Streets of Rage 4

holy fuck this track is good

 

Not really crazy about the pixel filter. One of the things about those hand drawn characters is, stylistically, they're very flat looking. Making them look like pixels just makes it look like they made thick spirit below the quality of 2 & 3.



When it comes to the CRT filter Fight'N Rage still has the best one. The one here doesn't seem bad, but it doesn't seem like anything special either.

I'm pretty sure in River City Girls when you're locked into an area and there are chains around the screen you also can't throw people off the screen. Although I don't think they hit it like a wall either.

I was surprised to see this games combo system, especially with the talk of it being a throwback to SoR2 and the little gameplay I've seen of it. Saw a little combo video before going to bed this morning and wasn't expecting to see real 20 hit combos.

 

Things I'm looking for in SOR4:

-Pipe CRACK sound effect (highly unlikely based on gameplay footage)
-Mr. X, hopefully with a tommygun and a shit talking hard camera laugh
-A boss elevator or boss hallway, something in the last stage where you go through a gauntlet of previous bosses
-Motorcycle dickheads that drive by and you can jumpkick in their stupid fucking face
-Classic SoR theme in the last stage, a remix of the classic SoR theme is fine too
-Dominatrix enemies
-A "twin" boss ala Blaze Clones or Mona-Lisa, an evil robotic doppelganger is acceptable too
-Never Return Alive/Attack the Barbarian as the proper boss themes, remixes are okay

 

SoRR has all of those things

 

I highly doubt this game will come close to being better than SoRR, but I'm hoping it will at least be a great beat 'em up.

 

I wouldn't really expect to see Mr. X here...especially like that. He was just a brain that controlled robots in Streets of Rage 3.

In this game it seems his two kids are taking his place. This son (who like a lot like the villian from Devilman Crybaby) looks like he has a tommy gun.

I don't know about ending, but it opens with a remix of Streets of Rage 2's first level music. It also has the music from SoR1 & 2.

 

Saw this last year at EGX.... as I used to play the originals on Megadrive religiously with my brothers, I'll give this a go.

What would be great would be remote multiplayer. When I last looked they only had 'couch' multiplayer planned?

 

Got a press key yesterday, played it for a couple of hours, was pretty much disappointed. Now, I must say that my most recent Streets of Rage memories are that of a SoRR, i.e., of an unofficial part. But, compared to that fan effort, SoR4 feels like amateur league.

The points I hate are:

1. Game feels very slow. Characters (except for one) may neither charge nor barrel roll. Jumps also feel shorter/slower, as well as the dash attacks. Attack animations and fighting also feels slower (mb because they have more frames?), and it seems like most enemies have to be dodged with this absolute lack of mobility. Compared to SoRR, this game feels like fighting in a fishtank. And mind you, I was playing Blaze, who is supposed to be nimble.

2. OST also feels slow. I'll agree that I don't really dig modern club music etc., but the beat itself is just slower than it was and the music just feels quieter and softer by its nature. Which is not what you freaking want from beat'em up.

3. Enemies, especially bosses, with uncancellable attacks are annoying. Ofc, eventually you'll learn their patterns, but the only thing you can do is to avoid them and, once again, the game is slow-w-w.

4. No act choices or bikes/waterbikes/etc. yet. Doesn't compare to the awesome structure of SoRR where there's always choice and the speed of the game might be accelerated even further by one of these special stages.

5. Second act is beating the cops. Because, you know, it's 2020 and cops are obviously worse than the gangsters. So progressive.

6. Voiceovers suck.

 

Blaze when you hit her special attack sounds like a tiny asian girl.

I will add that I pretty much 100% agree with this review:

 

Should we ask the yellow vests what thay think about the Guardians of ZOG?

PS: Can we remove their eyes with finishers?

 

They're going for a Streets of Rage 2 thing with this game. The fast one in this is Cherry Hunter. Skate and the SoR3 retro characters can also run. Blaze is like the middle ground all-round character of SoR that doesn't really have any weaknesses, but doesn't have any straights either. Her and Axel have the same speed rating in this game.

 

Ash confirmed?

 

All right I beat it.

1. Mr. X is DEAD. Really dead-dead this time. Now you remember Mr. X, right? Cool looking gruff motherfucker, a real mob boss look to him, sat like the boss he is. Well guess what? He's now succeeded by his two children, a pair of twins. And even worse, they are anime-ized into androgynous levels of shit. They don't look like final boss quality characters and don't look like they belong in SoR.

2. They did some retarded shit with Shiva and went fanfiction with his character. He's now some Buddhist bitch and has friendly rivalries with Axel and even calls him "Brother" out of endearment. This is not the Shiva I know. The Shiva I know jumps into action when directed, is stoic as fuck, and is prepared to beat the SNOT outta you and just comes off as an all around badass. SoR4 Shiva is bullshit.

3. The Nora (that's the SoR1 version of Electra) fight was humorous. She turns the Galsias into literal simps who get all hyper armored out. It's weird she's a boss though since she was usually a regular-ish enemy or end of screen encounter in previous games.

4. NO BIKERS... I think? I looked at the enemy concept art and saw they had the Bikers, SoR2 Electra, Abadede, Soya and R. Bear but whether they're in the game or not is anyone's guess. The bikers I think got genderbent into these fat bitches that resemble wild boars that like to headbutt you. No motorcycle drive bys. Maybe they're in some Mania difficulty because the art they drew of the missing enemies looked pretty complete.

5. The game is kind of annoying with some enemies and bosses. There's usually two distinct types of enemies, the regular bitch-boys and then some juiced up version that has an extra move or two. The problem is, this game loves to give enemies unbreakable attacks that ignore whatever you're doing and hit you. It's fine to do these attacks for a couple bosses just to add some new danger but for every boss and certain semi-regular enemies? It becomes tiring. There's also this one enemy, some bitch that throws these vials on the ground that can either explode, cause acid puddles or electrocute you and they can be real cunts when mixed with other enemies especially if you get the ones that throw some sort of fire concoction that likes to make enemies juggle the shit out of you once hit.

6. Combo system isn't some generous thing like I thought. The way it works is you build up monstrous combos, the combos add up and linger on the screen and the higher the counter becomes the more you add to your score. Adding to your score gives you things like extra lives so you always want to maintain a big counter. The thing is, if an enemy hits you it completely breaks your combo counter and it doesn't "cash out" your number where you left it off, you lose everything completely. I had a 70 hit combo going on once and a Y. Signal cheapshotted me in the back of the head to erase all of it. I think it's a nice system to have but I do wish you had to be hard knockdowned or something to lose it all completely. Maybe enemy jabs reduces the score multiplier or something but if you get knocked down you lose it all, tough shit.

7. Gameplay wise, it's very fun but the one thing that I think comes back to haunt it is the lack of run/rolls which feels like most characters have severely hindered mobility. If this game had run and roll for every character then this would be extremely smooth sailing. SoR2 didn't have run or roll which is what they were inspired by, but SoR2 also didn't have a bunch of shit to dodge at a moment's notice or enemy AI that likes to move around quickly and just out of reach. When you begin fighting enemies with projectiles or love to throw their weapons you really start to feel that loss of extra control that would have added so much.

8. No alternate routes but it is 12 stages and I feel that's a pretty good number. Alternate routes would have been really good to have but I think the core game is strong enough on its merits of being fun to punch fuckers in the mouth that you can see yourself returning to replay it more than once.

9. Still not entirely sold on the art style but it does look much better when you're playing it. There's also some nice lighting effects going on in some stages. I'd still slam Blaze.

10. My biggest disappointment is the music by far. There were some tracks that sounded okay but for the most part it lacked a lot of character and has a lot of generic synthwave shit embedded in it. I always regarded the music of SoR to be an unseen companion to the game experience that really helped drive it along and sadly it just isn't that good to me. Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping or has you humming along. It's just kind of... there.

Final verdict:

I'd need to replay it a little more but I think as it stands it's a pretty good beat 'em up which could be a great one after more time with it. Is it better than SoR2? No. Is it better than SoR3: Nah. Is it better than SoRRemake? Hell no. But when it comes to a modern, 2D beat 'em up, this is probably the best of the bunch in my eyes. It is disappointing in a sense but I can't be too mad at its existence since I'll always have Remake to fall back on (and let's be real, it was never going to succeed Remake as that game was just something special). I think a lot of me really wants this whole genre to come back since there's nothing more simplistically enjoyable than beating mohawked punks in various colored clothing in increasingly violent ways.

I give SoR4 a STURDY 6 legs up.

 

Is Roo confirmed yet?

 

He's in the game.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Behind Barbon's bar counter.

 

Only made it up to Stage 7 as Axel so far. I like most of the changes to the combat, Grand Upper is no longer a safe move you can spam endlessly, and the offensive special not giving you invincibility makes sense now that you can recover health after using specials, it'd be too spammable otherwise.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the hyper armor on a lot of the (mini-)bosses, as they force you on the defensive and make you play more reactively than proactively. So the first boss is like playing a match of peekaboo where you wait for the boss to do her uninterruptible AoE, and then move in for a combo, then wait for her to do her AoE again, combo, etc.

It's fine in limited doses in order to force the situation to reset on neutral so you can't just keep a boss endlessly stunlocked (like bosses being invincible when waking up after a knockdown), but I think the hyper armor was added in as a way to compensate for bosses being complete pushovers in 1v1 situations, where you can just exploit the weakness in the AI and loop them to death like you could with most bosses in SoR1. This is rather bizarre because SoR4 already has a better solution for this: respawning grunt enemies. It's much harder to keep a boss locked in a combo when you're being surrounded by Galsias and Donovans who will happily interrupt you from behind. So the Ethel fight has barely any hyper armor because the constant RPG strikes overlapping on top everything makes consistent stunlocking impossible, and the Nora fight (technically) has no hyper armor because she's always accompanied by respawning Galsias (instead she buffs them with hyper armor, but unlike other bosses with hyper armor, you can still grab them). But the first boss has tons of it because the first half of the fight has next to no accompanying grunts at all. Any good beat 'em up boss fight should feature respawning enemies, because as beat THEM ups are about crowd control, it makes sense that boss fights should have some crowds.

Bosses with tons of hyper armor would be more tolerable it didn't make them invincible to grabs, or if you at least had rolls to get out of their AoE. Another approach for hyper armor I thought was cool was that of the shield cops, who are immune to hitstun until you break their shield, but if you get in enough damage before they attack (or timing your defensive special just right to i-frame through their attack), you could break their shield and continue beating them up like regular.

 

How'd you rank all the SoR games in order including this one?

In fact, how would you rate all them & throw in Final Fight & Golden Axe too?

 

What the fuck am I supposed to do against those riot shield cops as Axel? Dying on stage 2 on fucking Normal difficulty already because of these fucks. Please tell me I'm not supposed to just keep running away from them after couple punches until the shield breaks because that would be beyond lame. I must be missing some way more efficient way to deal with them.

 

You can use a defensive special right as they're about to attack in order to tank through their attack and continue your beatdown. Alternatively you can jump over them as they're winding up their attack so you end up behind them and are in a better position to continue punching. Using your Grand Upper, strong attacks, and other specials is a good way to deal a lot of burst damage against their shields.

 

Well, when I try to do Grand Upper I seem to be always greeted with a baton to the face at the end of it. Jumping over I already figured out, it's a little better than backing away before every hit. But still feels lame. Maybe I'll just try other characters, Axel feels like slow clunky shit.

 

Final Fight games only: Final Fight 3 > Final Fight 1 > Final Fight 2 > Mighty Final Fight > Streetwise

Golden Axe games only: Golden Axe 3 > Golden Axe 2 > Revenge of Death Adder > Golden Axe 1 >>> That shitty PS2 one

SoR games only: Streets of Rage Remake > Streets of Rage 2 = Streets of Rage 3 > Streets of Rage 4 > Streets of Rage 1

Generally I consider SoR games above both FF and GA, so it really comes down to FF vs. GA and I always liked GA's Conan-esque fantasy setting while I felt SoR did the urban street brawl aesthetic much better than FF as is. So SoR > GA > FF. However, FF's worst game Streetwise is leagues and I mean leagues better than GA's really trash PS2 one.

I think SoR3 gets a really unfair rep for idiotic reasons. When it comes to pure gameplay, SoR3 is better than SoR2 because of the star blitz moves, greater mobility for everyone, greater control over your character especially with a six button controller.

What pulls SoR2 ahead of it still is that SoR2 has superior pacing and enemy placement. SoR3 has really obnoxious shit going on like fighting Galsias that have 2 bars of health or other low level goons that have the health of a mini boss which makes things feel like a slog especially since they love to weave in and out of being on screen. I also find the enemies they throw your way to be annoying and further compounds that whole "hurry the fuck up and let me move on" thing. Electras for example stay on the ground if you're near them, not bad if you're surrounded to get some breathing room but irritating when you have just them to beat down. There are also a lot of enemies that love to jump around and given that there was no juggling or wall bouncing system back then you get one little hit in on them and makes those multiple health bars seem even worse. I also think after Robo-X the game becomes really badly paced regardless of going the Factory or City Hall route. This is also a bit minor but trying to throw Big Bens makes you take heavy damage which is lame. It's fine in SoR1 because Big Ben is a proper boss fight, but in SoR2/3 he's a proper mook that shows up often so it just gets in the way.

I also really like the atmosphere of SoR2 much more than SoR3. I think SoR3's big problem is it doesn't have a lot of streets or cityscapes in it and features more bland environments while both SoR1/SoR2 are just more exciting and gritty to look at.

SoR1 is last but it's not a knock on its quality, more that you can't really deny it lands there since it's pretty clunky compared to what would follow. I love the game still but seeing people put it over 3 is mystifying. It's a great first outing but the transition from SoR1 to SoR2 makes it look and play like they were in different gaming generations.

 

Did another run through of it and let me tell you, Blaze is a monster in this game. Her blitz can OTG and causes juggles and it almost never whiffs like in previous games, she can cancel into an air special at any point, her super move is a nice AOE attack that seems like it has a better hitbox than Axel's and she's a bit faster too than Axel.

Some sections I found tough as Axel I ran through with ease as Blaze. I'd really recommend her if you're having trouble because so far she puts the new fighting engine to use the best.

Edit: I forgot to mention as well that enemies can actually hurt one another. If Donovan throws his steel pipe and you move out of the way then it could smash a Galsia instead, and I don't recommend throwing a pipe/baseball bat at Donovans because they can catch it.

There's also enemy in-fighting. When you have police officers or riot cops and street punks on the screen they'll actually start to beat the shit out of one another which is a really cool feature and it looks fun to see everyone fight at once.

 

I think the soundtrack had a lot to do with SoR3's lesser popularity too, and I don't mean that in a demeaning way because it is my favorite OST of the series. But it's just too different from what the mainstream are used to listen and I can see how a lot of gamers would be put off.

You go from this which could have been dance club music :



Or this soothing track :


To be welcomed right at the character select screen of SoR3 by this chaos (which really sets the tone for the rest of the soundtrack) :



SoR3 sounds powerful and somewhat mad, like you're entering another dimension. I could imagine some of the tracks fitting a "oh shit" or death screen moment in a cyberpunk meet lovecraft game. Most of the tracks are ominous, chaotic, aggressive. Even the few calmer ones have their moments of dissonance.
It is, by far, the most innovative game soundtrack of that era, one that pushes the fm synthesis of the genesis to its limits and makes the best use of the medium. But at the same time it may have been a bit too fresh and unlike everything else for the general public.

 

SoR3's OST was heavily influenced by the emerging trend of Minimal Techno at the time. Of course it was a niche genre, so most people who played SoR3 didn't get it. Listen to this and tell me you don't hear the similarity:

 

The inspiration is there, but Koshiro's added touch of distortion, thick bass lines and dissonance gives SoR3's track quite the identity. There's not a whole lot of people who meddle much in the matter of dissonance, which is unfortunate because it's one of the things I find most fascinating when played right.

Here's the beauty of dissonance when it meets metal :