In 2020 video game series don’t take holidays. There is a new Call of Duty, Madden, FIFA and everyone else regularly. I get that things were different in the 90s but sequels still came out like clockwork for loved series even back then. This begs the questions: Why the fuck have we waited 25 years for a new Streets of Rage? Streets of Rage was a great family, sure they had their ups and downs but none of them failed. They showed that the Megadrive/Genesis was the mature console, they had fun, violent gameplay while still attracting gamers so what happened? The answer to that question might be lost to time but let’s see what 25 years of gaming has brought to the series.

Story:

10 years after Mr X, the villain of the previous games is finally gone, his twin children X and Y are back. They have an insidious plan to take over Wood Oak City by using music to control the people. To prove that nothing comes easy Axel Stone and his friends return to action to put an end to X and Y’s evil plans. 

The story is delivered by comic-style cutscenes with mainly background audio and few effects but it does deliver and it delivers well. 

Sound:

Each level has a specific background track preventing it from getting repetitive. The background tracks seem to be picked for each level. While they don’t feel perfectly suited to the level, they do keep the momentum of the game going while not getting annoying.

The effects keep the pace going by weapons sounding different. Throwables sound unique and give off a vibe for the effect they deliver. It’s the melee weapons that sound too similar for my liking. The batons and knives while not exact do sound too similar for my taste but are varied enough to prevent me from complaining. The sound of stuff breaking too is highly reused, tables shouldn’t have a metal breaking effect on them but they do. Only the barrels sound unique.

All in all, the sound is good. The special effects could have been done better but they are of low importance in the scale of things. 

Graphics:

The graphics throwback to Streets of Rage’s roots. The game uses simple sprites for everything. Nothing in this game is a 3D model and you know what? That works. Everything is paper-thin but somehow still manages to display depth which is quite impressive. 

The artwork feels like it was drawn rather than rendered. The world feels like it was ripped straight out of a comic book. The characters, environments, pickups and even the hit effects are straight out of a comic. You could take tons of screenshots from Streets of Rage 4, add speech bubbles and publish a comic. Thinking about it a bit, it seems that Sega has a love for comics. You can see this in Yakuza, Streets of Rage, Alex the Kid and Comix Zone.

Gameplay:

Streets of Rage 4 does nothing that hasn’t been done before. All Double Dragon, Battle Toads and original Streets of Rage players will be quite at home here. The gameplay involves beating the shit out of enemies till they can’t get up before continuing. Each level is made up of sections of enemies to be beaten down before moving on to the next. This carries on till you reach the boss who is simply a high-powered enemy with special attacks. The levels while having different themes play the same, the only major variation in the levels are the weapons and bosses. They also do add some new enemy types for the rest of the game.

The combat system is straight forward, you have punches that can be combed for some devastating attacks. You can also bounce enemies off walls letting you continue your combo with the enemies having no chance to do anything about the merciless beatdown. The game doesn’t make you fight one on one, if two suckers are dumb enough to come in front of your fists at once they will suffer together while you don’t take any more effort. The special attacks take a unique step for the series. Like previous Streets of Rage, the special costs health but this time you can recover that health by landing hits so using the special becomes a game of risk and reward since you lose all the health the special cost if hit first. 

The enemies are one of the games’ shortcomings. There are tons of enemies but very few sprites so a lot of enemies are recoloured versions of other enemies. This gets a tad bit annoying since you expect a particular enemy to have a certain move but they have something completely different and the only way to tell is the colour. The bosses can get annoying since all of them have a cheap shot attack that can only be dodged making for some annoying deaths. I would complain about this more but older Streets of Rage games did the same. 

Helping you bash your way through the game are weapons that are either dropped by enemies or found lying around. These turn the tables by being high damage, giving you additional range and being fun to throw at the crowds who want your head. One of my favourite pieces of the combat is throwing a weapon at an annoying enemy, catching it as it bounces off your target just to throw it at him again. 

The last thing to mention in the gameplay are the items and the score. Apples give you a small health boost and a roasted chicken are a complete health refill while adding points. There is also money to pickup which only gives you points. Finally, we have star pickups that give you a high-powered attack that doesn’t cost any health but is limited to the stars that you carry. You can also get points by using landing combos. The points are mainly to unlock recreations of the characters from the older games to use but they do also give you a life in the current level. 

Conclusion:

While I usually crib about lack of innovation, I’m grateful that Streets of Rage 4 did the bare minimum. The retro gameplay is a breath of fresh air today. It’s fun, it’s fast, it keeps you on your toes and except for the bosses, you know exactly where you went wrong. While it does have a tad bit of a learning curve it is not overwhelming. To add to the fun factor the CO-OP mode is a pleasant surprise. 

While a short game, I highly recommend Streets of Rage 4. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, it’s a pickup and play at any time. The fun is multiplied if you have someone to play with. 

Pros	Cons
Well delivered story	Story is easy to miss
Graphics are timeless	Different coloured characters can be confusing
The soundtrack fits the game	Some weapons don’t sound unique
Fun combat	Bosses are kings of cheapshots
Supports exploration	Level repetition gets dull
A return to simple fun games	Overall game is short

Recommended Purchase Price: $20 or ₹1000

Final Score: 8/10