![]() ![]() Speaking of bosses, SoR4 ’s are as superb as they are varied, with only one or two employing cheap or spammy tactics. T here’s even a quartet of bonus boss battles from Streets of Rage 2, played with a neat retro filter. For aficionados, there are cou ntless little nods to the series history, from the more obvious appearance of the PinePot restaurant iconic of the first level of the original game, to posters of old bosses and stained glass depictions of Mr X in his iconic seated pose. There’s great reverence for the Mega Drive instalments. Take advantage of their strengths, learn to mitigate their shortcomings they're all deadly, with practice. The five make for a fantastically well-balanced combination, arguably the finest to date. But as well as the return of Adam, Axel and Blaze, there’s two brilliant new protagonists: Cherry, a speedy fighter with an electric guitar in tow and Floyd, an absolute beast with huge reach and power, but limited agility. But even he hasn’t been forgotten: you’ll find the kangaroo behind the bar on one of the levels. Every version of every character to have featured in the original games is unlockable, save for Roo. You can play with a control scheme that mimics perfectly the Mega Drive 3-button configuration, or a modern revision with separate buttons for weapon pick-ups and special attacks. The appeal of the gameplay is so recognisable, that it channels the same addictive, endlessly playable co-op paradise its predecessors captured. Series diehards will love how it captures so completely the spirit and the feel of the earlier games. Any worries were misplaced though, as it’s hard to believe it could have been any better. Too great a focus on modernity and it would risk losing sight of what ma de the series so enduringly popular, thus alienating fans. Too heavy a reliance on nostalgia and it would risk appearing kitsch and dated. Anticipation, as a result, was fearsomely high and Streets of Rage 4 was left to walk an awkward tightrope. Thus, the nostalgia for the series was of an unusually undiluted kind, when finally instalment number four released in 2020. When SEGA Mega Drive Collection arrived sporting 28 of the company’s biggest Mega Drive games, Streets of Rage was nowhere to be seen. No dubious HD reimagining s, like so many other games with roots in the early nineties. ![]() No dodgy spin-offs to chip away at the respect held for the brand, like Sonic. ![]() N o childhood-sullying AGES respray, like that which befell Golden Axe. Revered as it was, SoR would remain conspicuous in its absence. SEGA dabbled with reviving the series firstly for the Saturn and then the Dreamcast, before thinking better of it. In tandem with the roaming beat ‘em up itself, Streets of Rage fell into obscurity with the emergence of 3D. Not a peep, for f our generations, f rom a sequence of games considered amongst the greatest of the 16-bit era. Streets of Rage, SEGA’s seminal roaming beat ‘em up series, lay dormant for an unfathomable twenty-six years. ![]()
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