Streets of Rage 4

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Neon had good designs. It's just the 3D models were a terrible choice, (and a weird one given the game was made by Wayforward) they didn't look half as good as if they'd been sprites or hand drawn, and the characters felt very stiff. The jump in particular in that game just felt off.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Although I have a soft spot for the very first Double Dragon at the arcades (it was the first game I 1CCd as a kid, of course using elbow cheese), the best Double Dragon game is without question Double Dragon Advance. There are just so many moves in that game and it's a blast to play, there are many remixed levels from many DD games in there. Definitely recommended. Double Dragon 2 NES comes 2nd for me. I thought Neon was complete shit, both systems wise and aesthetically. They went for the HOW DO YOU DO FELLOW KIDS retro bandwagoning and it really doesn't work at all.

I liked SoR4 well enough, but it's a shame they didn't implement some sort of downed attack move - they've been in beat'em ups forever (first arcade beat'em up I remember being able to do some sort of attack on downed enemies was Combatribes - the game was a bit shit but it was fun giant swinging fools. There were different downed moves depending on the enemy position too - head towards you, feet towards you, etc.).

Also agree with a previous comment about enemy design - the lesbo biker ladies are so fucking lame.

 

[Machocruz]

DDA is one of the best remakes of any game imo. It's a must have for beat em up and DD fans.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

The vibe of DDA is superior to Neon as well. Give me that more gritty '80s kung fu action movie feel over the dudebro high five lame shit any day.

 

[Falksi]

Kim Justice is soft as shit and very forgiving with games, so this review has massively put me off playing..........



Think I'll stick to SOR remake.

 

[Momock]

Kim Justice is soft as shit and very forgiving with games, so this review has massively put me off playing..........



Think I'll stick to SOR remake.

First minute: dude complaining about pick-up button. What a massive idiot.

 

[True Ukrainian]

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

Fat Axel does suit his new play style though. A chunky brawler that moves relatively slow but busts out combos like no one's business.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Okay believe it or not but the pick-up button can be totally mindfucky if you're used to playing old school beat 'em ups. I wasn't used to this INNOVATIVE IDEA until like a good second playthrough in. Same when I'd go to take a sip of water at the end of a segment but the game actually waits for you to pick up anything you left behind on the screen instead of advancing forward automatically.

 

[Darkforge]

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.

Yeah I have played all of those games recently to make sure i wasn't going crazy. Mechanically none of them match up to this. If you disagree you probably haven't explored the combat system enough. That being said the likes of Shadow over Mystara, and the like probably have better level designs and boss encounters ect but from a pure gameplay perspective I don't think anything comes close to this on Mania. I had forgotten about Guardian heroes, I should go back and give that one a whirl because I remember it being fucking good.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Axel tutorial: move a few spaces to the right and choose Adam.

 

[RolePlayer]

Is this game decent with M & KB ?

 

[RoBoBOBR]

You don't need mouse. Keyboard is ok, i played it on a keyboard-like controller (htibox) and had no problems.

 

[Momock]

It's directions + 3/4 buttons, no problem with keyboard at all.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Ash]

I still don't understand what all the fuss about SoR2 is. Why was it so innovative? The art/graphics were a jump up from the original but otherwise everything was mostly the same (and less charming than the original if you ask me). SOR3 was the one that actually innovated with tons of great new combat mechanics, branching paths, unlockable characters, more interactive level design, duel mode, a damn story...

To me, 1 and 3 are better games than 2 for a variety of reasons. I feel this has always been a case of "it was the first game in the series that I played" syndrome, yet it seems so universal so I must be missing something.

Can someone explain?

 

[True Ukrainian]

I still don't understand what all the fuss about SoR2 is. Why was it so innovative? The art/graphics were a jump up from the original but otherwise everything was mostly the same (and less charming than the original if you ask me). SOR3 was the one that actually innovated with tons of great new combat mechanics, branching paths, unlockable characters, more interactive level design, duel mode, a damn story...

To me, 1 and 3 are better games than 2 for a variety of reasons. I feel this has always been a case of "it was the first game in the series that I played" syndrome, yet it seems so universal so I must be missing something.

Can someone explain?

SOR2 had character specific specials, enemy health bars, more varied play styles with the enlarged roster, enemies that would rush like the motorcycle guys and stages that had multiple parts.

 

[Ash]

SOR2 had character specific specials

Which every time used would drain health, wheras specials in the original and third did not if used correctly.

Still, it qualifies as innovative, I just don't like it (until 3 fixed the problem).

enemy health bars

I never considered this important or noteworthy. More a distraction. But sure, your point still stands.

more varied play styles with the enlarged roster

Character roster of three becomes a four character roster. One extra character is the bare minimum expected of a sequel.

enemies that would rush like the motorcycle guys

There were rushers in the original.

and stages that had multiple parts

I'll give it that.

Yeah I didn't really miss anything of importance. SoR2 is massively overrated. 3 is obviously a whole lot better. 1 vs 2 is more subjective, but I much prefer 1's excellent soundtrack, gritty aesthetic, more interesting stage design that plays into the combat (conveyor belts and crushers in factory, holes in broken bridge, the elevator of much tossing, moving carts in final level), specials that don't drain my health even if very crude and panic buttony, and boss design.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

To me, 1 and 3 are better games than 2 for a variety of reasons. I feel this has always been a case of "it was the first game in the series that I played" syndrome, yet it seems so universal so I must be missing something.

I respect 1, but to me it's nowhere near as good as 2 and 3. About the one thing I liked about SoR1 is how it felt darker in terms of aesthetics. When compared to Final Fight, I liked that SoR1 took place almost entirely at night while Final Fight was mostly daytime. Just gave it more of a mature action movie feel I thought.

As for SoR2's praise, it comes down to how tightly designed and good to play it feels. Even though SoR3 made lots of additions that expanded for the better, SoR2 still stands on its own. Everything in SoR2 just seemed like it flowed together and everything was as it should be. The enemy placement from Easy to Normal all the way up to Mania seemed much more carefully laid out, the move sets were expanded upon heavily, the characters themselves played completely different and felt fresh which upped replayability and the game itself could be played by just about anyone. If you wanted to play with people that weren't too good at video games, you could easily coast by the game on Easy/Normal or if you wanted a real challenge you'd go Mania with its more aggressive enemies. I'll say that Mania in SoR2 is difficulty done very well, it's more than just upping the power and health of an enemy, but they actually use their whole move-set and make you a better player overall because you break tons of bad habits you made in Normal/Hard.

Adding to that, the game just looks and sounds great to this day. SoR2 is one of those games that you'd never think was on the console with inferior power because of how damn good it looked and sound. Making a beat 'em up may seem like an easy task but SoR2 really showed how it's much more deep than you'd think. You never lose sight of your character, you always feel like it comes down to your actual skill as opposed to bullshit cheap shots, you begin to appreciate when you look back how the game truly wasted nothing and made the most of all eight stages.

But the best thing about SoR2 for me? It's a 40 minute to one hour game with no moments of "god, I hate this part." SoR3 by contrast, for all the gameplay additions it made, has many moments in a stage where I just fucking hate it. The construction site bulldozer and the forest with the tripwire traps for example or how the game spams annoying enemies with huge health bars. In fact many beat 'em ups have this for me, the only one I think that rivals SoR2 in this is Shadow over Mystara when it comes to always keeping you engaged and ready. Even the part where most people lose lives at, the stage 7 elevator, it has this real adrenaline kicking music playing which plays into the pandemonium of enemies constantly dropping in on you.

And I don't know, it's just those little things for me. The rain in the back alley that slowly fades into the boss theme song for the first time, the way the game goes into slow motion when a boss is defeated, having bikers chaotically fly across the screen and jump off their motorcycles, Electra lounging at the bar before tossing off her coat, the Alien House hiding enemies in the mist, all the stupid signs in the background like "DO BASE BALL." There's just a lot of character in the game, it is just interesting to look at alone.

 

[Ash]

I respect your opinion. I don't feel the same way, but it's good to see SoR2 admiration actually explained for once.

 

[Falksi]

I still don't understand what all the fuss about SoR2 is. Why was it so innovative? The art/graphics were a jump up from the original but otherwise everything was mostly the same (and less charming than the original if you ask me). SOR3 was the one that actually innovated with tons of great new combat mechanics, branching paths, unlockable characters, more interactive level design, duel mode, a damn story...

To me, 1 and 3 are better games than 2 for a variety of reasons. I feel this has always been a case of "it was the first game in the series that I played" syndrome, yet it seems so universal so I must be missing something.

Can someone explain?

The double tap attack combos, charge attack, and one-button special variety were pretty rare of at the time. And the overall arcade-weighty feel of the time was just nailed too.

It just took everything which was good about all good beat 'em ups, perfected them for the time, and put them all in one big melting pot.

 

[Great Deceiver]

SOR2 also had a 60hz refresh rate, which feels massively better than the 30hz refresh of the original. It's an improvement and a refinement in every way (the only debatable aspect is the music - it's fair to prefer the tunes in the first game).

 

[Azalin]

I didn't own a mega drive/genesis so I mostly played it years later but I think SoR2 was just a really good game that improved on it's predecessor on almost everything with no real weak points,good graphics good music,good characters selection,good atmosphere,good levels,good controls,good enemies and AI etc

 

[Ash]

1 is better. Music is better. 2 may also be animated a lot smoother, but 1 actually feels like a dystopic crime-ridden city too. gritty visuals, broken shit, trash and graffiti everywhere. 2 looks more cartoony, and enemies behave more cartoony. And again, I prefer the stage design of 1 from a gameplay POV. There's interactive elements. I don't recall as much, or any at all in 2. Boss design was also better.

...main reason I prefer 1 is indeed the damn fine tunes though.

Chad gritty SoR1 vs Virgin Cartoon SoR2:

Spoiler

 

[Ash]

The world is in turmoil
fat white dudes in slacks and suspenders that roll across the floor at 40mph have taken over
Only you, black child with skates can save the day
You will make your protest against the fat evil supreme whites...in the Streets of Rage.