Rushing Beat X: Return of Brawl Brothers doesn’t leave the best first impression. It tries to emulate the look of a comic book, but the visuals are noticeably dated. Additionally, animations are of a sometimes questionable quality. Everything appears to be rather cheap, but beyond its rough exterior, Rushing Beat X holds some charm underneath. Strong character designs and solid core mechanics hint at something far greater. Whether this makes up for the game’s faults is another question entirely.
Return to Neo-Cisco
For those unaware, Rushing Beat isn’t a new franchise. This series of beat-em-up games dates back to the 90s, with three games localized as different titles. As such, the latest entry doesn’t stray far from the arcadey design philosophy typically associated with the genre.
Rushing Beat X is easy to pick up and play with an intuitive control scheme and flashy auto combos. The game is split up into nine stages, with one serving as a brief tutorial level. This means the actual number is closer to eight, but the stages are quite lengthy. Perhaps to the point of some of them overstaying their welcome.
Players fight a wide array of enemies, including street punks, zombies, and robots. It’s borderline nonsensical, but that’s part of the charm. This isn’t a game that expects the player to take it too seriously. Character selection is limited at the start, with only a few options to choose from. The roster does quickly expand as the player progresses, however. There are quite a few characters to play around with.
Rushing Beat X Lacks Polish
What’s noticeable right away is the game’s lack of polish. The dated visuals are certainly one factor contributing to this, but it isn’t the only one. Animations can be overly stiff, and the game doesn’t always feel responsive.
Hitboxes are sometimes poorly represented by their attack animations, and hit detection doesn’t always seem consistent. As such, the game is often awkward to play, especially compared to more polished titles in the beat ’em up genre.
Furthermore, visual clarity can prove to be an issue. Enemies often clutter stages and may be difficult to tell apart. The perspective doesn’t help, either, making positioning a challenge.
Making matters worse, some enemies seem to be magnetized to the edges of the screen, resulting in annoying wait times. Bosses are questionably designed with limited movesets, often deploying attacks that are all too easy to whiff punish.
Combat With Surprising Depth
It’s a shame that Rushing Beat X is so awkward to play, because there are some great core mechanics here. There is more depth than one may expect from a combat system that only requires the player to hold the attack button to execute an auto combo.
The game allows a variety of cancels to string together various actions or get out of a sticky situation. Some weapons work great as combo starters. The more I played, the more I began to see the game’s full potential.
My favorite character to play is Kahlua due to her speedy maneuverability. She has the most fluid moveset by far. It’s especially handy in a game where quick movement and positioning are often needed.
The other characters are of varying quality. Some are a bit sluggish to play, resulting in more clunky gameplay. However, most characters don’t play too differently from each other. It’s not going to take a long time to adjust to a new character after sticking to one for a while.
Other Issues and Observations
A frustrating aspect of the Steam version is a lack of proper keyboard support. It’s hard to recommend this game to PC players without a gamepad. While the game can be played on a keyboard, there is no visual representation of keyboard inputs, and the menus can’t be navigated with a mouse.
Strangely, pressing the escape key quits the game entirely. This means it’s all too easy to exit the application and lose progress accidentally. This did happen to me on one or two occasions.
Additionally, the game appears to allow only one save file at a time. If players start a free-play game after progressing through the story mode, they will lose all progress within the story mode. I don’t recall receiving any warning that this was going to occur.
Rushing Beat X is an Incredibly Rough Gem
I wanted to enjoy Rushing Beat X more than I did. There is potential here for a fantastic beat-em-up, but the flaws make it difficult to recommend. Although it may be worthwhile for fans of the genre who are desperate for a new game to play.
For those who have yet to experience Streets of Rage 4, it’s hard not to recommend it instead. It’s a far more competent modern entry into a classic beat-em-up franchise.
Regardless, Rushing Beat X makes up for some of its issues with old-school charm and technical gameplay. Those who are willing to look past the jank may find something to enjoy here. It’s just too bad it couldn’t have been better.
Rushing Beat X: Return of Brawl Brothers is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam.
Disclaimer: City Connection provided Final Weapon with a PC copy of Rushing Beat X: Return of Brawl Brothers for review purposes.
