# Streets of Rage with a football: the beat 'em ups behind Kick or Treat

*November 1, 2026*

What a beat 'em up is, the arcade and Mega Drive classics that shaped the genre, and what Kick or Treat borrowed from each one before swapping the fists for a football.

You walk to the right. A gang walks in from both sides. You deal with them, the screen unlocks, an arrow flashes *GO*, and you walk to the right again. At the end of the street there's someone much bigger waiting for you.

That's a beat 'em up. Write it down and it sounds repetitive. Played on a Saturday afternoon with a friend on the second controller, it was the best thing in the world.

I first played one in an arcade. The game impressed my uncle so much that he bought my cousin a Mega Drive. I never had one myself (my family didn't have much money), but I spent hours playing at my cousin's house!

## A very short history of walking right and hitting things

*Kung-Fu Master* (Irem, 1984) is usually named as the first: one long corridor, enemies from both sides, a boss on every floor.

*Double Dragon* (Technōs, 1987) added the thing that defines the genre: the street has depth. You can walk up and down as well as left and right, and enemies surround you instead of queuing in a line. It also let two friends play together.

*Final Fight* (Capcom, 1989) made everything bigger: huge characters, a city to clean up, and a bonus round where you smash a car for points.

*Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* (Konami, 1989) and *Golden Axe* (Sega, 1989) showed the formula worked with any theme: pizza-loving turtles or swords and dragons.

*Streets of Rage* (Sega, 1991) and *Streets of Rage 2* (1992) brought it home on the Mega Drive, with neon streets, a police car you could call to clear the screen, and a soundtrack that people still listen to today.

The genre faded in the late 90s, when 3D took over, and came back years later with games like *Streets of Rage 4* (2020).

## What Kick or Treat borrows

From the very first page of its design notes, Kick or Treat was "Streets of Rage and Double Dragon, for kids, on Halloween night". Most of its rules come straight from those games.

The camera sits slightly above the action, like the 90s arcade games, so the street is a band you can walk up and down. Rico is sized like a Streets of Rage 2 hero, about a third of the screen tall.

Enemies wait their turn. Classic beat 'em ups never let the whole gang attack at once. Two or three come at you while the rest circle and wait. Kick or Treat does the same, so a crowd feels dangerous without being unfair for a seven-year-old.

Each street has three locked fights where the screen stops until you clear it, with smaller encounters in between, and a boss at the end.

Every street also gets a set piece. Streets of Rage 2 had the bike gang on the bridge. We have a paperboy bike gang, a park where hands burst out of the graves, a bus ride under a bridge that's lower than it looks, and a ferry where zombies go overboard.

The story is told in short text boxes over the action, the way Streets of Rage did it, so kids who read slowly can take their time.

And Final Fight's bosses had personalities. Ours are a crossing guard, a lunch lady, a mascot, a janitor, a PE coach and, at the very end, a very large Principal.

## What we changed: no fists

Every one of those games is about punching. We wanted a beat 'em up for kids that nobody would call violent, so Rico doesn't punch anyone. He has a football.

That one change turned the genre around. The ball bounces back to you, so timing matters more than button mashing. You can kick it low, lob it over a shield, volley it in the air or juggle it, and the longer your streak, the faster it flies. Aiming the big shot works like a slingshot: pull back and let go. And the Pirouette, a slow-motion spin, sends the ball pinballing through a whole crowd.

The enemies aren't thugs either. They're neighbours under a Halloween spell. Nobody dies; they get kicked back to their senses. And instead of rescuing a kidnapped girlfriend, Rico rescues the classmates he used to bully, and each one gives him a new power-up.

Why a football? Because my son loves football, and I'm the one who takes him to the park, so I end up playing too. The ball is our thing. Since he was tiny, it's what we've liked doing together most.

## And the music

Ask anyone about the Mega Drive beat 'em ups and they'll start humming. So Kick or Treat's music is written for the same Yamaha sound chip the Mega Drive used. We wrote about how that works in a separate post: [the Mega Drive sound behind Kick or Treat](/news/kick-or-treat-mega-drive-music/).

## Play it

Kick or Treat is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, with no ads and no purchases, and the Android version is on its way. Six streets, six bosses, about 30 to 40 minutes for a first clear, and three golden pumpkins hidden in every level.