Streets of Rage

"Hit me in the streets."

Disclaimer

Before you read this, I want you to back up and scroll down the negative reviews for this game. Now, you'll notice that a lot of people compare this game to Final Fight. While these games both share the similarities genre-wise, to compare Streets of Rage to Final Fight is stupid for two reasons.

Reason One:
Final Fight on the SNES was a terrible game. Three enemies on one screen?! Whoa, riveting! Two Player mode? Well, it's a common fact that avid SNES players have no friends anyway, so that was understandable.

Reason Two:
Final Fight was an arcade game. Streets of Rage was released only on the Genesis. Therefore, Final Fight would be a better game because it's on a more powerful console, and offers a more exciting experience.

Reason X

Streets of Rage 2 is better than Final Fight and all of its crap sequels combined. So there...

Disclaimer ends

Imagine a city so rife with crime, that even the police force and other civil organisations had been engulfed by its cancerous growth. An evil mastermind under the banner of “Mr. X”, has taken over this town, his corruption has leaked throughout the entire city, leaving the vast majority of the police force under his dark shadowy wing. Only three police officers, plus one unnamed guy who packs all of the heat, are the only shining lights in this veil of darkness. They are jock tough guy, Axl Stone, the token black guy, Adam Hunter and the final part of the equal rights equation, Blaze “I can fight just like the men” Fielding. These three vigilantes set out to deliver a big thing of justice against thousands of thugs, hookers and the Ultimate Warrior!! Chaos ensues…

While the sequels of this game would make use of character variation and balance, such as super heavyweight characters like Max and light heavyweight characters, the three fighters here do not differ as greatly. While Adam is a little slower and packs a slightly tougher punch, compared to the others, the differences are not driven to a noticeable extent. All three characters have a basic three punch and kick combo, which varies a little but from each character. Also, instead of a Final Fight style super attack, which drains your health as well as dishing out loads of damage, characters can use a Golden Axe style summon, which calls upon the aforementioned unnamed guy. He'll come speeding behind you in his fancy police car and unleash a barrage of fire on all of the on screen opponents.

Fists are not just the only way to dispatch thugs and punks, you can pick up an assortment of Einstürzende Neubauten instruments to beat their brains into mush, stab them in the guts or slice their face off. Weapons can be found hidden under destructible environmental objects, such as phone booths, metal drums and trash cans. Broken bottles, knives, baseball bats and iron pipes are the tools of your trade, and they can be used to deliver justice in an unconstitutional way. Unfortunately, while these fun toys are great to play with, they do make the pace of the fighting go down slowly. Braining enemies with an iron pipe is fun, but it makes beating them up less enjoyable. Sure, cracking someone across the nut with a pipe is very satisfying but it takes the fun out of beating them to death with your fists.

Enemies literally come in all shapes and sizes, raging from biker punks with carrot tops, leather clad prostitutes with whips, lighting fast kung fu experts and fire juggling acrobats. While that may not seem a lot, the great invention known as the palette swap injects a little variety into the mix. Well, instead of fighting punks in blue jackets, you'll also fight the same ones in green and red jackets… All of the enemies, and even a few bosses get at least one palette swap in the game. While it's not a horrible error, seeing about fifteen punks of the same colour, which occurs on one of the game' middle stages, it is just a little trippy. The majority of enemies are easy to kill, however, it gets quite hard when you are attacked by up to fifteen at once! It's almost as hard as fighting three at once! This is isn't the only time you can get outnumbered either, playing the game in two player means that two versions of the boss attack you together. It's funny to watch the antics when player two loses all of his continues and forces player one to fight two bosses alone.

Streets of Rage's grisly underworld is brought to life by atmospheric backdrops and settings which emphasis the dark and dredged urban surroundings. The dimly lit back alleys, the ominous cruise ship across oozy black waters, the deserted beach and the stark contrast of Mr. X's glamorous mansion all gather together to effectively create the atmospheric charm that the game has. Coupled with this is the incredibly funky soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro, who composed the equally awesome Revenge of Shinobi soundtrack. The opening theme song, not only sends shivers down your spine, but it'll bring you to climax pretty much every time.

While this game can't hold a candle in comparison to its sequel, which is far more impressive than this in every way, it's something that Genesis fans will love. While beat-em-up fans may simply criticise this as a poor mans Final Fight, it's important to remember that this game is better than the majority of SNES beat-em-up games that you can get. It's also far superior to the SNES Final Fight, which was a twisted shadow if it's original self. So, think about that next time you criticise it….

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/01/07