When an evil corporation for some reason wants to cause trouble, as most corporations in video games do, they always have something planned. In this case, the Viper Corporation is doing well, something evil obviously because this is where our hero comes in to beat up the thugs of this corporation and shut them down once and for all. A simple premise right? Well it is never easy for one hero against a bunch of thugs but that will not stop him from trying. In Hard Streets, you take on the role of our nameless hero who has to stop the Viper Corporation for some mysterious reason that is never revealed - awesome stuff. The game is very easy to pick up and play though, and has some great music. But with no real back-story and some high difficulty, it will be a challenge to be the hero.

With no story to go on all we know is that the Viper Corporation, which is obviously evil, has to be stopped. But with a shall we say hire-a-goon program of sorts they try to protect their interests. Which is where our hero, who decides to take it upon himself to save the day, will have to battle through these thugs and of course the bosses in each level to be the hero and get all the glory. Well or something along those lines.

Overall, the game is easy to pick up and play: move with the directional keys and use the z button to do your attacks. Using a combination of the direction pad and the z key you can create other moves and inflict pain on your enemy that way. This is all explained in the readme file so you should give it a read to see some of the moves. The music that was chosen was used very well for this sort of game, I thought. The music does not get in the way and flows with the action on screen, nicely done in this regard, I have to say.

However the lack of a story really hurts the game I feel. Even in this sort of beat em up type of game there should be at least something to go on. Like maybe, the corporation is selling drugs, or weapons or something of that nature. Also, the difficulty of some of the enemies in the game can be really high, most are the same sprite, and most use the same sorts of moves. Besides that some have the tendency to be cheap and knock you right back down after you’ve been hit down the first time, very annoying. Finally, the time limit that is used is very annoying I found. Sometimes it causes you to rush because there’s a certain amount of enemies you have to beat before you get to the boss and if you slack off you could run out of time. It may add to the challenge but in my opinion the limit’s a bit short for certain levels.

Still if you are a fan of this sort of type of game then you should give this one a try and see for yourself. It's called Hard Streets and trust me the title does not lie.