{"id":20128,"date":"2020-05-15T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T00:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=20128"},"modified":"2020-05-08T00:35:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T00:35:15","slug":"streets-of-rage-4-ps4-switch-xbox-one-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/15\/streets-of-rage-4-ps4-switch-xbox-one-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Streets of Rage 4 (PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the 16-bit era when I was a kid (well, a teen), I only had a Super Nintendo.\u00a0 Back then, kids didn\u2019t usually have both a SNES and a SEGA Genesis, you had one or the other.\u00a0 So there were a lot of Genesis games I missed out on.\u00a0 Most of the time I was OK with that, as the SNES offered more games for my tastes.\u00a0 But there were a few times when a Genesis game caught my eye, and ones I didn\u2019t even know about altogether!\u00a0 The Streets of Rage series was one of those games.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t discover them until I played the second one on one of those early SEGA Genesis classic collections.\u00a0 But once I did play it, I was blown away by the graphics, gameplay, and especially the music.\u00a0 The secret to its success was that it was developed from the ground up to be best on a console, not like the other beat \u2018em ups out there that were originally arcade quarter munchers.\u00a0 After three games, the Streets of Rage series only stayed on the Genesis, until now.\u00a0 FINALLY we get a sequel with Streets of Rage 4, available on current game consoles and PC (reviewed on PS4 here).\u00a0 Does it live up to the legacy? \u00a0You\u2019ll just have to read on to find out!<\/p>\n

Streets of Rage 4 is set ten years after the last game.\u00a0 Mr. X, the villain from the earlier titles, is gone, but in his place are his kids, the Y Twins who are set try to take over the city again.\u00a0 So in Streets of Rage 5 are we going to go up against the Z triplets?\u00a0 Anyway, one or two players can pick from several brawlers in this side scrolling classic style beat \u2018em up.\u00a0 You have mainstays like Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding, a guy with two robotic arms, a rock \u2018n roll newcomer named Cherry, and many more hidden and unlockable ones, too!\u00a0 All the characters are varied and fun to play as, so there is quite a bit of replay value here, especially since there are loads of secret characters and stages to discover.<\/p>\n

One of the best parts of the game is the play control, which is very quick and snappy.\u00a0 Jump with one button and punch and kick with another.\u00a0 Combine these two buttons with joystick movements for more moves like jump kicks and such.\u00a0 The triangle button will allow you to perform a special move that will take off a bit of your energy, but is useful if you\u2019re in a pinch.\u00a0 The circle button lets you pick up healing food items off the floor, as well as weapons you can use or throw.\u00a0 These include familiar knives and pipes, as well as new ones like tasers and spears.\u00a0 You can also pick up bonus money for points, as well as stars that let you do a near screen clearing special move when you press both the circle and triangle buttons together.\u00a0 It\u2019s very satisfying to defeat bad guys with such responsive controls.<\/p>\n

While I do miss the original sprite-based graphics, the hand drawn artwork on the characters and backgrounds here are a treat to look at.\u00a0 Both good and bad guys are cool and full of personality (Blaze is my favorite along with the lady police officer).\u00a0 And the stages are just fun to look at.\u00a0 Some highlights include an art museum, police station, and Chinatown.\u00a0 My only disappointment with the game is the music.\u00a0 Yeah they did get Yuzo Koshiro, the composer of the first three games to do some songs here, but they\u2019re not as memorable to me for some reason.\u00a0 But then, nothing beats the baseball stage theme from Streets of Rage 2!<\/p>\n

Game modes include Story, where you play through the game\u2019s dozen stages in progression and can set your difficulty level from easy to crazy hard.\u00a0 After you beat that, you\u2019ll unlock a few other modes as well.\u00a0 Stage Select lets you pick any level, but you have to beat it first with only a couple of lives.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not challenging enough for you, you can try Arcade mode where you only get one credit to beat the whole game!\u00a0 Beat all the bosses in a row in Boss Rush, and challenge a friend to a one on one brawl as well.\u00a0 You can also unlock a really neat art gallery and the Options menu lets you even choose what food you pick up off the floor!<\/p>\n

So is Streets of Rage 4 better than its predecessors?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s hard to say, since I consider Streets of Rage 2 to be one of the best Genesis games ever made.\u00a0 So that\u2019s a tall order!\u00a0 But aside from the music being slightly disappointing to me, I\u2019d say it\u2019s absolutely just as good as those classics, or at least darn near close!\u00a0 Definitely a must-get game and a keeper if you enjoy classic styled 2-D beat \u2018em ups.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Streets of Rage 4 is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Cartoon Violence, Mild Language, and Mild Suggestive Themes.\u00a0 You do punch and kick all manner of bad guys, thugs, and even corrupt police officers, but there is no blood and the characters look like cartoons anyway.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t really notice any bad language, and the suggestive themes come from some of the skimpy outfits the female characters wear.\u00a0 I played games like this all the time as a kid and teen, and I turned out OK.\u00a0 Two player co-op makes it a great game to play with someone in your family as well, either couch co-op or online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 16-bit era when I was a kid (well, a teen), I only had a Super Nintendo.\u00a0 Back then, kids didn\u2019t usually have both a SNES and a SEGA Genesis, you had one or the other.\u00a0 So there were a lot of Genesis games I missed out on.\u00a0 Most of the time I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20130,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20128\/revisions\/20130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}