Streets of Rage is a classic series from Sega that stands as one of the best beat em up franchises of all time. I previously did a writeup of the original trilogy which can be seen here. Now, DotEmu, Lizard Cube and Guard Crush games have worked to bring the series back with Streets of Rage 4. Many were skeptical about the game due to its visual look and character designs, but allowed themselves to be won over by news that followed. Now the game is here, but is it a worthy follow-up, or a cheap cash in?
The first thing to note is that the developers went out of their way to make this game accessible to all types of players, with 4 difficulty settings ranging from easy to maniac. Or in other words, easy to extremely hard and challenging for veterans. The game uses a scoring system to give you rewards such as extra lives, but if you want to go without that, you can choose to play with more lives and specials and go for a reduced score instead. This is extremely helpful if you want to try the harder difficulty settings and are not going for a high score. If anything, it is a great training method for the more challenging settings, and is great for getting people out of their comfort zone. The developers also included a section called Fighting Tips to help you figure things out, although from own experience, this was not needed since finding new techniques & combos as you play is pretty easy to do. Lastly, there is Arcade Mode, which is a brutal form of hardcore mode. In this mode, you only have one credit to finish the game and saving isn’t an option.
You can play the game in single player or with up to four players locally, or two players online. The online works excellently here and I experienced no issues with the connection at any point. Multiplayer mode has multiple settings to it, such as turning on friendly fire if you want or leaving it off. Another thing is that the settings adjust themselves based on how many people are playing. This means among other things four players will do less damage individually to keep the game’s level of difficulty balanced and not let the player just go all out and be overpowered. My one complaint is that the four player option is limited to local only, as many people love to play these kind of games online and other brawlers have done so.
But how about the main game itself? Streets of Rage 4 is easily one of the best follow-ups to a classic game that anyone could ever ask for. You start out with your choice of 4 characters, before unlocking more as you progress. These include retro characters from the first three games that look and play like their old versions. The game has amazing music that stands as some of the best in the series so far, and that is not even including the music from Streets of Rage 1 and 2. Yes the visual style can seem weird, but the more you play the game, there more they will grow on you and feel natural. In terms of gameplay, I truly love the fighting system set up here. The game rewards you for using heavy amounts of combos for instance, and even though you lose health for using special moves here, you can regain a portion of the health lost by rapidly attacking enemies.
Streets of Rage 4 feels extremely satisfying whether in multiplayer or single player, and going through the various levels felt like both a nostalgia trip and a venture into the future of beat em ups. Enemy AI is interesting here, as enemies may attack each other if it makes sense (i.e. police enemies and thug enemies will attack each other and you). It is a nice touch and adds a sense of immersion to the game as you play. I do not want to give any spoilers here, but the game manages to have a well done story and take things in an interesting direction that will satisfy new and old fans alike. The last thing to mention in this review is the battle mode, which can be a 1 v1 or 2 v2 fighting mode. Its not perfect and feels a bit awkward at times, but is surprisingly fun once you get into it.
Streets of Rage 4 is truly amazing and it is clear the game was a labor of love. I highly recommend checking this out, as it is a must play for fans of the series or fans of brawlers in general.
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Disclaimer: A review key was provided
You can buy the game on Steam. PS4. Xbox One. and Switch.
Reviewed on Steam