Streets of Rage 2

"Don't miss it out if you are a beat em' up fan......"

This waS the first game I bought together with sonic 2 when I first bought my gamegear. I went home immediately after buying it and play this handheld console and quite satisfied with it. This was the first game I play and I find it great as I play this game in the Genesis system also. Comparing between SOR 2 in Genesis and SOR 2 in GameGear, there's a slight improvement in the Game Gear console over the Genesis system. I thoroughly enjoy the game although the Game Gear life span is that long in terms of production but I do enjoy this handheld game while it slowly 'dies'. In gamegear, this is one of the two SOR games in it.

Story plot:
The story is like this.This game is the second of the street of rage series and they are many changes
to from the original SOR. The story starts like this. The peaceful, quiet city was once peaceful until the evil organization took over the whole city. The three rookie cops, Axel, Blaze, Adam decided to take some action. They together with some fellow cops came together to try to take down this evil organization led by Mr. X. They managed to defeat him that led to the fall of the organization. But now Mr. X is back lead the organization again and they have kidnapped Adam to lure Blaze and Axel to kill them all.

Gameplay:
There are still four characters to choose from which is the same in the original SOR 2. Quite a nice game, I did say there's improvement over the Genesis console, did I? Yeah, there's only a bit of improvement over the Genesis console, with only some new moves as well as some modification in the stages over the original SOR 2. There's are new special added to each character. An example is Axel doing a special of releasing a large projectile.The only flaw that the move is slow to execute. The enemies are pretty much the same, that's also counts for the bosses of the game. But their orginal special move no longer minus a bit of life over the character's health gauge. An example is Axel executing his dragon wing.

The weapons usage is still there, but the do remove some moves like when you are grab from behind, you can't counter it unlike from SOR. But new moves are added from SOR so there's fun as well enjoyment you will find in the game if you are a SOR fan. But I do wish at times they added the dash move and roll move in SOR 3 in Genesis though. Otherwise, there's all I can talk about.

Controls:
Quite difficult as there are only two buttons, so some moves need to use the Dpad to execute like Axel's Dragon wing. Just adapt the game for a while and you will get used to the game controls.

Difficulty:
Not really hard for newbies, it's quite an easy game to play than the Genesis console which enemy attacks that take a life chunk out of you. Although the controls need some time to get used to in order to excel in the game though.

Video and Audio:

Video:

The game graphics have improved a lot like the weapons and characters and enemies have also look impressive but still can take care of some glitches of unclear images though which also applies in the Gamegear version where the pictures are quite jaded which still needs a lot of improvement to be done. But ignore this flaw because the background pictures also look good and quite impressive.

Audio:

The musics, sound effects and BGMs are still great, even better the original SOR. The game's BGM and sound effect is still the same to the Genesis console. The weapons slashing effect can still improve though but it's still great if you ignore some flaws behind it.

Replay Value:

Well, this game is poor in this area despite introduction to the battle game mode. It still has much to improve like adding some boss modes, some secret characters to unlock or some secret modes to make this game worth a long stretch of playing hours.

Critics section:

The pros:

* New moves added to each character
* The fun is still there
* Game still retains from the original SOR 2
* BGM is still the same
* Changes
* Weapons are still in the game
* New moves added from SOR

The Cons:

* Moves slow to execute
* No replay Value
* Quite easy
* Poor video
* Audio effects can still improve

Gameplay: 6/10
Entertainment:6/10
Replay value:2/10
Video and audio: 6/10

Here comes the question:
Should you buy or rent it?
If you are a SOR fan or a beat 'em up fan, I don't think you should miss this out as the game gear games are few and far between. SO I think you shouldn't miss this game out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/02, Updated 07/16/02