Released in 1990, Yang Jia Jiang is a beat-'em-up that borrows ideas from many popular games of its genre released at that time.
It starts off with a rather nice attract mode showing a full-screen image of each of the four characters, then it breaks them down one by one, detailing the gameplay and moves of each.
This is probably the best part of the game, for what it's worth, even if the rest of the game isn't really that bad.

The title screen is pretty simple, with only one or two player selections and no options.
There are four characters to choose from: an old man with a slow but long and powerful attack, a samurai-like character with a sword, a martial arts-based strongman with some speed, and a super fast but weak female character. Unfortunately, only samurai and strongmen are really good.

The gameplay takes place over six quite long and repetitive stages.
The background for each stage is bright and colorful and has a good amount of color and detail, but really lacks variety. Most are far too long, too similar to others, and have antecedents that repeat far too many times. Only stage six, the Great Wall of China, seems to really mix things up a bit by adding something quirky to the visuals (at least the exploding enemies are interesting to watch).

The four selectable characters all have decent movement defined under their belts.
There's the standard three-punch combo, which does a lot of damage to enemies taking almost half of their health away from them, and a throw, which does almost no damage but is useful for knocking down enemies to get you out of the way. a difficult situation.
Throwing an enemy can be quite fun because if you throw an enemy into another facing you, they will fall backwards and often will fall on top of you and knock you down.
The A button is a special strong attack, and again you have an attack while moving and another while standing still.
You might think the damage mechanics seem a bit unbalanced, and they are, but they get the job done. you have one attack while moving and another while standing still. You might think the damage mechanics seem a bit unbalanced, and they are, but they get the job done.
you have one attack while moving and another while standing still. You might think the damage mechanics seem a bit unbalanced, and they are, but they get the job done.

The graphics are nice but repetitive.
They are still usable for what they are.
There's a cut scene telling the story at the start of each stage, which is a nice touch (though I don't understand what they're saying), but unfortunately the ending is just one screen followed by an on-screen English game, which was disappointing.
The audio also gets pretty stale by the end. The music has an old Chinese sound and is actually catchy for a little while, but it loops too fast and only seems to use one channel for each track.
There's nothing to get excited about, and the sound effects just aren't going to save the game either. There are no growls or screams when an enemy or player dies.