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The arcade scene often weaves in and out of gaming, lacking in large stories and often unable to make use of a huge production budget. These games fall into a common category of Retro gaming that delivers low amounts of story and a double dose of action. Streets of Fury, a new title on Xbox LIVE Arcade follows this formula, combining simple brawler gameplay and a dose of AI sure to make the player spiteful from time to time. Classic gaming fans can of course recognize the title falling so close to Streets of Rage, a retro title with similar gameplay.

Streets of Fury works with a simple story line: Paris is under attack and the government has to regain control over the city. The solution is to bring in the most hardcore from the West, and so Los Angeles gangs emerge on the scene to regulate and settle the uprising for the government. Players get two choices in taking on the mission: being able to go solo, or form alliances to lessen the burden. With the former, the game is a lot easier as enemies are more prone to juggling and power attacks as the game goes on. In either case, multiplayer is definitely the way to go with the increased fun factor.

The game is an indie creation which leaves it without many of the frills one has come to expect. For example, characters often vary only by the color they’re layered with while some feature new illustrations over the original sprites.  Classes are in limited capacity; some enemies use the same character model but different attacks.

One feature that will be a trip down memory lane is the boss design: Streets of Fury follows tradition using bosses that are cheap, frustrating and seemingly impossible to kill at times as they use near infinite Fury attacks. Multiple bosses can be found in the city, each with their own variety of minion.

Coming into Streets of Fury it was hard to gauge where the game would land as the visual impact isn’t exactly the greatest. However, with a group of friends the game should prove a centerpiece for conversation, particularly with the boss beatdowns you'll be proud to brag about. It looks cheesy at times but nevertheless brings back memories of old brawlers like Double Dragon, Streets of Rage and other such classics, and for that it's recommended.

In short, Streets of Fury presents four-player brawling with no story or cut scenes to worry about; the story is minimalistic, but therein lies the enjoyment. The graphics don’t try too hard, either. All told, it's a fun Friday night game that can always bring a load of laughs and with longevity to spare; for 240 MS Points it delivers a good amount of fun for fans of the style.