Urban Champion 3D Classics Review: Why?

Nintendo is always heralded by fanboys for giving them what they want, but who honesty asked for a 3D version of Urban Champion?

Sure, as Nintendo’s first foray into the fighting genre, its appearance on the NES in the mid ’80s is an important bookmark in video game history.

But after the nostalgia wears off, Urban Champion, even in 3D, is essentially electronic rock, paper, scissors.

A fist-fight simulator, gamers have must punch their opponent in face and gut on order to get to the next block/stage. Sorry, you dirty scrappers, no Ric Flair chops or low blows in this title. Luckily, the gameplay gets spiced up as the people on the second floors of the buildings you brawl in front of find it necessary to throw flower pots down in the middle of the fight. Talk about concerned citizens.

But even with the occasional flower pot, the game gets old fast. With zero unlockables, there’s little reason to play this game for longer than five minutes.

While you can dodge punches, this option is a bit flimsy. The game isn’t a button-masher, once you get in a rhythm, it gets easy, fast. When your enemy punches high, you punch low. When they punch low, you go high.

Over and over.

Over and over.

This would be fine if it was Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover.” That song had a sick groove. But this game doesn’t have much of anything. It simply can’t entice you to continue playing. Even in 3D, it’s a bore.

The library for the 3DS is thin currently and remakes of lackluster games the likes of Urban Champion isn’t going to improve things. Thinner than the lyrics of a Drake spit and less captivating than a peanut butter sandwich at 3am, 3DS owners deserve better than this tripe.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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