Streets of Rage II

"Impressive beyond belief, this is what good sequels are made of!"

Continuing on in one of the most popular and legendary beat ‘em series of games to ever grace the Genesis system, Streets of Rage 2 takes the fight back to the street with two favorite characters and two brand new brawlers in a fist battle to the finish! Taking to the streets, you must guide your brawler through several stages of bone crunching and body throwing action that is yet to be rivaled anywhere in the Genesis library. Through all of the crunching and enemy bashing that you do, you’ll find that many of the game play options that you have here have been tried in another game of this type, Fighting Force, but didn’t go over anywhere near as good as the Streets of Rage series. Considering that Streets of Rage is a dated game, and even the offspring of this game are dated as well, there isn’t a finer example of a good sequel that can beat out the original game other than this title right here! If you can get through the extreme difficulty {even on easy the game is hard} and you can learn just what all of the characters are capable of, you’ll find that Streets of Rage 2 is the true pinnacle of Genesis side scrolling beat ‘em up games.

Beat-em up action at its best. You have your choice of four characters to use and each has its own set of moves that match their personality. While Axel and Blaze return to the fray, you have the street smart Skate and the overgrown ox Max! You have a tough cop that uses a set of moves move akin to street-fighting, a hard-edged woman with a set of sleek, stylish moves that are speedy, but don’t do a lot of damage, and then a huge guy that just brutalizes people as well as a skating fighter that does little more than smash out fast combinations. All in all, you have a wide variety of moves with each, from punch and kick combos, to hard hitting grab combos. Each stage gets progressively harder, and you have a computer AI that can gang up on you in a heartbeat. With Streets of Rage, you have the ability to use the background, picking up weapons, throwing your enemies through bus stops and phone booths. The replay factor is pretty high if you’re into beating up the computer, and if you can get a friend in on the action, you can get some pretty good grudge matches going, along with teaming up against an enemy and beating them into submission.

The Genesis controller has never had much to offer in terms of control other than the standard three button configuration. A punch, kick and jump button is what you have to use, and most of the games control is based on a combination system, where you pound on the buttons in a particular manner and some sort of effect comes out. Pulling off the grab moves is easy enough to do, and even though you may have a little trouble at first, the control scheme is set up that even a beginning gamer can use it! With the added extra characters, you’ll find that different styles of play come into effect from the start of the first level. While some of the characters are fast with what they do, others are slow and plodding but can take plenty of damage as well as dish it out when it’s necessary.

A fast action platform game that places you in the mean streets of a city, you’re greeted with exceptional detail that will dazzle you. In-depth level designs place you in the urban landscapes with a dark and dreary mood, along with an interactive background that you can use to beat up your enemies. Character designs range from the exotic, to the basic, giving you everything from street thugs to ninjas and martial arts assassins. Awesome looking combos, and brutal violence round out what you have to look at! Now something that comes into effect is that with this sequel, you have different stages that take on a slightly different tone as the game goes on. No longer left to the mean streets, you roam through the streets, a stadium, the beach and ultimately a huge office building that has plenty of things to break and enemies to beat up!

Something of a techo-rock music track greets your ears from the first stage. While playing, you’ll find that the beat of the music, matches the action going on during the battles. This is a good thing, and it’ll keep you interested in listening to what the game has to offer instead of just what you have to look at. The sound effects come across as either thuds and grunts, punches and kicks, and explosions thrown in for good measure. Add all of these together, and you have a pretty good sounding game! With the advancement of the stages, the game takes on a completely different feeling when you move from stage to stage and the game music seems to match just what you would find in the different environments. This comes as a wonderful addition and a rather good way to go about recreating the feeling of the game in the different places that you’re battling through, making for a much more enjoyable experience.

With the decline of Genesis titles that are actually worth of a perfect ten, it gives me great pleasure to actually award this game with something that high up on my list. While the first game paved the way and the third game actually took the game to a lower depth, Streets of Rage 2 offers up several different instances of perfection all rolled up into a little cart! Easy to learn controls as well as an addictive and rather familiar game play formula added into the sharp and clean visuals as well as the killer soundtrack makes for one hell of a game. More than worthy of picking up simply because it’s a classic game, this should be a part of any gamers library and should be a well played game even after all of these years.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/01, Updated 12/28/01