If there was one thing that interested us when we first heard about Streets of Rage 4 it's the audio-visual side of the project. There are also Arcade and Boss Rush modes available for those who are hungry for more challenge, and together these modes add enough content to drive several playthroughs. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but if it's popular enough we think it could be developed into something interesting. Although it's as simple as moving the main gameplay system into a limited arena with players attacking each other, it's a fantastic feature that lets you finally pit your skills against other players, both local and online. Here you play against other players, in teams or individually, with up to four players. One that could keep people coming back is the Battle mode. Luckily somebody answered our call pretty quickly every time.īesides Story mode, there are several other ways to play Streets of Rage 4. Unfortunately, even though it might only be us, we couldn't join other games and could only host our own. We also had a chance to play online, which so far has proven pretty fun, although the experience is hampered by a little lag. You don't even need to replay the whole thing through as you can select specific stages once you've completed the game. The more you understand each character's strengths and weaknesses (our favourite is Adam, for the record), every time you repeat the game everything gets more fun. The more you play, the more you learn about enemy patterns, the more you become aware of their every movement. It'd be a big mistake if you only played it through once because the depth is offered by the gameplay.

Instead, players are invited to show their mastery of the game via achieving higher scores. However, this game really focuses on high replay value, which is good because the story is pretty standard, plain even. The Story mode in Streets of Rage 4 can be completed in less than two hours. Some puzzling battles against more difficult enemies can be solved using this technique. We initially underused this feature and were overwhelmed, however, as we progressed we began to utilise it more and it turned out to be a brilliant addition. On the other hand, if you're being bullied there is a special defensive move where you get temporary immunity while dealing damage to enemies, although it comes at a price as you must be willing to lose a few health points, which can then be re-filled by beating your opponents without interruption. This is very satisfying to do, especially if you play with friends and successfully gang up on enemies and keep them up in the air. Now you can hit your opponents in mid-air and wall-bounce them to build a higher combo. Of course, there are some new things here, too. It still demands precision of movement and the characters can't run with the exception of Cherry Hunter (Adam's daughter and Skate's niece) there are several stages with environmental hazards that can be both annoying and fun there are variations of enemies that are increasingly challenging and require different tactics to deal with there are super-challenging boss battles there's a pleasant abyssal elevator level the soundtrack still hits the spot and once again presents the work of Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima. Streets of Rage 4 won't feel alien to veteran players. With all that in mind, we started playing Streets of Rage 4 and, controller in hand, we launched into several combos and straight away returned to a familiar place. However, completing and mastering these games becomes a satisfaction in and of itself, especially when coupled with a varied throwing system and friendly damage that sometimes causes its own silliness. This is because your characters can't easily run (except in SOR 3) or simply roll away to dodge attacks (bar Skate in SOR 2), so you have to take into account your opponent's movements and their attack, which in turn makes the games more challenging than others in the genre, although finishing them isn't an impossible task. Streets of Rage, or Bare Knuckle in Japan, is a beat 'em up that relies on precision. That tightrope is the challenge faced by the developers of Streets of Rage 4: Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Lizardcube. Be too loyal to its predecessor, then you probably won't attract new players, you'll get labelled obsolete, and there's a risk you'll get condemned, too. Try to bring it up-to-date and change things too much and you'll be left behind by the faithful, maybe even condemned. Making a sequel in a classic franchise with a great history and loyal followers is indeed a challenging task.

Streets of rage 4 unlockable characters