Streets of rage review

Streets of Rage is a cult series in the beat ’em up genre that we all loved in childhood. The original game was released back in 1991 and became exclusive to Sega consoles. In the next two years, the second and third parts came out. It was a game as simple as two pennies, where you need to go from left to right and beat opponents, and at the end of the level you must fight with the boss. With the gradual transition to the 3D genre has changed, and many iconic games like SoR have sunk into oblivion. The story of the “streets of rage” took a break of 16 years.

Lizardcube decided to restore injustice, which already has the successful reincarnation of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. As in the case of the adventures of the “amazing boy”, the Parisians coped with their task and transferred to the 21st century the Streets of Rage that pleased Sega fans.

Watch

The first thing that catches your eye when launching Streets of Rage 4 is the graphics. She is really amazing. The French stylized the game as a comic, added a huge number of bright colors and made beautiful special effects. Many tricks completely migrated from past parts and with updated graphics began to look even better. If Axel waves his fist of fire, then half of the screen will be engulfed in flames. Streets of Rage 4 is cool to just watch.

As before, before starting the mission you need to choose a character. The main characters in the game are five. Old friends Axel, Blaise and Adam returned to us, and brisk Cherry and a huge Floyd with two cybernetic arms were added to them. For completing missions, points are awarded, with their help the player can open characters from the old Streets of Rage, which will delight fans. In total, the game has 17 heroes.

Each of them has its own gameplay. Axel is a classic middle peasant who holds damage well and waves his fists with all his heart. Blaise is more fragile, but moves faster across the battlefield and is better able to control weapons that can be raised from the floor. Cherry moves even faster and can run, as well as hold jumps in a jump. Floyd is capable of grabbing two opponents at once and pushing them together with his foreheads, as well as withstanding incredible damage – but at the same time he moves slower than others. After a certain mission, Adam will appear in the roster, which in characteristics is very similar to Axel, but his punches look much more impressive.

Management in the game is tied to just a few buttons: movement, jump, normal hit, backstab and powerful attack. Health is expended on using the latter, but the character can recoup it if he then immediately inflicts several ordinary punches. A powerful blow is divided into defensive, attacking and air. When using a defensive character, the hero beats around himself and hurts even those opponents who are above or below him. At the same time, such a blow gives a second of invulnerability, due to which you can catch opponents who rushed to the attack, or simply avoid damage.

Watch

There is also a super blow called Star Move, which for a mission can be applied a maximum of two to three times. To do this, you need to collect special stars at the levels – each gives one charge. If there is at least one, then you need to go into the crowd of enemies and press two buttons – the opponents will receive a fire tornado from Axel or a powerful hit from the beam gun from Floyd.

The gameplay is completely ported from the 1990s. We move from left to right, distributing cuffs to all the bandunans encountered on the way. Sometimes we break boxes to get an apple out of there (restores little health), chicken (a lot of health) or a wad of money (gives points). Scored more points – got a spare life. If the enemy is not directly in front of you, but slightly below, then a blow may not pass through him. If you simply “enter” the opponent, then the character will capture him and will be able to either throw or inflict a few blows and then with a force to grunt on the ground.

Although the combat system seems very simple, it opens to the player gradually. For example, it was only in the second walkthrough that I learned that Blaise does not deliver one, but several blows with melee weapons. And this is not an isolated example. The storyline campaign in Streets of Rage 4 takes just two to three hours, but each time it opens up something new for the player.

Enemies in Streets of Rage 4 are a huge number. There are ordinary gopniks running diagonally with a knife, there are punks who make tackles, as well as fire-breathing fat men familiar to fans. Beginners too. For example, cops with energy shields – they cannot be touched while their protection is active. Boss battles deserve special praise. Each requires a specific approach – the enemy can’t just shut up.

The plot in Streets of Rage 4, as in all previous parts, there are not enough stars from the sky. This time the city faces a new danger: the children of Mr. X decided to enslave the minds of the inhabitants of the metropolis with the help of zombie music. An interesting idea, which, unfortunately, does not play out in the gameplay. However, Streets of Rage does not enter for the sake of the plot, so developers can even forgive such a banal scenario.

Back in Streets of Rage 4, the prohibitive amount of fan service for fans of the trilogy. The skill of one of the bosses, for example, looks exactly like Axel’s super blow from the original game. You can also find slot machines on the levels. If you hit them with a stun gun, you can get a secret level with the boss from the last part.

The authors, to their credit, tried to satisfy all the fans. If you do not like the new comic graphics, then you can enable pixel sprites. The new soundtrack did not enter – the classic is available in the settings. Do not like new characters – play on old ones.

However, the authors did not get rid of one minus inherent in Streets of Rage and all the games of the beat ’em up genre – this is a monstrously short duration. The plot takes place in a couple of hours, the opening of all the heroes will take three to four evenings, and besides this there is nothing more to do. You can, of course, play boss rush or fight a friend in 1v1 format, but this will get boring the very next day. However, for its price, Streets of Rage 4 will give great pleasure mixed with nostalgia.