Retro Gaming 80’s- Street Smart: (1989)

There are many people who are familiar with the beat em up genre of gaming which became popular in arcade centers along with various consoles between the late 80’s-early 90’s. As far as the 80’s are concerned one of the most high-profile beat em up games from that time period was Capcom’s Final Fight title from 1989. While Final Fight became a commercial success in countries like Japan & North America; there were also titles like Street Smart that were definitely overshadowed following its ’89 release. Street Smart was a game that was initially developed and published by SNK prior to its arcade release. The Mega Drive version of Street Smart was created by former video game developer known as the Treco Corporation. Street Smart was a game that had a basic plot; along with some of the best visuals that you would see in a beat em up game period. The plot relived around two fighting experts taking on some of the toughest streets brawlers in the nation to earn money, women and glory. Street Smart was a bit more interesting than your typical beat em up game since players compete in a tag-team tournament opposed to rescuing someone or stopping the diabolical plans of a main antagonist.

Unlike, generic beat em up games where players can only move in four directions Street Smart allows you to move in eight. Its almost certain that Street Smart would have appeared on the Neo Geo MVS if the game was initially released sometime between ’91-’92. While gamers managed to get some exposure to Street Smart in arcade centers and through the Mega Drive in the early 90’s; there were so many big titles such as Street Fighter II, Street Of Rage I-II and TMNT: Turtles in Time that blew Street Smart out of the water in terms of popularity. However, some might say that Street Smart is one of SNK’s most underrated games prior to the start of the KOF series in ’94. Either way, Street Smart was a pretty cool beat em up game for its time despite not being on the same levels of popularity as Final Fight or Streets Of Rage II.