Notes

Streets of Rage 4: Nostalgic fighting game with style

The good times are back: Streets of Rage 4 is the long-awaited sequel to the beat ’em up series that made Mega Drive history in the 1990s. Available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows features old friends, New faces, classic gameplay, refurbished looks and loads of unlockable content.


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Back to the streets of fury
Streets of Rage 4 takes place 10 years after the events of the last game, released in 1994. There was peace in Wood Oak City until a new crime syndicate led by twins Y, sons of Mr. X (the boss of the original trilogy) appeared and began playing terror, even corrupting the police.

So Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Adam Hunter (returning for the first time from Streets of Rage) decide to investigate what is happening in the city and clean the streets again, and enlist the help of two new arrivals: the young Cherry Hunter, daughters Adam and cyborg Floyd Iraya, a student of Dr. Zan (from Streets of Rage 3).




Throughout Blaze, Axel & Co. they pass through a range of locations, from suburban streets to train tops, panoramic elevators and deserted quays, full of traps (classic holes) everywhere, and of course tons of henchmen from Mr.X’s ex-gang, nearly all stamped stickers with a few exceptions.

Among the new antagonists, the main attraction is Agent Estel Aguirre (below), Renee Montoya with more muscles, who likes to fight by throwing grenades everywhere and who plays a significant role in the plot.




Of course, in beat ’em up, the story is just a detail, but it’s nice to see the developers go to the trouble of building a decent narrative with charismatic characters.

Streets of Rage 4, nostalgia retreaded
The gameplay in Streets or Rage 4 is very similar to the second game in the series, considered by many to be the best fighting game ever. The movement of the veterans is basically the same, with the same attacks and commands, such as an offensive attack consisting of two forward taps and an attack button, but without starting a run that existed in Streets of Rage 3.

Commands consist of attacks, jumps, flying, light raids to combine with combos (jump, ⬇️ + attack), classic energy-intensive special attack (but can be recovered if you don’t get hit in sequence) and stars, ultra-modern two-button technique that consumes items which you can collect in levels.

This is an attack equivalent to “call the police” in Streets of Rage, but doesn’t do full-screen damage here.




SEGA was partially involved in the development of the game; the one that killed the chest project was Lizardcube, following Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap’s brilliant return. French Guard Crush Games provided a modified engine from their bizarre beat’em up Streets of Fury, which is distributed by DotEmu (Another World – 20th Anniversary Edition, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered).

All artwork was hand-animated, while the original soundtrack was mainly composed by Olivier Deliviere (A Plague Tale: Innocence), featuring acclaimed musicians such as Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts), Keiji Yamagichi (Ninja Gaiden) . ) and the wizard Yuzo Koshiro, the songwriter in the original trilogy. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can choose between new or classic tracks from the first two Streets of Rage.

Another feature that older players will love is the ability to unlock older, pixelated versions of the characters, including those that haven’t officially returned in Streets of Rage 4, such as Max, Skate, Dr. Zan and Boss Shiva (Secret and controlled in Streets of Rage 3). But you will have to play a lot to free everyone.




It works like this: points earned on stages fill the progress bar, and the better the ranking, the more points. The bar has three levels (one for each classic Streets of Rage) and milestones that correspond to each locked character.

In total you need to accumulate 1,150,000 points to unlock all 12 characters, and you earn more points by completing a level with a character for the first time, playing on a higher difficulty level without wasting a lot of energy and lives and not wasting any promotions. star.

As for the game modes, we have here in addition to the Story mode, the classic Arcade that has no sequels, the Challenge of Bosses, basically Survival, where you fight bosses and a few henchmen in succession, and the battle mode, i.e. PvP; all of them can only be unlocked after completing the main adventure.

There are also four secret retro stages where you can fight against Streets of Rage 2 bosses such as Abbot (Hugo’s missing cousin, both based on Andrew the Giant) and Mr. X.

Speaking of multiplayer, Streets of Rage 4 supports up to 4 people in local co-op, and to everyone’s delight introduces an online mode that spins and moves are ignored by other fighting games, in favor of old-fashioned gambling, with everyone huddled in the living room.

As not everything is perfect, the online mode only allows 2 simultaneous players.




Technically, Streets of Rage 4 is very good, but may have a slightly larger story mode as it can be completed in a very short amount of time. The title is also lacking in precision: the design decision to follow the Streets of Rage 2 formula resulted in a repetition of certain manners, such as a slight variation in enemy and boss attack patterns, and whoever detonated the old game already knows what’s waiting here.

This is a shame because developers have had the opportunity to innovate through a variety of confrontations and clever challenges. A good example is what WayForward did with River City Girls (the Noize boss fight is one of my favorites) or Ubisoft with the late Scott Pilgrim vs. World: The Game. Even 99Vidas: The Game was a bit more creative.

Application
Streets of Rage 4 is primarily a gift for fans. The sequel is based on the cake recipe from the original SEGA titles, mechanically very similar to its predecessors. At the same time, the aesthetics, soundtrack and additional modes add much more variety and keep the replay ratio for a long time.

Also note that the game supports online co-op, which is often overlooked by other games in its genre; Perhaps its only drawbacks are the fairly short story mode and the lack of creativity in developing enemies and bosses that are essentially the same as before.




In any case, Streets of Rage 4 is an ode to old-fashioned fighting games done right, and a love letter to one in the series that, though not the first, is considered by many to be the best embodiment of the genre’s conventions. providing the highest quality titles.

For newbies, this is a game that allows you to understand how much fun we had at Arcades and consoles in the 90s. For us, it’s like finding an old friend after decades: different because of the passage of time, but you recognize it from a distance and who he missed so much.

Streets of Rage 4 factsheet

Platforms – PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows via Steam, GOG and Humble Store (based on PS4 Pro version analysis);
Developers – DotEmu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games;
https://www.zotero.org/groups/4544841/curtisvideogames4369
Distributor – DotEmu;
Indicative classification – 10 years.

Strengths


A beautiful artistic direction;
Great soundtrack, but you can hear the sensational classic Yuzo Koshiro;
There is a lot to unlock;
It’s been a while since they beat them up in online co-op.

Weaknesses

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Story mode is too short;
Predictable and non-creative enemies and bosses.


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