TouchArcade Rating:

Well here’s something I didn’t expect to be writing in a million years: World-renowned hip hop artist Soulja Boy will be added to Lucky Kat Studio’s Beat Street (Free) as a playable character. Yes, this is really happening. As the story goes, late last year Mr. Boy reached out to Lucky Kat via Twitter DM to tell the studio how much he enjoyed playing their game, and asked if it might be possible to be featured as a playable character. Of course, when you’re talking about a celebrity like Soulja Boy you’d have to be crazy to say no! It also doesn’t hurt that Soulja Boy fits in very nicely with the “street" aesthetic of the game. I mean heck, one of the bosses in Beat Street is just a parody of 50 Cent, having another rapper enter the fray is just par for the course. Here’s Souja Boy mixing it up with some baddies in the game.

Man, I hope someday I become cool enough I can be added into video games just by asking. (Well, there was that one time.) Soulja Boy will be arriving in Beat Street next week on March 7th and he’ll be offered as a $2.99 IAP. As for the Beat Street game itself, in case you were unaware I’m slightly obsessed with it. I included it in my personal Best Games of 2017 list and play it every day without fail. Lucky Kat has captured the essence of what made these beat ’em ups so fun back in the ’80s and ’90s, namely satisfying combat mechanics and decent enemy behavior, but they’ve stretched it into an experience that can last months or even years.

Most games in this genre are quite shallow and can be beaten in less than an hour, which was fine when you were pumping in quarters but not so fine when you were playing a home conversion with endless continues. It just removed any of the challenge. Beat Street rectifies this by having dozens of levels instead of just a handful, each with multiple difficulty levels, as well as an endless Tower Mode. This means there’s always something to do and in all modes you have the option of playing cooperatively with someone online which is incredibly fun.

Beyond that, though, Lucky Kat has built in a pretty awesome drip feed of character unlocks and upgrades that means you’re always working towards something, even if you’re just grinding previous levels for the fun of it. Even though the characters don’t play drastically different from one another, the upgrade loop is one of the primary reasons Beat Street has become a daily play for me. Plus it’s just fun in the same way the classic brawlers were so fun; I can’t overstate just how much Lucky Kat nailed all the important mechanics here.

Anyway, I could blather on further, but the reality is Beat Street is free to download and try yourself so if you haven’t done that previously and you’re a fan of beat ’em ups then definitely give it a shot. Also keep an eye out for the one and only Soulja Boy to arrive as DLC next week in one of the more surprising crossovers I’ve seen in a while.