I might as well post a series of quick reviews on all of the 8-bit Streets of Rage games that were released in the 1990s.
Now the Streets of Rage games are mostly known for its 16-bit trilogy on the Genesis/Mega Drive and not a lot of people know the existence of both the Master System and Game Gear versions.
UK, Europe and Brazil still had Master System consoles in the market a few years longer than Japan and America thanks to its stronger support. Along the way, various 8-bit ports of 16-bit games came to the system. One of them was Streets of Rage.
Streets of Rage 1 for the Master System came out sometime in 1993, very likely after the groundbreaking Streets of Rage 2 game for the 16-bit console, priced at around £32, the system didn't have many side-scrolling beat em ups other than Renegade, Double Dragon and Golden Axe. Could this be the system seller for the budget console? Read on to find out.
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| I can't believe it's not Genesis. |
Presentation:
Fragments of a SEGA Logo collide to the middle and form into 1 logo. Not bad.
The game starts off with a difficulty select: Normal and Hard.
That is it.
No options, no sound test, no lives modifier.
You do get the option to play as all 3 characters and all of them are statistically unique, although saying that, most of their attack sequences are identical to each other. The ending is a series of still shots and a lack of staff credits with Yuzo Koshiro being the only member to get an in-game mention for his music at the title screen.
Graphics:
This is probably the most impressive element of the port, the quality is surprisingly good. Most of the sprites look faithful but with less options on the depth of colours, the animation did lose a couple of frames here and there and would have been a bit better if the keyframe animation loops for walking were a bit faster. The gameplay framerate runs at a higher 60 frames (compared to 30 frames for its 16-bit counterpart) and the evil twins are not simple palette swaps as their hair designs have been altered too..
Not everything is perfect.
For example, there's some alterations to the palettes with Garcias that made green ones easy and blue ones medium in rank, the background for the ship level is completely static which lacks a sense of realism and during walking animations I can see a few glitch sprites that would last a frame but it does stand out if you focus on the playable character.
Sound:
Technically this one came out after the Game Gear release which shares similar components. This made porting the music a breeze. One problem was that the Game Gear version only had 5 stages whereas the Master System had all 8 stages.
The solution was to use the character select theme as the track for stage 2 and a brand new track for both stages 6 and 7 (yes 2 stages in a row will use the same track) oh and stage 3 (beachfront area) is using the 8-bit rendition of the Factory stage 1st area from 16-Bit Streets of Rage 2.
They all sound pretty standard but most of the loops of familiar tracks have been cut down due to possible limitations on space after making those impressive looking sprites.
Sound effects are pretty standard stuff, the most notable omission is the lack of voices so players will have to figure out slightly longer whether or not an enemy has been KO'd.
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| I still can't believe this is NOT Genesis. |
Gameplay:
The first entry was the most basic in the series which does give it an easier time to translate a 3 button system to a 2 button system. Unfortunately, the method to call police backup requires pressing the START button followed by pressing either button 1 or 2. This problem is only severe for people who are playing it on an authentic system or more specifically a cart converter that has the START button on it which could be prone to crashes if pushed too hard.
The system's weaker power also points out a key weakness, the maximum number of enemies on the screen at one time.
For comparison sake, the 16-bit original can have nearly 15 enemies on the screen at once, the Master System version is limited to just 2 and to make things worse, it's limited to the same enemy type or as I call it, Noah's Ark Syndrome. This does lower the challenge significantly and the only real difference hard mode makes besides having more enemies to knockout per section is taking extra damage to the point it's possible to die in a single from Mr.X's tackle attack.
The game also has some weird quirks with the A.I. and most of the bosses.
The whipping girl called Nora has the annoying mercy beg mechanic that is applied to every single one from Rounds 5 to 8, The weapon juggler Jack's projectiles only have hitboxes for the actual throws, the juggling sprites don't have hitboxes so players can just grab + pummel loop against them.
One of the most bizarre game design choices I've seen is how most the bosses turn around....
The boss will only turn around by first going off-screen. This does lead to some hilarious moments where Souther (claw boss) will perform backwards dash claw attacks as a reaction to the player's jumping after walking past him/her.
Abadede and Bongo are somewhat tad more threatening as Abadede will stop and side step as a reaction to the player's jumps forcing a more head-on approach by timing the punch button at the right time. Bongo starts to accelerate and use his flame breath a lot faster but if you're familiar with grab loops, it's not a huge problem. The evil twins are not as hard to hit but their jump kick attack's hitbox is way off to the point the player will take damage before the boss's leg sticks right out.
The biggest crime is the lack of multiplayer, a console where 2 player setup isn't a problem... doesn't have the option to play 2 players at all, a stupid idea or an greedy incentive to encourage customers to buy a Genesis/Mega Drive console and play the 16-bit version?
What Master System has that Genesis don't?
To avoid being an absolute inferior version, the team added a brand new boss that is exclusive to the Master System release. He doesn't have an official name and most of the official design documents you probably have seen online are mostly 16-bit focused Anyway, this new boss doesn't have the weird boss A.I.quirk when it comes to turning around and attacks with a limited seeking missile as it tracks the player's position when s/he is on the ground. This extra boss does somewhat make stage 8 more complete as previously, the 16-bit version had no refight at the end of the first section, now with this new boss, every end of section has a boss refight.
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| The new boss exclusive to the Master System |
Overall the game does do a good job as a Master System game but some questionable cuts holds it back as a must have classic for the system. It's okay to play a few times but the moment you play its 16-bit counterpart, you wish you spent more time with that version instead.
Grand Uppers
+ Great looking visuals that are on par with NES Super Mario Bros 3
+ All 8 stages are in the game
+ Classic SoR tunes with one that is Master System exclusive
+ A boss that is exclusive to the Master System
Grand Downers
- Lack of proper options
- No 2 player
- Lack of properly mixing up enemies due to limitations
- If you don't know the safe landing trick, you will hate the Signals a lot.
- It takes longer to beat the game but for the wrong game design reasons
Grade: C.
