It's a big year for the Karate Kid franchise, with the final season of Cobra Kai debuting on July 18 on Netflix and a (probably way less good) film coming to theaters in December. GameMill Entertainment, makers of TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants, is getting in on the karate action as well. Today, they discreetly announced The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, a beat 'em up based on the first three Karate Kid films. It features 4-player local co-op, and it's coming in September! 

The home arcade market has seen numerous ups and downs in recent years. iiRcade went out of business, but Arcade1Up is still limping along. Now Evercade, maker of cartridge-based home and portable consoles, is throwing its hat into the ring. The Evercade Alpha will launch with two models, one focused on Street Fighter games and one filled with Capcom arcade classics (including several co-op titles). They both play regular Evercade cartridges too, making for an exciting home arcade experience.

Indie games make the most sense as downloadable titles, small-scale products that are cheap and easy to buy on impulse. Still, it's fun to collect physical games too, especially games we really care about. Two such games (both with local co-op) are currently available to preorder from Limited Run: Deathwish Enforcers, the 4-player run-and-gun shooter, and Kung Fury: Street Rage - Ultimate Edition, the quirky 2-player beat 'em up. These physical editions are only available to preorder/buy for a limited time, so don't hesitate if you want them for your collection.

Way back in 2015, a man named David Sandberg produced and starred in a short martial arts comedy called Kung Fury. You can watch it free on YouTube and Steam!  Swedish developer Hello There Games quickly released Kung Fury: Street Rage on PC, a simple beat 'em up based on the movie. The game received a handful of DLCs over the years before its developer temporarily removed it from Steam (much like SWORDS of GARGANTUA). Now it's back on Steam AND consoles as as Kung Fury: Street Rage - Ultimate Edition, complete with 2-player local co-op!

Dotemu is pretty much the king of the beat 'em up hill nowadays. The French publisher has released two of the most beloved beat 'em ups of all time in recent years: TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and Streets of Rage 4. Both games have received numerous updates since their launches, with a new update for Streets of Rage 4 arriving within the last week. This patch consists of mostly balance adjustments for numerous characters and enemies, but it also adds co-op moves and custom options for Survival Mode.

The original Capcom Arcade Stadium is a collection of 32 arcade classics from Capcom spanning 1984-2001. Capcom has a lot more arcade titles than that, though, hence the upcoming release of Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium. The main collection will be a free download with one included co-op game: SonSon. The remaining titles can be purchased individually or via bundle. Making sense of all the DLC and the scope of the collection can be daunting, so here's a full games list sorted by title, release date, and co-op features.

Streets of Rage 4 is a fantastic revival of Sega's classic beat 'em up series, with gorgeous hand-drawn artwork, a memorable soundtrack, challenging gameplay, and both local and online co-op. The only less than stellar thing about the game has been the long wait for new post-release content. Today, Streets of Rage 4 fans can finally take on new challenges as both a free update and the premium 'Mr. X Nightmare' DLC have arrived on consoles and PC.

Streets of Rage 4 floored classic gaming fans with its tight gameplay and amazing graphics and soundtrack when it arrived back in early 2020, but things have been quiet for DotEmu's beat 'em up since then. That will finally change when the 'Mr. X Nightmare' DLC and a separate, free title update arrive later this month. Not only do we have a release date and price for the DLC now, but we've also got a fresh trailer that showcases the new content.

Most people will agree that one of the things about Streets of Rage 4 is that it did not have playable boss characters. You can play as a lot of fighters, especially if we count the classic versions, but not bosses. That will change when the premium 'Mr. X Nightmare' arrives in the near future, adding former bosses Max, Shiva, and Estel to ...

Combo Co-Op, if you didn't know, is the ability to mix a co-op game with both local and online players at the same time. It's one of the only features Streets of Rage 4 doesn't support out of the box. Thanks to Twitter user @SolKeizer26 though - we've found a workaround to at least get 3 players going in remote play on PS4.