Wired writes: "Since their heyday in the mid-'90s, Double Dragon-style beat-em-up games have been on life support. Few games manage to re-create the simple pleasure of teaming up with a friend to punch and kick your way through a ravaged city; those that do only accomplish that feat by blatantly ripping off the classics.
Tokyo Beat Down, a new Nintendo DS game from Operation Darkness developer Success, initially seems like a great success (ahem) as it blends attractive 3-D artwork with responsive controls and a clever storyline. Unfortunately, that seems to merely be a superficial sort of glamour."
Nestlekwik writes, "...Success tried its hand at the genre as it was in the 1990’s, developing Yajuu Keiji for the Japanese Nintendo DS. Not a publisher to let a fresh, quirky game left unreleased to U.S. gamers, Atlus has stepped in to serve stateside gamers a helping of mass ass kicking, domesticating the title under the name of Tokyo Beat Down - indeed fitting as players are able to rock the face of nearly everyone they encounter in the game."
GamingTrend writes: "When I got Tokyo Beat Down, I was really hoping for a great beat-'em-up experience translated into the third dimension, similar to how adventure games and one-on-one fighting games have transitioned into 3D. Unfortunately Tokyo Beat Down falls short of that, and if I want a beat-'em-up I'm better off putting my GBA copy of Final Fight One into my Nintendo DS".
Gaming Age writes: "Do not buy Tokyo Beat Down (TBD). I wanted to make sure that you got the point in case you didn't finish the entire review. Now that that is out of the way, feel free to do something else instead of playing this game. You could watch paint dry or twiddle your thumbs or watch paint dry. Just don't waste your money on this game. I would say don't waste your time but the game is so short you wouldn't really be wasting it. TBD (not to be confused with To Be Determined because I already determined that this game sucks) is a useless waste of the plastic and circuitry that is the cartridge."
