Developer: Dotemu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games
Publisher: Dotemu
System: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Year: 2020
Reviewed: Nintendo Switch Version
Beginning life on the Sega Megadrive, the Streets of Rage series is a classic that has long awaited a sequel to 1993’s third entry. After much teasing, Streets of Rage 4 is finally here but was it worth the wait? The short answer is yes! Yes it bloody was.
Streets of Rage 4 picks up 10 years after the defeat of Mr. X in Streets of Rage 3 and his children; the Y Twins have taken over from their father in terrorising the city and we join our aged heroes in their quest to take the new crime syndicate down. After the prologue, the story is told in short hand drawn animations in between each stage providing a little update in the story, but that’s not why we’re here, the story has been of little importance in the grand scheme of things regarding the series. We’re here to punch thugs and eat turkey! And I’ve got to say, doing both is rather satisfying.
The beautiful hand drawn art style of Streets of Rage 4 brings the characters we know and love to life and in more detail than ever before. Back are series regulars Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Adam Hunter aswell as newcomers Cherry Hunter who is Adam’s daughter and the cybernetically enhanced Floyd who has two huge cybernetic arms given to him by Streets of Rage 3’s Zan. Both the new characters provide a different play style to our usual heroes. Cherry is the faster of the two newbies who uses her speed and guitar to thwomp her foes whereas Floyd is very slow but more than makes up for it with his brute strength and throws.
As well as the two new characters, retro characters from the previous games can be unlocked by just playing the game, clearing a stage gives you a rank and adds your score to a lifetime score. Your score can be increased by collecting valuables as you make your way through the stage, as well as how many lives and stars you have remaining at the stages completion. After a certain amount of points, retro characters then unlock, adding some replay-ability to the game which is a nice change from the modern tradition of having most things unlocked from the start.
Weapons return including the pipe we all know and love as well as the knife, wine bottles and even a samurai sword and on one occasion an 8 ball that you can happily launch into an enemies face.
A nice new addition is the ability to catch certain weapons once you’ve thrown them. Throwing a pipe and catching it on the rebound is quite satisfying, especially when it can be done multiple times until the pipe breaks. The only thing I’ve noticed is that pipe lacks the expressive ‘thwack’ of previous games and doesn’t sound as forceful.
The standard punches and throws return along side returning Blitz moves which can be used by double tapping left or right and pressing the attack button. Along with the standard moves, each character has a defensive special move and an offensive special move allowing you to escape potential damage or dish out additional damage depending on the situation. Like the previous games, these power moves reduce your health bar but unlike previous games, the health can be gained back by causing damage to enemies without getting hit.
In addition to the special moves is a star move for each character, which is a devastating high powered attack using up one of your stars, additional stars can be collected throughout the level, the stars are limited but if not used add towards your score at the end of the stage.
The stages are varied from the classic streets to underground sewers, Chinatown and even a fight in the skies. There is plenty of stage variation to keep things fresh, the stages are all finely detailed making the game aesthetically pleasing whilst adding some new iconic locations to the series.
The classic Streets of Rage fist fodder have also returned including Galsia, Donovan and the rotund Big Ben alongside some new enemies including the police force itself. Some bosses also make a reappearance as well as a surprise boss battle with a classic character which I won’t spoil here.
The boss battles are challenging but oh so rewarding when you finally beat them. Some enemies can be quite frustrating, the riot shield wielding riot cop being a main culprit. The shields they carry can take a while to break and if swarmed by multiple enemies can result in taking a massive beating. The grenade chucking baddies can also make you pull your hair out, especially when faced by many of them. Getting hit by a grenade causes you to bounce into the air and if another one goes off as you land it causes additional damage repeating the cycle. There is no invincibility frames between getting hit and the explosives deal a a fair bit of damage meaning you could be in trouble if you are not careful. This sometimes comes across as a bit cheap and you can do nothing to prevent the damage caused.
Like previous games, the difficulty can be quite challenging at times, on normal and occasionally even on easy mode, enemies can cause massive amounts of damage, especially towards the latter stages causing some frustration but is all the more rewarding when you finally overcome the stage and start to master the higher difficulties.
Of course the series has always been better when played with multiple players. Thankfully the fourth entry we get online play for the first time allowing you to play with others across the globe aswell as local co-op. There is also a battle mode if you wish to take on each other to determine who is best player one on one or in your group.
Like previous Streets of Rage entries the music is a highlight of the game. Not quite reaching the heights of Streets of Rage 2 but including some memorable songs to add to the impressive series soundtrack. That’s no surprise as Streets of Rage 4 entry lists Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima amongst its soundtrack contributors but all the composers deserve credit as collectively they have created a memorable gaming soundtrack with Olivier Dereviere composing the bulk of the music. On some levels the music is incorporated into the stages as shown on the Police Precinct stage, the sirens blended seamlessly into the soundtrack. There is also an option from the settings to have the retro soundtrack play instead of the new one letting you experience even more nostalgia.
We get a couple of game modes in Streets of Rage 4, most require you to finish the story however before they are accessible. We get an arcade mode where you try to complete the game on one credit, giving it an old school feel and we also get a boss rush mode allowing you to face off against the games bosses one after the other.
The Final Say
Overall Streets of Rage 4 is a triumphant long awaited return to the iconic beat em series. With a now iconic cast of characters, varied level design, good amount of unlockables and plethora of extras such as concept art and character bios not forgetting the pumping soundtrack there is very little not to like. A few nitpicks aside such as cheap enemies and the lack of an epilogue, this is a game you’ll wanna play. The game was long coming after a few teases but was well worth the wait and in my opinion one of the best games to be released this year, a pretty bold statement as 2020 has so far given us some of the best games of all time. Let’s hope we see the same treatment for some other classic Sega franchises, a new Golden Axe wouldn’t go amiss.
The Good
+ Beautiful art style
+ New characters give a nice variation
+ Varied level design with great attention to detail
+ Excellent new soundtrack and ability to play retro soundtrack
+ Good amount of unlockable retro characters meaning a lot of replayability
+ Decent amount of game modes
+ Keeps things new and fresh but keeps just the right amount of nostalgia
The Bad
– Cheap enemies
– Lack of a proper epilogue
Verdict
9 out of 10
The screenshots are taken by me and are for review purposes only and no copyright infringement is intended. All images contained within the screenshots are copyrighted by their respective owners. The screenshots are unaltered and are taken from the Nintendo Switch version. If however you feel I have infringed any copyright, please message me and I will happily remove any images.
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