Streets of Rage
Sega Genesis
Despite being a proud Sega Genesis owner growing up, I never played the Streets of Rage series. I don’t know why. Maybe by then I’d already had my fill of beat ‘em ups with Double Dragon and the TMNT games. Whatever the reason, I finally got around to playing this game here in the year 2021 – 30 years since the game’s initial 1991 release date.
Story:
This game doesn’t offer much in the way of story. You play as one of three ex-cops who have decided to take down an evil crime syndicate headed by the fearsome Mr. X. You fight through a whole bunch of levels until you get to his hideout, and then you fight him and defeat him.
One interesting thing is that Mr. X asks you if you’d like to join him before the game’s final battle. If you say yes, it takes you back and you have to redo the previous handful of levels. I think when you get to the end of the game, the ending is different this time. I can tell you though I was not dedicated enough to play through the game a second time and do this. Sorry.
Gameplay:
An easy comparison is to say that this game is a beat ‘em up in the mold of Final Fight. This is true, in a way, but this game is also significantly different from Final Fight. The fundamentals are the same – work your way through each stage, beating up your enemies, destroying things in the environment, and collecting items and weapons you can use against your enemies.
The main difference in my opinion is that this game has a more strategic element to it. You’ve got limited lives and continues. You can’t save the game. You have to beat it all in one playthrough. This results in a game where you have to be much more cautious to avoid damage and defeat your enemies with as much health intact as humanly possible. I found the boss fights to be much more of a chess match as well. You have to watch your enemies closely and get their patterns down or they will make quick work of you.
In Final Fight, you can mainly just smash and fight your way through any enemy by just spamming the attack button. There doesn’t seem to be much of a strategic element to it. You take a lot of damage, and when you die you just pump in a quarter and pick up immediately where you left off. You can do this a limitless amount of times. To me this makes Streets of Rage seem more “high stakes” because you really have to be cautious to avoid getting killed too many times and having to start the game over from the beginning. And this is a fairly difficult game. Be warned!
But all in all I found the combat and the gameplay to be pretty rewarding. I give the nod to Final Fight as being the more fun game, but Streets of Rage eventually won me over. Like I said, though, I am absolutely not dedicated enough to play through the game and try to see the other ending. This game is tough as it is!
Graphics:
For such an old game, it looks really good. I love the game environments. My favorite stages have got to be the beach front, the ship, and the elevator. They just have this classic 90s Genesis look to them that is hard to be put into words. The characters look good too, especially some of the bosses. They are easy to miss, but if you look closely some of them just have the funniest facial expressions. The bosses in the screenshot below remind me of Mike Boogie from Big Brother!
Sound:
I’ve heard lots of things about how people love Streets of Rage music, but I wasn’t jumping out of my seat over it. I mean, it’s fine. A few of the level tunes had me humming along. But it’s been a few days since I’ve played this game and I can already tell you I don’t remember a single musical track from this game.
The sound effects are good. Beat ‘em ups absolutely have to have satisfying punch/kick noises – and Streets of Rage delivers in that category.
Overall:
I had a good time with this game. It seems like it is very well put together. Good graphics, good presentation, fun characters and level design. I like the strategic element to the game and that you have to really memorize patterns and fighting techniques not only with the game’s main enemies but the bosses as well. I like how the game handles weapon management (although the knife guys start to get annoying after a while). Like I said, I had a good time as I played Streets of Rage. But I wouldn’t go any farther than that. I most definitely did not have a GREAT time with the game. It seemed to be lacking that certain “fun” element that is hard to put into words. Technically the game is put together well and does everything right. And it is entertaining to play. But to me it’s just missing that extra spark that would make it special.
I’d say this is a good game, but not a great one. I plan to play through all three Streets of Rage games, and this game did absolutely nothing to discourage me from continuing. I’ve heard Streets of Rage 2 is the best game in the series, and possibly one of the best beat ‘em ups of all time. I can’t wait to play it! Had to start with the first one, though. And I can easily say that I am glad I played it.
Final Score:
B-
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