"Probably the best Beat 'em up in the 16-Bit era"

I have played several Beat 'em up games. But, this is my most favorite. Streets of rage 2 is made by Sega. This is Final Fight's rival. I thought the original Streets of rage is good. But, the sequel is way better than the original in every way.

Story: 4/10
After the events of the first streets of Rage, Adam is kidnapped by Mr. X. Axel and three others have to save him from Mr. X. the story is a typical saving a guy from this evil person. That is probably the most weakest point in the game. But, who cares about the story when you want the cream of the crop, the gameplay.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where the game shines. You can play up to four characters in this game. The returning characters, Axel and blaze and two brand new ones. Max and Skate are the new characters in the game. As you would know, each characters has a an advantage and a disadvantage. Axel is an average fighter and the second-slowest character in the game. Blaze is an all-around character. All of her stats are average. So, most beginners should start out with her. Skate, Adam's younger brother, is the fastest and not to mention the only person who could dash in this game, has a weakest defense and attack of everyone. Max, my personal favorite, is the powerhouse of this game. He has the strongest attack and defense. The biggest disadvantage is he is the slowest. Overall, the characters are unique in their own way.

There are 4 difficulty settings: easy, normal, hard and hardest. The difficulty stays constant so, you shouldn't worry about that.

The controls are easy to master. It's the same thing as the first game, except with a few modifications. Remember you can summon the police car? They took it off. They replaced it with special attacks. It is a lot better than the police car summon. A character can do a powerful blow to strike the surrounding enemies or a certain enemy. The bad thing is that you lose health once you execute the special move. Other than that, everything stays the same.

Again, this game has a 2 player feature. So, its double the fun. You can play on Normal game or duel mode. Duel mode is two characters going against each other. You can use weapons in this mode. But, only a certain stages have weapons. It's a lot of fun beating the crap out of each other.

My only gripe about this game, sometimes it can get repetitive . As you go on, you fight enemies who are bosses in the previous stages. There's not much variation on the enemies. You mostly fight Street thugs, bikers, highly-obese baseball fanboys and several more.

Overall, the gameplay is magificent and Sega managed to improve the gameplay a lot.

Graphics: 10/10
The graphics has greatly improved from the the first streets of rage. It still looks good even though it's over a decade. The character sprites are beatifully detailed. The details of the backgrounds are marvelous. The characters and some of the enemies had a make over. Unfortunately, some of the enemies from the first Streets of Rage still looks the same except bigger. Overall, the graphics are an eye-candy.

Sounds: 10/10
This is another strong point in the game. I was blown away by the music especially the first stage. Also, the music suits the atmosphere. Like, when you are in the ship, it has this serene yet a medium-paced music. As you would know, most beat 'em up games have this upbeat music. This game probably the best soundtrack of the whole series.

The sound effects are above average. The strikes of their fist and bone cracking suits the atmosphere of the game. I like the sound when you smack the enemies with a weapon. They did a good job on the voice overs department. Most of the time you would hear their battle cries and not much talking. So, you wouldn't expect talking in a 16-bit console.

They did a good job in both music and sound effects. Of all the Genesis games I played, this game did a marvelous job on the music.

Replayablity: 8/10
Once you finished the game, there's nothing much to do except beat this game in a higher difficulty. It raises the replayablity by playing this game with a friend. Duel mode also raises replay value.

Rent or buy?
Either one is fine. I suggest buy this game. You be very lucky if one your friends have this game. It's pretty rare these's days. So, if you can't find the game, there's always emulation available.

Final word
This is probably the best beat 'em up game by far. Sega did a marvelous job on the game. If you are a big fan of Final Fight or the genre itself, I suggest try this game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/04