Last Beat Enhanced Switch Review – A Bit Too Oldschool

Last Beat Enhanced is an arcade-style beat ’em up similar to oldschool titles like Double Dragon and the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. This title from 7 Raven Studios has a cute pixelated look about it, and the oldschool nature sure has its appeal.

However, does Last Beat Enhanced have what it takes to compete with the greats? Or does this beat ’em up need to hit the showers and give up on its dreams? Let’s find out!

Last Beat Enhanced follows a ragtag group of fighters that work together to take down the wicked Mad Stroke gangs. Apparently there are eight separate gangs within the Mad Stroke gangs, and they are split between the available levels in Last Beat Enhanced.

Look, this is a low-budget game, and the story reflects that. Not only is the storytelling beyond generic and a weird blending of so many old beat ’em up stories, but it also suffers from some poor grammar in the English subtitles and menus. No offense, but it is hard to take a story seriously when the sentences being used are sloppy.

This does check a lot of the boxes for an old arcade beat ’em up, though. The graphics are a little on the early NES days compared to classics like Double Dragon, but it still gets the job done and looks rather nice in its simplicity. The soundtrack, too, is a lovely blend of 1980s pop music and chiptunes. For a title like this, it is perfect!

Gameplay is rather standard. You have your normal attack, special attack, and jump and jump attacks. There are weapons to play with, which are a lot of fun, and throwing knives are like one-hit kills, which was a bit shocking. It is a decent assortment of items to play with, but they do not really help as much as they should, outside of the throwing knives. Sadly, though, a missed throwing knife is just gone, as it escapes the screen completely.

A major issue I have with Last Beat Enhanced is how health works. Unlike any preceding beat ’em up, there are no lives in Last Beat Enhanced, which means when you die, it is just game over, so conserving health is of the utmost importance. You can spend money on extra health bars and such, but this still does not help with this problem, as the difficulty does not help with this at all. Even on Easy difficulty, dying at the boss of a stage gives you a game over and starts you back at the beginning. Thankfully, once you unlock a new area, you can always start from that point instead of the first stage.

Bosses are fun, and each “gang” has their own themed boss, which adds to the stage experience. None of the bosses really have a particular strategy, but they do have their own unique moves. Since smaller minions are always spawning during boss fights, it does take away a little bit from the bosses of areas, as focusing on multiple enemies distracts away from what should be the main focal point: the boss. I would have preferred a one-on-one scenario where the boss is the only enemy and their difficulty is ramped up a little bit.

Last Beat Enhanced does have a fun cooperative mode, which feels essential for some of the later stages, as you can properly work together. Sadly, it is local only. There are characters to unlock, which adds to the replay value, and a Ring Mode to unlock that lets you try to take out all of the enemies in a row. Really tough stuff!

There are a few things I wish 7 Raven Studios would have done differently, but at the end of the day, Last Beat Enhanced is a pretty fun and challenging experience. The combat can get repetitive quite quick, but switching characters periodically can take care of that problem.

If you are a fan of beat ’em ups and are just looking for something to pass the time, Last Beat Enhanced is a decent outing, especially at its price point. However, if you are looking for something quality in this genre, I would look elsewhere, as there are significantly better experiences available on the Nintendo Switch.

Last Beat Enhanced Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: 7 Raven Studios
Release Date: September 15th, 2022
Price: $9.99, £8.99, €9,99
Game Size: 250 MB