During this Game Pass PC journey, I want to make sure that I play a good variety of genres. With that in mind, the latest game I finished is a beat-'em-up. BACKGROUND:
Streets of Rage is one of the most popular games in the beat-'em-up genre, so I've heard about it a lot. Despite this, I've never played a single Streets of Rage game before. Time to change that. This was another game I streamed on Discord. People hopped in when I was already more than halfway through, so I didn't really get a sense of what the others felt about it. PLOT: This game is apparently set ten years after Streets of Rage 3. A new crime syndicate has taken over Wood Oak City, and it's up to heroes both new and old to take them down. The returning protagonists Axel and Blaze are back, and joining them are Cherry and Floyd. Much like other titles in the genre, the plot is straightforward: shit is bad, let's punch our way to a solution. You don't really spend a lot of time getting to know the characters, either (the game relies a bit on prerequisite knowledge of the previous games). That said, I found it a serviceable story, which got delightfully over-the-top at times. PRESENTATION: Streets of Rage 4 has this striking comic book-esque visual style that I absolutely adore. The sprites are wonderfully drawn and animated, the backgrounds are incredibly detailed, and the cutscenes, despite not having full animations, have a cinematic flair to them. The music strikes a balance between retro and modern, with tracks that encompass different genres of sound (including, but not limited to: rock, hip hop, and techno) and at the same time have a hint of the chiptune sounds of old. The sound design in general also does something similar, as some sound effects sound super retro, but others sound incredibly polished. There's unfortunately only limited voice acting, but the few voice lines there are sound good. Some of the game's unlockables and alternate options are a true homage to the previous Streets of Rage titles, with options to switch to the classic soundtrack, as well as the ability to play as the classic pixel art sprite versions of the returning characters. I love shit like that. GAMEPLAY: As mentioned before, Streets of Rage 4 is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up. Beat the absolute piss out of numerous waves of enemies, proceed to the next screen, rinse and repeat. It's a formula that's been around since the arcade era, and it's still fun. You can choose between one of the four characters I named above (plus you can unlock others eventually). Though they all have different movesets, they have access to pretty much the same things: a basic attack that leads into an auto combo on hit, a charge attack, a Blitz Move, and a bunch of throws (which can be performed by going up to an opponent and grabbing them). In addition, you have a number of Special moves, which cost a bit of health to perform. You can restore that lost health by kicking enemy ass. Plus, each character has what's called a Star Move, which is essentially a super move that wrecks the shit out of enemies. You only get a finite number of uses, however; the number of stars next to your health bar indicates how many uses you have at your disposal. Throughout the levels, you'll occasionally encounter shit on the ground you can pick up. You'll spot money, which adds score (getting enough score gives you 1-Ups), food that restores your health, stars that give you extra Star Move uses, and various weapons you can use to lay the smackdown on the jabronis coming your way. Most of the weapons are pretty straightforward; pressing attack with a bat equipped swings it, and you have the option to throw it as a projectile. There are a good variety of enemies, and like the games of old, they have palette swap versions that have different attacks. These enemies are not tough to deal with on their own, but when there are a million of them on you at once, it becomes important to figure out which ones to take out first. Some of them have tricky moves, like armor moves, nasty wakeup attacks, and even command grabs of their own. It's usually easy to see their patterns coming, but that's a tall order when you're fighting a whole crowd in one go. The bosses are plenty tough, as they move around a ton and have attacks that either hurt or are hard to deal with for one reason or another. Patience is the key in winning this fights; taking the time to learn the attack patterns really helps, and doing what I did (jumping willy-nilly into armor moves or AoE attacks) is a surefire way to get a game over. Speaking of game overs, this game is as old school as it gets. You start out each stage with two lives, and one is used up when your HP reaches zero. As long as you have lives, you'll be dropped back in where you just were, arcade-style. If you run out, it's game over, which means you have to play the entire level from the beginning. If you're not used to arcade-style games or didn't grow up playing quarter-munching arcade games, you may end up finding this frustrating. As someone who tortures themselves constantly with hard games, I only found this mildly annoying. You can offset the difficulty with assists, which you can toggle on and off during retries. These give you extra lives and stars, though the tradeoff is a score penalty (which will affect your ability to acquire additional 1-Ups). Also, there are multiple difficulty options for playing through the story; if you just want to play through the game and see everything, don't pick anything above Hard. Trust me on that one. Once you beat the campaign, you unlock a Stage Select (self-explanatory), Arcade Mode (play through the entire game, but if you run out of lives, you have to start over from Chapter 1), and Boss Rush (again, self-explanatory). If, unlike me, you have friends, you can opt to play the game's various modes in two player co-op (which is, in my opinion, the definitive way to play any beat-'em-up) or check out the Battle Mode, which is just the game's PvP mode. The game also has some online functionality, and I assume it's for online co-op and online PvP. VERDICT: Streets of Rage 4 takes the essence of the arcade-style classic and breathes new life into it; the core gameplay is still reminiscent of the beat-'em-ups of old, but the amazing art style and great music give it a modern feel. Though a short game (titles in this genre usually are), I enjoyed beating the shit out of people (in the game, to be clear), and I highly recommend it to people looking for a good, ol'-fashioned beat-'em-up (especially if you have a second player to pass a controller to). However, this game does take "old school" a little too far with its less forgiving lives/continues system, and I see this being a bit of a barrier for more casual players (though, as I said before, there are ways to offset this). And again, it's a short game, so take that into consideration when looking at the asking price. Streets of Rage 4 is on Steam, right here: Streets of Rage 4 on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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