Last Beat Enhanced review

A City in Danger…

While it has nowhere near the chokehold on the video game industry that it once did, the beat 'em up genre has managed to stay alive and kicking thanks to some truly stellar releases, especially in recent times. Games like Streets of Rage 4, the re-released Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge have all served as excellent reminders that beat 'em ups are here to stay, and have paved the way for a new generation of games while at the same time paying homage to the classic franchises that inspired them. One of those games that are part of the next generation of beat 'em ups is the decidedly more retro Last Beat Enhanced. This throwback is brought to us by Thailand-based 7 Raven Studios via the work of Oscar Celestini, an Italian comic artist and solo indie game developer. Despite appearing like a much older game, the original version of Last Beat was only released a few years ago, in December 2020. However, extra time and money have been put into the project to soften a few sharp edges and refine the overall package into something that any beat 'em up fan would be happy to have in their collection.

The action of Last Beat Enhanced is kicked off with a fairly typical story for a beat 'em up: a gang has taken over a city, and it is up to a cast of beefy human and humanoid characters to put a stop to their plans and restore order. If you've had even a passing glance at Streets of Rage or Double Dragon, you'll be familiar with the setting. While the set up for the game isn't necessarily new or interesting, it does serve its purpose just fine, just as it has for many other beat 'em ups over the past several decades. The game's opening cinematic lays out the story and the main players to you right away, but it lingers on the first frame for just a little too long I felt. I pressed a button to move on to the next portion of the intro thinking it was being presented like a virtual novel, but doing so actually skipped the entire cinematic. Doing so without taking the time to go back and actually watch that opening cinematic would be unfortunate because the art present in those scenes and throughout the game is filled with personality and color. It's not exactly Vanillaware-levels of art like you would get in Dragon's Crown or the like, but it feels like the upper echelon of digital hand-drawn art that was prevalent on Newgrounds and Deviant Art in the early 2000s. Which is fitting, since Oscar Celestini has a pretty prominent Deviant Art page.

Get Ready For a Beat Down

The characters of the game are drawn in a muscly, exaggerated way that feels classically appropriate for the genre, without making them feel just like every other beat 'em up character. John, Noa, and later Ares and Zari are all human characters with their own traits and special abilities, and then… there's Din. Din, from what I can tell, is an anthropomorphized dinosaur (or snake?), but with the same rippling abs and biceps that would make Tom Hardy jealous. Why did Oscar Celestini make this reptile man so confusingly attractive? Perhaps to fit in with the rest of the cast? Who knows, but it is definitely a fun addition to an already fun game. All of this detail is, of course, only available in the menu and character select art. Once the game starts, players are then treated to some of the crispest pixels this side of Shovel Knight.

Once you enter the beautifully pixelated world of Last Beat Enhanced, knuckles will be bloodied, and jaws will be smashed. At least to the extent that the NES-style 8-bit graphics allow. The game overall feels pretty responsive and fun to play, and players will be landing flurries of punches and kicks, enjoying the crunchy sound effects that are associated with them, in no time. However, those looking to get more out of the experience, say, more complex combos and throws, might have to do some digging in order to get those moves down pat. In my time with the game, I was able to pull off the occasional throw, seemingly by accident, and was never able to replicate it when I actually wanted to pull that off. There were also move variations that would happen, and I was never sure if it was a special animation or if I did some kind of specific input to get that outcome. There's no "How to Play" screen or controls screen, so finding these extra features is up to the player's willingness to experiment. It's more understandable when you learn that the game was made by a solo developer, but even a tooltip or speech bubble telling you how to do certain things seems like a common feature in modern games. While I understand that Last Beat Enhanced is not aiming to be a modern game, I feel that I would have enjoyed the game just a little bit more if I better understood how to play the game and get the most out of the moves that are available.

Pick Yourself Up, and Try Again

Last Beat Enhanced also features 2-player co-op gameplay, which I was unfortunately never able to test. It's easy to see how jumping into these stages with a friend beside you in couch co-op (like the old days) would be incredibly fun, especially since the game seems to have been balanced for two players. I am by no means new to the beat 'em up genre, and I found myself FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE, even in the first mission area, on easy mode no less. Getting through stages is dicey for a single player, with minimal health pickups and a slowly-recharging special ability bar for a move that can insta-kill all enemies within range. However, it is completely doable with enough dedication, and completing each stage (by defeating the gang general of that zone) rewards you with an awesome motorcycle sequence where you zoom to the next area, picking up gas and avoiding obstacles. It's a good change of pace, and it feels like just the kind of thing that would be present in a classic beat 'em up.

However, it is completely doable with enough dedication, and completing each stage (by defeating the gang general of that zone) rewards you with an awesome motorcycle sequence where you zoom to the next area, picking up gas and avoiding obstacles. It's a good change of pace, and it feels like just the kind of thing that would be present in a classic beat 'em up.