Beat Street

From the gameplay mechanics to the animations and personality of the different characters, it’s all so awesome. There is one aspect of the game that keeps it from being perfect and I think most players would agree that it is the pay wall. I have seen the developer respond to a review stating something like “how many coins did you pop into an arcade machine back in the day?” and this would have been a valid argument for the diamonds and coins if the price wasn’t so much more. For instance to continue after dying, if you’ve already watched all the ads that you can, it is 80 diamonds which equals 1 dollar. That’s quite a leap from one quarter to continue playing. I really don’t mind grinding for the hats and tokens for leveling up. It’s when I would have to spend between one and two dollars to continue playing. Back in the arcade days if you got good enough at a game then you wouldn’t have to spend more than a couple quarters because you only need to pop one in at the start and one after losing. This good game would really benefit from either being able to pay to increase the energy limit or to reduce the amount of diamonds to continue after dying from 160 or 80 down to 20 because that would be equivalent to a quarter. Then this game would be a real perfect example of an arcade experience for mobile done right. I love the multiplayer aspect btw.

This game is amazing. I just finished the game 100% and am waiting for the update. I've seen lots of complaints regarding energy and the fact that we need to upgrade characters to progress. I think it's all about patience. 20 energy takes 200 minutes to regenerate i.e. 3 hours and 20 minutes. It is also the amount of time it takes for your gift to refresh and your shop to update. If you don't want to upgrade lee, then simply pick the sumo or Val. They cap at 30. And once you're done with them, pick Ana or oni (I went with Ana cuz her dash + regular attacks give a good combo). Always check the shop for tokens. And in case you get stuck on a level use some items. The tower is a great way to earn some extra token or items and doesn't cost energy. I always save coins, gems and items just in case. Use coins wisely and don't update characters unnecessarily. Increased health + attack is the best combo for the figurines. Later on you'll unlock 50 kicks as a figurine. Try to upgrade that as many times as possible. Once you reach at least level 5 with 50 kicks, then use him and buck together. You just have to be patient with this game. It's all about strategy.

It costs 200 gems to upgrade a character. The only way you’re gonna get that many is if you pay money for these or grind the HELL out of them and there’s no real way to grind for them. Only way to earn gems is through chests that you can open once you receive 3 keys, the daily gift box (I think it’s 10 gems at most if you’re lucky enough to get gems as the gift is randomized), and/or through the daily challenges when the most is again 10 gems if you’re lucky to receive that as a reward. If you’re trying to grind for these gems, you better not use them to “continue” after losing because you’ll lose gems QUICK. Especially if you’re low or have run out of energy. C’mon guy I mean you’re already making us wait to play by limiting the energy (which I’ve learned to deal with) but then slamming us with the 200 gems upgrading system?? When you don’t even give us a good chance of obtaining them without $$$?? This game is incredible and I enjoy it very very much. I love the character selection and the fact there are a TON of levels but that gem thing man. I wanna be able to use Lee in later levels but I can’t because he caps at 20 and it’s so hard to gain gems without paying so much. I will gladly pay for the full version with no energy limits and a much easier way to earn gems but I don’t see myself spending money on gems dawg sorry it’s gonna be a no for me.

The gameplay in this is easy to get the hand of and is quite fun. For the most part it is not unlike other games in that you’ll need to spend some time grinding to get tokens for that next character which is pretty reasonable in terms of the time it takes. The main limitation for me on this game is that I have all of the previous characters unlocked from Ana and before and tokens just aren’t coming at all for the other characters I’ve not unlocked. It’s got to the point where I’m maxed out my highest leveling character and I’m reaching levels that I cannot progress past without playing previous levels on a high difficulty level way beyond my character. I feel like I’ve hit a point where unless I spend a ton of money on in-game currency I’m not going to progress any further without committing lots of time to a game that has gotten less fun due to the difficulty limitations on my character. I can’t find tokens anywhere for the not unlocked characters so i essentially hit a wall and have stopped playing for the most part. It’s unfortunate because there’s many more levels for me to beat and it doesn’t seem like I’ll be getting there without paying more than I’d like.

response required

I am an oldschool hard-core gamer, mostly PC now. I’ve been through all the phases, including arcade of course followed by the personal gaming console generation. I know how free to play works, I get it. But seriously, striking that balance between forcing someone to pay to play a game that is intended to be free vs strongly encouraging people to make purchases to support a game that was not free to create, is VERY difficult. Every product we create is our baby and it’s hard not to see bias in its value when we make it, but you have to weigh your game up against the many other games in the App Store that are like it. This is an extraordinary game with so much potential. It’s beautiful and pays respectable homage to its predecessor beat em ups, but its caught behind too much pay wall. The most successful games are the ones who are not afraid to give stuff away in this App and MMO arena. Consider examining your bias when you’re pricing this game, don’t be scared to be more generous. We will pay for this free game if you don’t force us to pay for it. The low energy is an issue, the 200 Gem pay wall for upgrading characters is an issue, the tower gives paltry rewards, etc. This is a splendid game truly, offer a paid version, or make it less Freemium.