Urban Reign is one of those rare cases of style and substance. For a 3D beat ‘em up, those are your bread and butter attacks, but if you started to poke around with the systems, there was enough depth there to allow you to easily dispatch multiple opponents and look good doing it. The combat was simplistic at a base level, with circle to attack, triangle to grapple, square for reversals and X to dash. The real highlight is the gameplay itself. Honestly, it’s just a bit of fluff designed to get you from fight to fight.

The plot quickly turns into conspiracy and corruption as the gangs have to band together to take on a new invading force, followed by another invading force after that. The Alien vs Predator or The Punisher beat ‘em ups developed by Capcom are good shouts, along with Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (also developed by Capcom), but allow me to present an alternative: Urban Reign.ĭeveloped by Namco and released on PS2 in 2005/06 (it took a few months for it to come to Europe), you control big strong boy Brad Hawk, a professional asskicker brought into the city to prevent a turf war ignited by the disappearance of a rival gang member. Most will say either Final Fight or Streets of Rage, though occasionally you’ll hear a few dark horse picks. This is a universal truth that unites us. Pretty much every gamer has their preferred beat ‘em up.

If you want to see what the series is all about, check out our archive right here. Don’t expect any kind of regularity to these articles, but just know they’re back because the content grind is real. Like a phoenix rising from the flames, the Awesome Forgotten Noughties Games series is being resurrected, because there’s still so many games to get through.

Urban reign ps2 tips