Streets of Rage 4

[Falksi]

All fighting games have wall bounce, but in general only a few things per character wall bounces (strong attacks, the strongest version of special commands, etc). Look at this magnificent double wall bounce at the very beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejX5TVS3YQM

ALL fighters?

Dunno if you've ever heard of any of these........









Not seeing anything like the silly repetitive wall bounce conbo on the Axl vid above

I'd consider that they're pretty relevant since they were not only massive hitters in the genre, but also the type of games which most SOR4 fans will have grown up playing and were based off in the first place.

 

[Jenkem]

you might want to list more than one fighting game for your argument to work.

 

[Darkforge]

Don't really get the hate for this game. I am having a good time with it and the mechanics are way more nuanced with more things to do and better combos if you know what you are doing. Mania is hectic and intense without feeling cheap. The special system is also inspired. Think people need to take their nostalgia glasses off. Do agree the Y twins are shit for an end game boss though and Cherry .... eww.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

• Specials have a much more interesting implementation. Instead of always costing a bit of health when using it like in most beat 'em ups incl. SoR2, or how SoR3 did it where you got a free special on cooldown, here you get to use them more aggressively instead of just defensively. Using specials will grey out a portion of your health, but hitting enemies will slowly recover the grey portion. But if you get hit once, you lose all of your grey health. So if you know what you are doing you can output way more damage, and you get shafted if you don't.

The Specials aren't on a cool down in Streets of Rage 3. It's a power meter, when it's full you take less damage and deal more. Draining the power meter for a special makes you weak, which makes you deal less damage and take more from attacks. I won't say the system they came up with for this game isn't interesting, but it is weird they went looking for a solution to a problem that was fixed in SoR3 26 years ago. I'd guess the Power Meter of SoR3 is playing off the Rage Guage in Samurai Shodown, which would have come out the year before SoR3.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I think in SoR3 when the power meter was full it didn't make you take any damage for using it but that might be wrong. I don't think the way they did it here with the Bloodborne esque mechanic of getting your lost health back is bad at all, I think they actually expect you to use the power moves much more frequently because of that especially since they don't act as free "get out jail" cards when you're in hitstun anymore.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I think in SoR3 when the power meter was full it didn't make you take any damage for using it but that might be wrong. I don't think the way they did it here with the Bloodborne esque mechanic of getting your lost health back is bad at all, I think they actually expect you to use the power moves much more frequently because of that especially since they don't act as free "get out jail" cards when you're in hitstun anymore.

Yeah, when the Power Meter is full in Streets of Rage 3 you won't lose health when you do a special. But when the Power Meter is full your normal attacks will also do more damage, and you take less damage when you're hit. Using the Power Meter for a special, while not damaging you, will put you in a weakened state where if you're hit you'll take more damage and your attacks are weaker until it's full again. The Power Meter isn't just there so you can do specials in SoR3, just having it full makes your character stronger.

 

[LabRat]

I like Axel grew a beard but that jacket and plaid shirt makes he look fat. its will be fine if they remove it.

 

[Terra]

Put a bit of time into this and have come away pretty impressed. Felt immediately like a modern (but not ruined) SoR2 to me, wall bounce mechanics don't bother me, I like the changes made to boss encounters and Blaze's basic combo ender feels damn satisfying to land. Looks much nicer in motion than in screens too, while Sonic absolutely benefits and always should stick to the classic pixel art style used in Mania, this aesthetic works nicely for SoR; animations are smooth and the lighting effects look really nice.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I like Axel grew a beard but that jacket and plaid shirt makes he look fat. its will be fine if they remove it.

I like the jacket and plaid, it's the most '90s Axel has ever looked. A jean jacket with some long sleeve something tied around the waist feels like the look every American boy in the early '90s had.

The jacket and shirt aren't what makes Axel look bigger. It's that he's drawn bigger now. The overall style of the game's art is chunky.

It is a little weird that what seems like it should be an alt style for Axel, (it looks pretty similar to how Cody in the movie Streets of Fire looks at one point) or how Axel looked here, was given to Adam. Adam's main look up until this point with the shoulder pads and leather pants, knee pads, and boots was very Mad Max. But here they've forgone that look for Adam and given him Axel's shirt, jeans, and shoes style.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I just found out you can catch vials/grenades enemies throw at you and hurl them back, the explosives don't hurt you (they glow green).

 

[RuySan]

Don't really get the hate for this game. .

Because it's the codex, duh. This game is a riot.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

Yes, i gotta say i enjoy SoR4 a lot. Enemies are varied and require different tactics, attacks are meaty (especially Adam with sparta kicks, love him), combo system allows for some quite interesting routes and it looks very nice to boot. Hope they do some DLC with new characters and levels.

 

[Darkforge]

Don't really get the hate for this game. .

Because it's the codex, duh. This game is a riot.

Was not referring to the codex specifically. It's the best side-scrolling beat em up ever made at this point imo.
But the online is virtually unplayable the developers need a slap for opting for this style of netcode. I was playing with my friend down the road on mania and the game felt like it was underwater in terms of responsiveness and the input delay widely fluctuated. (I have 1k up/down internet)
When will developers learn input variable delay netcode is unacceptable for action games where each player must see the same thing. GGPO is even free to license now for fucks sake.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

It'd be nice if this lead to Ancient making another Streets of Rage, or just another beat 'em up like it in general. It seems like what was standing in their way before is the move to 3D and needing another Sega team to help out since they're so small. But with pixel games being big now, and Sega giving the OK on this, they could probably do a really nice looking Streets of Rage with that 2D/3D mix on stages like The Last Night, Backbone, and that recent Cloudpunk game do with a small team. Was watching a video where one of the Backbone developers was talking about making the game, and they're just a team of ten people, which is the same size as the Streets of Rage 2 team according to this interview. Ancient is still around, it seems the last ten years they've been putting out a series of games called Protect Me Knight, and recently done something called Royal Anapoko Academy

Don't really get the hate for this game. .

Because it's the codex, duh. This game is a riot.

Was not referring to the codex specifically. It's the best side-scrolling beat em up ever made at this point imo.
But the online is virtually unplayable the developers need a slap for opting for this style of netcode. I was playing with my friend down the road on mania and the game felt like it was underwater in terms of responsiveness and the input delay widely fluctuated. (I have 1k up/down internet)
When will developers learn input variable delay netcode is unacceptable for action games where each player must see the same thing. GGPO is even free to license now for fucks sake.

Let's not go crazy. Alien vs Predator, Dungeons & Dragons Shadow over Mystara, and Guardian Heroes are all still things.

I think a major problem this game has is it feels way too fucking safe. It's a very unadventurous follow-up, with the developer's overzealous zeal to adherence to Streets of Rage 2 (although they do seem to pull from a few other things) leaves interesting Streets of Rage 3 systems completely off the table. It's stages are also a step backwards from SoR3, which is weird because they made a pretty big deal about getting that car hazard in but then all the stage hazards in 3, and having a level you could freely explore were left by the wayside. It's also got this weird thing happening where, even though it has a few more enemies than the last game, the lost of stuff like the motorcycle and jetpack enemies, as well as the robot enemies, makes it feel like there's less variety. You could even extend this to the weapons to.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

You start to feel like they probably needed more time in this game. The Art Gallery for example, you have a rather uninspired boss fight with two Diva enemies when you know they probably meant to have Mona-Lisa as the boss in that section and I truly think Jet would've fit better on the Skytrain than another repeat boss fight.

Genderbending the bikers into fat girls that head charge you was a mistake. The regular old bikers that rode across the screen and threw grenades were much more thrilling and satisfying to clobber the shit out of.

Honestly though, many of the new enemies/bosses fall flat to me. I'd rather have Goldie/Vice over the vial throwing girls and the hands-in-pockets man. The police are fine since in-fighting is good and helps on higher difficulties, I only wish the taser fucker didn't have such high priority on his grab.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

I think a major problem this game has is it feels way too fucking safe.

Seeing how this sequel is 26 years removed from previous part, it needs to be safe, to introduce new player generation to the concept. Now, if they decide to follow up with SoR5 they can innovate and stuff.

 

[Perkel]

Tried it. It is amazing that 2020 game can't even compete mechanically with double dragon for NES which was released more than 20 years ago.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I think a major problem this game has is it feels way too fucking safe.

Seeing how this sequel is 26 years removed from previous part, it needs to be safe, to introduce new player generation to the concept. Now, if they decide to follow up with SoR5 they can innovate and stuff.

This isn't the first beat 'em up in 26 years, and it ain't exactly like the fundamentals of beat 'em ups aren't still around in series like Devil May Cry and Yakuza.

Although when I'm talking about it being too safe and bland in large part I'm talking about stuff I'd assume a first time player would find more interesting. I'm not even really talking innovating anything either, I'm saying Streets of Rage 3 had more interesting stages than this; (visually I think this one might have the weakest looking stages too) I'm not saying they need to surpass SoR3, but they didn't even try to meet it. This game has more stages than any Streets of Rage game before it but I think it's got the least variety of interactive elements in a stage of any game in the series. That the lost of stuff like the motorcycle, jetpack, and robot enemies of 2 & 3 make the enemies here seem too samey and less varied despite this actually having more enemies.

Given how influenced this seems to be by Mother Russia Bleeds I'm a little surprised guns aren't a weapon in this game, especially since there's a gun enemy that shows up. I'm kind of surprised there's no grapple button in this, since grappling is a bigger element in SoR then some other beat 'em ups, and the walk into someone to grapple (which I'm assuming comes from wrestling games) isn't how wrestling or modern beat 'em ups work anymore. And in a series with robots, it's a little disappointing this didn't introduce some kind of mech or power armor as a play on stuff like the mounts in Golden Axe and the robotic takes on that found in a few Capcom beat 'em ups.

This isn't me saying this game is bad. But as this kind of beat em up love letter, thinking about the stuff it's pulling from, (and seems to be pulling from) thinking about the beat 'em ups of the '90s, and even thinking about the media and games that played a part in Streets of Rage 2 there's just a strange blandness to the thing I wasn't expecting. The combo system which I'm sure was influenced by Guardian Heroes is a big new addition, although it's addition also makes me wonder why this doesn't have moves like Alien vs Predator and Guardian Heroes.

 

[Momock]

I'd rather have Goldie/Vice over the vial throwing girls and the hands-in-pockets man.

The hands-in-pockets dudes are french rednecks, with french rednecks looks and names (from Americans series/movies, the names uncultured americanized proles give to their kids), they crack me up so I'm biased towards them. I like the dwarf bikers a lot too, charging from a long distance and going BOOM in your face. But it's true that it feels like some parts of the game aren't complete (like the beach or the train) for lack of money/time.

 

[RuySan]

Tried it. It is amazing that 2020 game can't even compete mechanically with double dragon for NES which was released more than 20 years ago.

What's the deal with the Double Dragon NES port worship?

Double Dragon was an arcade game, and very fun and remarkable one at the time, and yet the idiots who made DD4 based it on the home NES port of DD1.

And no, neither was as good or deep as SoR4. You're trying too hard.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Double Dragon II: THE REVENGE was my preferred both arcade and NES.

But I think the best Double Dragon games were either Double Dragon Advance or Super Double Dragon on SNES. Didn't like Neon very much.

 

[RuySan]

Didn't like neon as well. Going polygons instead of sprites made the game feel slow and cumbersome.

 

[Perkel]

What's the deal with the Double Dragon NES port worship?

Because DD is mechanically superior especially DD3 on nes.

 

[RuySan]

What's the deal with the Double Dragon NES port worship?

Because DD is mechanically superior especially DD3 on nes.

Mechanical superior to what? The arcade original?

 

[Machocruz]

Oh god I hated Neon. The 80s parody attempt was overly goofy and a big miss. The original wasn't about "being in the 80s." It was more like a vision of urban blight/urban future borrowed from 70s/80s action movies and anime. There's probably a way to parody that, but DDN did not hit it. And the control and movement did not feel good, character designs were crap, etc.