It seems that every time I play a new Atlus game, I remember ten times harder why Atlus is by far my favorite DS publisher/developer. They always make the quirkiest, most unique games with through-the-roof fun levels that practically no other developer can live up to. The one I most recently had the pleasure of playing is Tokyo Beat Down, a beat ‘em up game unlike anything else currently on the DS.

In Tokyo Beat Down, you follow a group of “beast cops”, police officers who accomplish their goals by fighting the crap out of everyone who gets in their way. They’re not evil or bad-natured or anything, they just find fighting more effective than traditional police investigation. And that’s basically what you do in Tokyo Beat Down – fight your way through hordes and hordes of criminals to get at the truth behind recent terrorist events in Tokyo.

It sounds plain at first, I know. But wrapped up in amusing characters, the tried and true Atlus sense of humor, a decent story, and plenty of button mashing, combos, and super attacks, it actually turns out to be a fantastic experience. The game is played as sort of a 3-D side-scroller, where you can move up and down as well as left and right. There’s a jump button (which is actually 100% useless; I don’t think I ever needed to jump, even once), a punch button, a kick button, and a pickup button. If you hold the right trigger and press punch or kick, you’ll do a super punch or super kick attack, whereas if you hold the left trigger and press punch, you’ll shoot whatever gun you currently have picked up. You fight up to four or five enemies at a time, who will punch, kick, and shoot you at will. There are also boss fights, some of which are actually challenging.

It’s hard to describe Tokyo Beat Down without making it seem like Streets of Rage on the DS, or something typical and boring, but if you play it, you’ll see what I mean. It’s by no means a landmark game or anything historic, but Atlus once again has brought a one-of-a-kind game to the DS that adequately fills a fun niche. I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself running through this one again.