Sega is having a heck of a run lately with the revivals of some of their classic IP’s. Funny how just a couple of years ago the idea of Sega continuing a dormant franchise was a death nail. Does anyone remember Golden Axe: Beast Rider? Good, it’s probably better that you don’t remember that disaster of a game.
Thankfully, Sega has turned a corner and given some of their titles to developers who probably grew up playing them. This shows because the amount of love that oozes out of Sonic Mania, and now Streets of Rage 4, is astounding. If anything, Streets of Rage 4 shows that the Sega classics show probably always be left in the 2D space.
With that said, I don’t think anyone could have done a better job continuing the series the way LizardCube has. Streets of Rage 4 is a gorgeous game that visually delights from beginning to end. Everything is insanely detailed, visually striking, and colorful as hell, even when it’s dark a moody. The warm glow of lights and the hinting of shadows makes the world our heroes are fighting to save feel more alive than ever.
And while this new iteration of one of gaming’s greatest beat ’em ups is no longer a pixel-based affair ( unless you are a crazy person who loves the filters all these games let you use), the new art-style is wicked cool and fits the characters as Street of Rage 4 takes place 10 years after the end of the third game. Strangely, only Axel looks a bit on the chunky side, something that makes him play quite a bit slower than before.
The rest of the cast feels mostly unchanged outside of the new style the games utilizes. Blaze looks stronger, Max has a touch of grey in his hair, and Adam looks like he should be leading this game with his skills and power. The newest main-roster addition of Cherry is essentially the replacement for Skate who died in a terrible rollerblading accident. Okay, so that’s probably not true but I need a head-canon reason as to why he is MIA in this game. There’s also a Jax knockoff who is the protege of Dr. Zan who is pretty forgettable as I can’t remember his name for the life of me, especially since you can unlock Max in the game.
Controls have been slightly expanded this time around as the standard controller has more than three face buttons like it did all those decades ago. You can punch, jump, and use a special attack just as always. The newest addition comes in the form of a rear attack that’s been assigned to its own dedicated button giving you some additional strategic option when dealing with multiple enemies.
Special meter works as it always has and takes a bit off of your life-bar when used. This gives you added damage and range making it essential when enemies begin to gang up on you. It is also action-specific means you don’t just have one special move. But a new mechanic to the special meter makes it far more useful than ever. Before, you’d use a special to get out of a tight jam or to go nuts on a boss, but now when you activate your special you have the ability to regain the lost health if you manage to attack and combo after it without taking additional damage.
This makes the game a lot more fun as you have some control over the meter and can now freely incorporate it into combos to chain together some devastating blows. In fact, combos are an important part of Streets of Rage 4 as they are a new feature that helps keep the game from becoming stale. Before there was really one way to take on enemies, simply punching them until they fall down, but now you can chain combos much like a fighting game for added fun. Add in a new super-special that you can use if you collect hidden stars and you have a lot of combat options.
You can pop-up enemies, link a special that bounces them off a wall, and then continue the combo before their heads smack the concrete pavement. There’s a whole lot more action going around in this installment that every of Streets of Rage game combined. Weapons are back once again and have been expanded in types and how you can use them. You now have the ability to catch a weapon or item that’s been thrown, adding a whole new layer of strategy and fun.
Toss a pool cue at an enemy and it’ll bounce back toward you. If you’re fast enough you can press the “B” button to catch it out of mid-air to continue beating enemies or quickly toss it behind you at another incoming enemy. This same air-grab can be used with projectiles, such as grenades, that enemies toss at you. Before you could only avoid them where now you can catch them and send them back via first-class airmail. Streets of Rage 4 isn’t reinventing the side-scrolling beat ’em up but it is adding a nice and much-needed layer to some pretty old-school gameplay.
The game’s story has also been expanded and sees you traveling across twelve stages as you take on the twins of the late Mr. X. His kids have been quietly taking over the city and want some revenge for you kicking their pep-pep out a high-rise building window. There are a lot of classic locations you’ll get to revisit as well as some really fun new ones all filled with tons of references to earlier games in the series. You’ll also be able to unlock other characters as you play depending on how well you do. The score counter here is more than a pretty number as it’s tied to unlockables too.
Adam and Max can join the fun alongside some enemies, only this time their pairing is canon and not just a fun Easter eggs like in old games with Shiva. You’ll even fight some old friends because the twins are using some sick techno beats to mind control the general population. In fact, the police force has been turned against you with one boss using the special backup special that you share in the first game against you. It’s little touches like these that show the sort of love the developers put into this title.
But the thing with these soft of games is that no matter how great they are (Streets of Rage 2 being the pinnacle of the genre) there is only so much you can do before you get bored. There is a fine line where a game is too short and feels undercooked, or too long as losses steam at the tail end of the campaign. Streets of Rage 4 finds that perfect balance and adds a lot of modes and options to keep players coming back. You have modes designed for players who love a challenge (beat the game on a single credit), and modes for those that want to practice against the bosses (boss rush).
It’s almost as if the team designed the game with the speed-run community and Twitch in mind. It’s the sort of game that works great in this sort of shared setting and setting records in SOR4 should be pretty interesting in the coming months. Of course, there’s also the multiplayer mode that makes the game even more enjoyable, and unlike a lot of other games of this type, Streets of Rage 4 features online multiplayer so you can play with friends, something perfect during the times we are living in.
But wait, there’s more! You can even select individual stages to play letting you play your favorites, but more importantly, letting you practice if you want to be the first person to earn the no-hit run of the game. Lastly, there’s a one-v-one fighting mode that lets you take on a friend, or three, in combat in an area of your choosing. It uses the game gameplay from the game but since it’s so expanded, this mode feels far more fleshed out than how it used to play in something like Double Dragon back in the day. It’s no Street Fighter 2, but it’s a good bit of fun over a few beers.
With everything I’ve already stated I’m still leaving one very piece of the puzzle from this review so far. Streets of Rage 2 is the greatest console beat ’em up ever, and that’s not just because of the gameplay as others have done similar, if not a bit better. It’s not the greatest because of its style, although that helped a great deal. It’s considered the great Sega Genesis and beat ’em up ever thanks in part to the stunning soundtrack.
The game felt like it captured the early ’90s era techno and trance music that was just coming into its own and breaking into the mainstream. It’s a game where the soundtrack still lingers in people’s heads and vinyl of it are still being pressed. It’s a god damn masterpiece of the time and the one reason this new installment worried me. Thankfully, Streets of Rage 4 manages to nicely split the difference.
There is a completely new soundtrack with modern tunes that are inspired from the original games. These tracks are in many ways much more relaxed and melodic, showing that our heroes have grown up in a sense and that the city has changed with them. It’s less jump up and down in the club and more withered fighter looking for one last chance for glory. It’s the sort of thing I could drop the needle on and simply fade away to what the early ’90s are in my head instead of what they actually were.
Sure, these tracks aren’t as classic as any on the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack but that’s okay. We all grow up and our tastes chance, and I like to think this new style fits our heroes at the point they are in their lives. That said, you have the option to enable the retro soundtrack and bump to the sick beats of the original games. This is one of those rare instances where you can actually have your cake and eat it too.
But not everything is as perfect as I’ve made it out to be. The game does have some issues that hopefully can be addressed with a few patches. The late game can get pretty brutal as enemies before damage sponges leading to the feeling of some unfair deaths. There is also some slowdown when lots of players and enemies are onscreen at once with this becoming more problematic online as lag becomes apparent at times. Nothing game-breaking though and hopefully (fingers crossed) these issues can be addressed soon.
All things considered, Streets of Rage 4 might not push the genre forward but that’s only because there aren’t many places it could still go after its predecessors made history. Streets of Rage 4 still manages to be a modern-day classic and is one of the rare times a classic franchise gets a new entry and manages to satisfy all my wants. This one is so nice that I’m going to recommend you buy it twice. Grab the digital edition and have your fun and snag the physical release on for either Nintendo Switch or PS4 from Limited Run games if you can.
“Streets of Rage 4 is a modern-day classic that does just about everything right”
Final Score: 4.5/5
About Author
