Everyone else can find other ways to get frustrated.It’s been 10 years since the events of Streets of Rage 3, and Oak Wood City is only mildly safer than it once was. Hardcore players can still enjoy an unforgiving game. Doing so lowers your high score, but the rest remains the same.
For example, you can choose to have new lives, more power, or a bigger health bar. You can also customize your experience to precision. However, Streets of Rage gets around with various difficulty options. Classic games tend to be impossible to beat, as that’s part of the appeal. I have to note Streets of Rage 4 is very welcoming. That said, most levels inject fuel and ideas to an otherwise linear premise. Both sides are also fighting each other for a chaotic level that ramps things up with riot shields and taser guns. That means fighting the prisoners as well as the guards. There’s one high level when you have to break out of prison. Yet, things get interesting with new scenarios and a large display of enemies. Going through the levels is a matter of walking down the street and punching people in the guts. Aside from that, Streets of Rage is entertaining and straightforward. The character selection is the most complicated thing you’ll find in this game. In the end, you get to choose which tactics and playstyles suit you better. Playing around the five different characters is fun and gives the game plenty of replayability. For instance, Axel is a slow-moving brute, whereas Cherry is an agile, subtle fighter. Compared to the vintage trilogy, Streets of Rage 4 feels different and delivers different types of characters. Overall, the game is much more dynamic than the originals. One of those drains your life the other requires rare stats you get along the way. Or you can do the classic: break mailboxes for apples and turkeys to refill your health bar.Įvery character has two special moves. It’s a simple arcade-like game with smooth gameplay and satisfying combat mechanics.įor example, you can knock your foes and steal their knives and their pipes. You continue moving to the right side of the screen while punching everyone and everything. The new features include several new fighters going alongside the classic characters. Modernized old-schoolĮven though this is an old-school experience, Streets of Rage 4 brings some modern twists to make it work in 2020. This time, though, you’re fighting on a neon-filled city with refined “old-school” graphics and the sweatest 2D gameplay you’d find. Once again, the story is about cleaning up the streets from corrupt police officers and crime gangs. And you’re going to do the same as you did before: kick and punch rotten cops and punks. You still wander the streets while listening to Yuzo Koshiro tracks. Instead, it takes you back two decades, when gaming was more straightforward, and graphics were 2D. The new entry of the franchise, though, doesn’t take the game forward.
Twenty-six years after the original trilogy debuted, Streets of Rage 4 arrives as one of the best single-player PC games of 2020. The Streets of Rage 3 is one of the best games in the Sega Genesis.
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows PCĪ game known for its “timeless gameplay” and dance electronic music.