Beat beat’em up franchise following Rushing Beat, Rushing Beat Ran: Fukusei Toshi, and Rushing Beat Shura. While the game was standardized as Rushing Beat in Japan, the first three entries were made available outside of Japan under the Rival Turf!, Brawl Brothers, and The Peace Keepers monikers.

Rushing Beat X: Return Of Brawl Brothers tells the events of the Joecal and the Cyber Clone Incidents where Neo-Sisco State was infested by the Zeekus virus. It’s up to Rick Norton, Douglas Bild and their friends to find the root of the issue and put an end to it once and for all.

Rushing Beat X: Return Of Brawl Brothers is a 2D side scrolling beat’em up which follows the typical formula where you go from point A to point B, beating up everyone coming at you, raking up combos, picking up health items, weapons and money. At the end of each level, you’ll have to survive a boss battle before moving forward. The game offers a unique control scheme.

While the A and B button as for jumping and attacks respectively, the B button also serves as the throw button if an enemy gets too close. Whereas the Y button has two purposes: if standing still, it serves as a block button but can also be used a strong attack at the end of a string of attacks. Pressing a direction when holding an enemy will perform a different throw. And when enemies are down, pressing down with the attack button allows you to perform a hit.

As with other games of the genre, you can use items to replenish your health and pick up weapons. For the former, it doesn’t work the typical way where picking up food instantly replenishes your health. Food are stacked in your inventory for uses at your own convenience. Another thing is that you’ll also have to pick up money so in between missions or truck breaks, you’ll be able to concoct meals to use when needed.

As you punch enemies into oblivion, you’ll progressively fill up the rush meter. Once full, it’ll enable by itself giving players a small increase for attacks and defense. But you can also press RT to unleash a special move which will go into a short automated combo; really useful against bosses.

When it comes to the weapon pick ups, the X button is dedicated for weapon usage. You’ll be able to pick up grenades, swords, knives; among others. There’s also larger weapons such as a beam steel; given you cannot stow away that weapon, you’ll swing it with the default B attack button. You can also stack smaller weapons in your inventory and swap between them.

One interesting mechanic with Rushing Beat X is that as you beat up bosses, some of them will actually join your roster of selectable characters for some gameplay variety. In between missions or when you can visit the group’s truck mid-mission, you’re able to choose a different characters allowing players to sample everyone.

Rushing Beat X: Return Of Brawl Brothers does look great as a whole. It has a certain style and each level is uniquely designed with a different theme; prison, laboratory, mall; just to name a few. Enemy design variety is fair; they introduce new ones as you progress further through the game, while keeping the same enemies throughout. Also, as it seems to be the case with most beat’em ups, the soundtrack is just… there. It’s quite forgettable. Even just after finishing a play session I can’t remember any of the tunes.

Unfortunately, the return of the Rushing Beat is not without annoyances. The character movement feels a bit stiff and takes a bit of time to get used to it. Also, with so many buttons on a controller, I’m baffled they didn’t make better use of the mapping. Having the throw button on the same button as the punch can sometimes accidentally screw up your combo.

Rushing Beat X: Return Of Brawl Brothers is one of the best beat’em ups of the last few years. And a surprising entry in a series that had been dormant for so long. Having a decent variety of characters to choose from, being able to have an inventory of health items and weapons is more enjoyable than being forced to use them outright. While the movements do feel a bit stiff and the control mapping is questionable, once you get acclimated, you’ll find a fun and addictive beat’em up. Highly recommended.