Introduction
------------------
Streets of Rage 4 is a beautiful homage to the original three Mega Drive/Genesis games before it whilstIntroduction
------------------
Streets of Rage 4 is a beautiful homage to the original three Mega Drive/Genesis games before it whilst being able to stand on it's own as fun and expansive game.
Fans of the side-scrolling beat-em-up will feel right at home with this game as returning characters, Axel and Blaze, as well as some new faces, Cherry and Floyd, fight there way through the streets of Wood Oak City in order to stop two power-obsessed twins known as the Y-Twins (children to Mr X who was the antagonist of the first three games).
Characters
----------------
Speaking of playable characters, aside from the aforementioned cast, you can also unlock more characters to play as, including a bad-ass cop known as Estel, and the well known Adam from SOR1... not only this, but you can actually unlock every character from SOR1 through 3 - in their original pixellated form and with their original movesets. I'm talking classic Skate, Max, Dr Zan and even Shiva!
The game allows for 2 players online or up to 4 players locally. You can also toggle Friendly Fire on or off.
Gameplay and Level Design
-----------------------------------------
Right off the bat, the game feels very familiar, but with a fresh lick of paint given the new graphic style. The first level is very reminiscent of most first levels from the SOR games, a street with very vibrant colours, lot's of eyecatching signs and of course, very similar enemies to fight. And whilst there are a lot of returning enemies from previous games, as well as some new ones, they've all been refined, given new moves and can generally keep you on your toes as much as they ever have.
As I mentioned at the start, the game is a perfect blend of nostalgia as well as brand new content, if you've played any of the original SOR games, you'll find yourself spotting lots of nods to the original games, be it level designs, posters, enemy types and bosses, arcade cabinets that let you play classic levels in full pixel glory, it's almost impossible to spot them all. But there's also lot's of new stuff to keep things fresh and interesting too which is nice to see it not leaning on it's nostalgia aspect too much.
Game Modes
--------------------
The story mode is the most prominent and where most people will probably start their SOR4 journey... making your way through 12 stages until they finally reach the final boss and complete the game. It can usually take around 1hr 30m - 2 hrs for an average player to complete the story line on Easy mode, although cranking up the difficulty levels can take longer - there are 5 difficulty levels from Easy to Mania+ meaning there is definitely a challenge to master if you are up for it.
Given the amount of characters in the game also, there's a lot of replayability in that each character plays differently. Floyd being slow and powerful, Cherry being quick and nimble for example
Also, losing all your lives in Story mode will give you the ability to restart from the beginning of the level, but with the option of a modifier - for example, it will give you 1 extra life, 1 extra star, but halves your points earned for that level. This helps keep the game flowing if you find yourself stuck on a level. You can also save your progress on Story mode so you don't have to do it all in one sitting!
Then there's Arcade mode which basically mimics the older style where once you're out of lives, that's it, you go back to the start of the game. No saving, no continues.
There's a Boss Rush mode which will see you taking on back to back bosses from the game's story mode to see how long you can last. A Battle mode so that you can take on other players either locally or online in combat... And a Practice mode for you to hone your skills and get tips on how to play.
Soundtrack
-----------------
It's impossible to talk about a Streets of Rage game without mentioning the soundtrack. SOR games are well known for having amazing music scores (except maybe SOR3). Songs from SOR2 at least have lived literally rent free in my head for the last 20+ years. And I find that SOR4 is no different.
The energetic music of the Character Select screen feels modernly 90's (if that's even a thing), the first stage feels like a natural continuation of SOR2's opening stage. Then there's the funky police station music and the sombre yet absolutely fire cargo ship music. I will admit though that the music becomes less memorable as you progress through the story though, but it still slaps all the same.
And lastly those who prefer a more retro soundtrack can enable classic tunes from the SOR1-3 games in the games options menu. Whilst this is an amazingly welcome feature though, I did find myself wondering why they chose some of the tracks they did for certain levels/areas. Like, I'm pretty sure that one of the first bosses has the final Mr X boss music from SOR2. Unfortunately you can't pick and choose what songs play during which stage… Expand
.png)
