Developer: Lizardcube/Guard Crush Games/DotEMU
Publisher:DotEMU
Price: Roughly £23/$25, different platforms and regions may vary on exact price.
Website: https://www.streets4rage.com/
The Streets of Rage series at one point played a huge role
of being part of Sega’s 3 key franchises during the early 90s along with Sonic and
Shinobi. After the release of Streets of
Rage 3 in 1994, the franchise went very quiet. Along the way, multiple 3D attempts of making a sequel were made but eventually scrapped for Sega Dreamcast and even Xbox 360. The long drought finally ended in August 2018 thanks to a reveal trailer posted online to YouTube that guess what didn't get cancelled, making it one the longest real life gap for a sequel entry in video game history.
So it has been a whopping 26 years since Streets of Rage 3.
Now developed by Lizardcube (Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap Remake), Guard Crush games (Streets of Fury) and DotEMU (Windjammers 2), the series finally has an official 4th
entry.
Does it succeed or will it struggle and be trapped in the
world of the 90s along with other relics like Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and
Duke Nukem 3D?
Features:
12 levels
12 levels
17 playable characters
1 challenging arcade mode
An all star group of music composers
Editor's note: SoR will be used as a shortened way to say "Streets of Rage".
For example:
SoR1 = Street of Rage 1.
SoR2 = Street of Rage 2.
SoR3 = Street of Rage 3.
SoR3 = Street of Rage 3.
Graphics:
This one is being handled mostly by Lizardcube who did an excellent
job with Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap that I personally called it one the best
remakes in recent years. Now tackling a
much bigger project, the amount of work involved is staggering with roughly
1,000 frames for playable characters to roughly 300-400 frames for basic
enemies. That alone would have been good enough but they pushed it even further
with the rich detailed environments, visual effects like reflections from the
puddle at the street to even beams of light covering over the main characters. These effects
are also applied to the nostalgic pixels characters too. The pixel characters sprites are mostly 1:1 to their original source but SoR 3 Shiva is a notable character who had a slightly altered movepool which requires reusing the lesser seen sprites in somewhat creative ways, even if it looks off.
The in-game text is a a higher definition version of the Streets of Rage 2/3 font which is a neat touch to diehard fans.
The in-game text is a a higher definition version of the Streets of Rage 2/3 font which is a neat touch to diehard fans.
 |
| 29 years after the very first game, things don't change. |
Sound:
The main sound effects are mostly brand new with probably
one or two being mostly near direct rips from the 90s trilogy. The exception
would be playing as 12 of the retro characters as they use the respective sound
effect from their respective games. I did notice that both SoR2/SoR3 Blaze and SoR3
Skate were using voice clips from prequel entries too, overlooked or
intentional I cannot say for sure.
The voices are pretty simple and standard stuff as they are used to say a line after being selected as a character to a series of battle related grunts and shouting out special moves. What stood out to me the most is that every enemy class now have their own set of battle cries after being defeated which is a massive improvement over Streets of Rage 3 where there was only 1 death cry for every common male enemy in the game.
The voices are pretty simple and standard stuff as they are used to say a line after being selected as a character to a series of battle related grunts and shouting out special moves. What stood out to me the most is that every enemy class now have their own set of battle cries after being defeated which is a massive improvement over Streets of Rage 3 where there was only 1 death cry for every common male enemy in the game.
The main soundtrack focuses on recent music styles that were
introduced from YouTube ranging from mid 2000s to the 2010s. Some of the tracks have a
fusion of retro chiptune and new instruments which is most notably true when playing through both Stages 3 and 9. Olivier Deriviere the main composer of the game, composed
nearly every regular area in the game with the very first part being an exception.
The tracks Olivier composed implemented a dynamic effect that changes the melody
when entering a different part of the level which does impact the feel of the
game by a huge margin.
Guest composers were responsible for the themes of nearly
all of the boss battles and they are pretty unique too but they don't have the dynamic effect when progressing through the battle.
If the style of the newer tracks are not your cup of tea, there is also the option to play the classic soundtrack which plays music from Streets of Rage 1 and 2 but there's some oddities with the design choices.
All of the tracks from Streets of Rage 1 are from the 8-bit Game Gear/Master System versions and yes Back to the Industry, the factory theme from SoR 2 was used in the 8-bit version of the first game, they even used the intro themes and ending themes (yes really) of 8-bit Streets of Rage 1 as well. I don't know if this is a nod to Master System fans who played Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remake 3 years ago or it ticks the obligatory 8-bit music for retro nostalgia. I still would have preferred the 16-bit tracks when using Streets of Rage 1 as the 8-bit versions are usually abridged/cutted down and don't cover the entire melody per loop, at least a bigger playerbase will get to hear official 8-bit renditions I guess....
The Streets of Rage 2 tracks are from the 16-bit Genesis/Mega Drive versions which is good but where they use these key tracks could have been improved. Streets of Rage 4 has a bar area but it doesn't play Bar Hopping but Under Logic (baseball stage from SoR2) instead. Dreamer one of my personal favourites is used in a lift section in the later half of the game, not bad. Max Man the theme used against Shiva back in SoR2 days isn't used against Shiva in SoR4 a missed opportunity.
 |
| "Rock on!" |
If the style of the newer tracks are not your cup of tea, there is also the option to play the classic soundtrack which plays music from Streets of Rage 1 and 2 but there's some oddities with the design choices.
All of the tracks from Streets of Rage 1 are from the 8-bit Game Gear/Master System versions and yes Back to the Industry, the factory theme from SoR 2 was used in the 8-bit version of the first game, they even used the intro themes and ending themes (yes really) of 8-bit Streets of Rage 1 as well. I don't know if this is a nod to Master System fans who played Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remake 3 years ago or it ticks the obligatory 8-bit music for retro nostalgia. I still would have preferred the 16-bit tracks when using Streets of Rage 1 as the 8-bit versions are usually abridged/cutted down and don't cover the entire melody per loop, at least a bigger playerbase will get to hear official 8-bit renditions I guess....
The Streets of Rage 2 tracks are from the 16-bit Genesis/Mega Drive versions which is good but where they use these key tracks could have been improved. Streets of Rage 4 has a bar area but it doesn't play Bar Hopping but Under Logic (baseball stage from SoR2) instead. Dreamer one of my personal favourites is used in a lift section in the later half of the game, not bad. Max Man the theme used against Shiva back in SoR2 days isn't used against Shiva in SoR4 a missed opportunity.
A sample of the dynamic music effect in play. Take a listen.
Gameplay:
The quality of the gameplay is the very definition of 90s
design ranging from the fun to frustration factor. The latter really depends on
the character you are playing and playstyle you want to achieve. To make the
game feel modern is the introduction of extended combo options. This allows a
lot of creativity depending on the situation the player is in; aerial juggles
are now a thing as previously hitting an aerial opponent will force a knockdown
with invincibility effect until s/he wakes up, this can go against the player
as well when dealing with enemies who have good anti-air moves.
Speaking of juggles, the camera borders have a new rule that forces the enemies to stay in the fighting arena at all times, the borders are treated as invisible walls too which can be used to extend combos. Great for characters who have good launch power moves because it can lead to wall bounce follow-ups for massive damage .
Veterans of the series will get to mess around with a few new tools including the aerial special and vault jump. One additional feature Star Moves actually originated from the Game Gear version of Streets of Rage 2 that allow characters to pull off a very powerful move at a cost of a star. Each character has one and nearly all of them have different uses.
The special moves got revamped and instead will drain temporary life that can be refilled by attacking the enemies with normal moves, the catch is that the refill will stop if the player takes a single hit from an enemy. The HP drain happens a lot sooner too, the moment when the move is executed and not right after the move ends like in previous games. These adjustments will put these moves as a higher risk tool to use than in previous games because you could lose a lot of health by taking a simple hit right after using a (non-)invincible move at the wrong time.
There are 5 HD characters to play as, 3 of them who were introduced from the first game and share similar combat flowchart techniques. Cherry and Floyd are two newcomers and both have notable changes to their combat flowchart techniques .
Axel one of the two characters who have been in every game so far is a bit lacklustre in his SoR4 attire at the moment, most of his specials lack range and slow movement speed makes it hard for him to escape tough situations. Though I do appreciate the attention of detail the team tried to do in one of their official behind the scene videos by recreating the frame/attack data of his famous grand upper attack. According to Guard Crush Game's discord, they are planning to make him better in one of their upcoming patches.
Blaze the other character who has been in every game so far plays a lot better, her specials have good pokes for knockback, her blitz attack can hit a downed opponent (aka OTG) and she has a Bayonetta style After Burner kick to not only boost her forward jump speed but to extend her combos in the air. She also makes good use of her charged attack which has good knockback distance and can even used as a wall bounce juggle tool.
Floyd fills in the heavy character archetype in this game. He does have a lot of differences compared to classic Streets of Rage 2 Max that makes him more defensive, for starters he doesn't have a slide to increase his movement speed, instead he lunges out both of his arms that is a good poking tool for defensive play and can hit some enemies in the air.
He is the first character in the series to move around when picking up an enemy similar to what Mika Haggar can do in Capcom's Final Fight and is the first character who has a special grab by electrocuting them, he even has a unique move that involves grabbing 2 enemies for Floyd to smash like toy action figures.
Cherry is the speedy but weak character archetype, she is the only HD character who can properly run and has some tools that is unique to her. Her grab flowchart is also unusual as she doesn't technically throw enemies but either pummel, pogo bounce off from one or just a pummel to slam. She is a character that has quite a learning curve on how to use certain moves effectively if you're familiar to the series for nearly 30 years.
Adam is the only HD character who is unlockable and feels like a superior version to Axel in almost every way. He has a mini-dash that works very identical to 2D Fighting games. The development team on Playstation Blog mentioned before launch that Adam is considered to be more offensive orientated than Axel so all of his HP draining specials used his legs instead of his arms and his Star Move has better reach and damage but doesn't cover his rear as well as Axel and has limited juggle followups after using one. Saying that, his jab combo has a nice ender which is very useful to send enemies into the pits.
Even after criticising Axel, I can sense that the different playstyles are infact there and every section has a different strategy, Axel is the definition of pre-dash mechanics of side scrolling beat em' ups like Final Fight and Streets of Rage 2 whereas Adam's mini-dash feels more modern, I got to admit that it does feel rewarding after figuring out a deathless or even a no damage strategy in tougher sections of the game.
The 12 retro characters are playable too ranging from super old school characters from Streets of Rage 1 to the not so super old school characters from Streets of Rage 3. Most of their moves are intact but their properties for some of their moves have been altered by Guard Crush to make sure they feel right in the game's engine. Zan's throwing distance for example have been toned down significantly to make it less effective as a pseudo projectile against enemies but it allows follow-up combos that he couldn't do before if he throws an enemy towards a wall for a wall bounce effect. Streets of Rage 3 Skate was terrible in his original game but is amazing in Streets of Rage 4 due to a mixture of indirect buffs (common enemies having under 1 and a half bar length of HP at the most) to direct buffs (blitz attack dealing 2 powerful hits, and has a great throw bread and butter combo) I am comparing this buff to how Pichu rose from the bottom tiers of Super Smash Brothers Melee to high/top tier status in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. The Streets of Rage 1 characters are as basic as ever, slightly adjusted to implement the new juggle mechanics and they even have the classic cop car backup special which is counted as a star move.
Level design:
The game does have a quite a lot of variety when it comes to the sizes of each section, a combination of certain enemy types and even interactive traps. One section has electric traps that can harm anyone if caught, later on there's pits that can be used to instantly KO your enemies, stage 5 has poison ponds that drain the character's HP and even poison vents which can be used to lure enemies in for extra damage. For some areas, it's even possible to backtrack slightly to have some breathing room or picking up extra items. All of these are show rather than tell which is great. Enemies different palettes are not just for show but also difficulty, some of them have the same A.I level with higher HP, some may use different attack patterns and some may have enhanced properties.
The difficulty of the boss battles is a mixed bag. The first few bosses are quite intimidating at first with attacks that have super armour properties and it's not always straight forward when to get in to deal some damage and actually flinch the boss, especially if you play aggressive which usually works well in previous games. Later on in the game they become somewhat easier because they have huge weaknesses or easy to punish playstyles. One boss has super armour throughout but if you recognise his charging poses, you should be able to dodge his attacks, another boss would rather fight from a distance and you can figure out the projectile attack by looking at the colour of its body glowing before it fires a shot.
The changes in difficulty are as follows:
* Number of starting lives
* HP amount for regular enemies (very minor difference in this one)
* HP drained for using a special move (very small penalty for easy to 1/6th of entire bar for higher difficulties).
* AI aggression (Mania will have some enemies move faster)
* Enemy spawns (obviously more enemies to face when playing higher difficulties).
Useful features:
The team added button mapping which should be mandatory in every game, options to disable certain button combos for moves and even an option to enable 3 button legacy layout for players using the 3rd party Genesis 3 button controller via bluetooth. The game has a level select to help players practice the levels in higher difficulties
Value:
Side scrolling beat em ups is a tough one to execute. Normally multiplayer works best with local friends but due to the recent Covid-19 setting up a local session is riskier than ever. It does have official online play which is limited to 2 players. PC Steam supports remote play together which means 4 player online. Besides the multiplayer component, there's stage select to practice individual levels, a 1 credit clear arcade mode which does require a different set of strategies if you want to get through the higher difficulties, heck you can feel the sense of satisfaction when making it to the end. The starting lives are fixed and can only get an extra 1up after every 30,000 points.
There's also 2 kind of players goals as well. People who casually play it and don't touch it for a while or people who want to grind it out, execute S rank in either Arcade or Individual Levels, master arcade mode deathless even. I've been getting S ranks for individual level runs but not in Arcade Mode. Still the 'grand master' status would be trying to get S rank on 1CC Arcade Mode in Mania difficulty and pulling it off would be no easy feat at all as it involves playing excellent for roughly an hour to an hour and a half long, not under 10 minutes like single level runs.
Overall:
Speaking of juggles, the camera borders have a new rule that forces the enemies to stay in the fighting arena at all times, the borders are treated as invisible walls too which can be used to extend combos. Great for characters who have good launch power moves because it can lead to wall bounce follow-ups for massive damage .
Veterans of the series will get to mess around with a few new tools including the aerial special and vault jump. One additional feature Star Moves actually originated from the Game Gear version of Streets of Rage 2 that allow characters to pull off a very powerful move at a cost of a star. Each character has one and nearly all of them have different uses.
The special moves got revamped and instead will drain temporary life that can be refilled by attacking the enemies with normal moves, the catch is that the refill will stop if the player takes a single hit from an enemy. The HP drain happens a lot sooner too, the moment when the move is executed and not right after the move ends like in previous games. These adjustments will put these moves as a higher risk tool to use than in previous games because you could lose a lot of health by taking a simple hit right after using a (non-)invincible move at the wrong time.
There are 5 HD characters to play as, 3 of them who were introduced from the first game and share similar combat flowchart techniques. Cherry and Floyd are two newcomers and both have notable changes to their combat flowchart techniques .
Axel one of the two characters who have been in every game so far is a bit lacklustre in his SoR4 attire at the moment, most of his specials lack range and slow movement speed makes it hard for him to escape tough situations. Though I do appreciate the attention of detail the team tried to do in one of their official behind the scene videos by recreating the frame/attack data of his famous grand upper attack. According to Guard Crush Game's discord, they are planning to make him better in one of their upcoming patches.
Blaze the other character who has been in every game so far plays a lot better, her specials have good pokes for knockback, her blitz attack can hit a downed opponent (aka OTG) and she has a Bayonetta style After Burner kick to not only boost her forward jump speed but to extend her combos in the air. She also makes good use of her charged attack which has good knockback distance and can even used as a wall bounce juggle tool.
Floyd fills in the heavy character archetype in this game. He does have a lot of differences compared to classic Streets of Rage 2 Max that makes him more defensive, for starters he doesn't have a slide to increase his movement speed, instead he lunges out both of his arms that is a good poking tool for defensive play and can hit some enemies in the air.
He is the first character in the series to move around when picking up an enemy similar to what Mika Haggar can do in Capcom's Final Fight and is the first character who has a special grab by electrocuting them, he even has a unique move that involves grabbing 2 enemies for Floyd to smash like toy action figures.
Cherry is the speedy but weak character archetype, she is the only HD character who can properly run and has some tools that is unique to her. Her grab flowchart is also unusual as she doesn't technically throw enemies but either pummel, pogo bounce off from one or just a pummel to slam. She is a character that has quite a learning curve on how to use certain moves effectively if you're familiar to the series for nearly 30 years.
Adam is the only HD character who is unlockable and feels like a superior version to Axel in almost every way. He has a mini-dash that works very identical to 2D Fighting games. The development team on Playstation Blog mentioned before launch that Adam is considered to be more offensive orientated than Axel so all of his HP draining specials used his legs instead of his arms and his Star Move has better reach and damage but doesn't cover his rear as well as Axel and has limited juggle followups after using one. Saying that, his jab combo has a nice ender which is very useful to send enemies into the pits.
Even after criticising Axel, I can sense that the different playstyles are infact there and every section has a different strategy, Axel is the definition of pre-dash mechanics of side scrolling beat em' ups like Final Fight and Streets of Rage 2 whereas Adam's mini-dash feels more modern, I got to admit that it does feel rewarding after figuring out a deathless or even a no damage strategy in tougher sections of the game.
The 12 retro characters are playable too ranging from super old school characters from Streets of Rage 1 to the not so super old school characters from Streets of Rage 3. Most of their moves are intact but their properties for some of their moves have been altered by Guard Crush to make sure they feel right in the game's engine. Zan's throwing distance for example have been toned down significantly to make it less effective as a pseudo projectile against enemies but it allows follow-up combos that he couldn't do before if he throws an enemy towards a wall for a wall bounce effect. Streets of Rage 3 Skate was terrible in his original game but is amazing in Streets of Rage 4 due to a mixture of indirect buffs (common enemies having under 1 and a half bar length of HP at the most) to direct buffs (blitz attack dealing 2 powerful hits, and has a great throw bread and butter combo) I am comparing this buff to how Pichu rose from the bottom tiers of Super Smash Brothers Melee to high/top tier status in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. The Streets of Rage 1 characters are as basic as ever, slightly adjusted to implement the new juggle mechanics and they even have the classic cop car backup special which is counted as a star move.
 |
| Colour palettes differences on enemies are not just for show. The one wearing red dungarees can breathe fire from his mouth whereas the one in dark purple can perform a flying body slam. |
Level design:
The game does have a quite a lot of variety when it comes to the sizes of each section, a combination of certain enemy types and even interactive traps. One section has electric traps that can harm anyone if caught, later on there's pits that can be used to instantly KO your enemies, stage 5 has poison ponds that drain the character's HP and even poison vents which can be used to lure enemies in for extra damage. For some areas, it's even possible to backtrack slightly to have some breathing room or picking up extra items. All of these are show rather than tell which is great. Enemies different palettes are not just for show but also difficulty, some of them have the same A.I level with higher HP, some may use different attack patterns and some may have enhanced properties.
The difficulty of the boss battles is a mixed bag. The first few bosses are quite intimidating at first with attacks that have super armour properties and it's not always straight forward when to get in to deal some damage and actually flinch the boss, especially if you play aggressive which usually works well in previous games. Later on in the game they become somewhat easier because they have huge weaknesses or easy to punish playstyles. One boss has super armour throughout but if you recognise his charging poses, you should be able to dodge his attacks, another boss would rather fight from a distance and you can figure out the projectile attack by looking at the colour of its body glowing before it fires a shot.
The changes in difficulty are as follows:
* Number of starting lives
* HP amount for regular enemies (very minor difference in this one)
* HP drained for using a special move (very small penalty for easy to 1/6th of entire bar for higher difficulties).
* AI aggression (Mania will have some enemies move faster)
* Enemy spawns (obviously more enemies to face when playing higher difficulties).
 |
| This section is going to be a total wreck for some. |
The team added button mapping which should be mandatory in every game, options to disable certain button combos for moves and even an option to enable 3 button legacy layout for players using the 3rd party Genesis 3 button controller via bluetooth. The game has a level select to help players practice the levels in higher difficulties
 |
| More control options are a good thing. |
Value:
Side scrolling beat em ups is a tough one to execute. Normally multiplayer works best with local friends but due to the recent Covid-19 setting up a local session is riskier than ever. It does have official online play which is limited to 2 players. PC Steam supports remote play together which means 4 player online. Besides the multiplayer component, there's stage select to practice individual levels, a 1 credit clear arcade mode which does require a different set of strategies if you want to get through the higher difficulties, heck you can feel the sense of satisfaction when making it to the end. The starting lives are fixed and can only get an extra 1up after every 30,000 points.
There's also 2 kind of players goals as well. People who casually play it and don't touch it for a while or people who want to grind it out, execute S rank in either Arcade or Individual Levels, master arcade mode deathless even. I've been getting S ranks for individual level runs but not in Arcade Mode. Still the 'grand master' status would be trying to get S rank on 1CC Arcade Mode in Mania difficulty and pulling it off would be no easy feat at all as it involves playing excellent for roughly an hour to an hour and a half long, not under 10 minutes like single level runs.
Overall:
Streets of Rage 4 is finally here and it's one of my favourite games released in 2020 so far. I've been playing it again and again to learn something new. For a genre that is harder to produce in this generation than other genres, this game nearly ticks all of the boxes. Some may love the changes, some may hate it. For me personally I get why some parts can be annoying but overall, the good things really outshine the bad parts for this game.
Sword Strikes:
+ Nearly everyone from is playable with Ash and Roo being non-playable at the moment.
+ Adding features going beyond fans exceptions.
+ Unlockables that isn't paid DLC.
+ Has the best of 90s brawler design with easy to play and tough to master game design..
+ 1CC Arcade mode on higher difficulties feels very rewarding when completed.
+ Nearly everyone from is playable with Ash and Roo being non-playable at the moment.
+ Adding features going beyond fans exceptions.
+ Unlockables that isn't paid DLC.
+ Has the best of 90s brawler design with easy to play and tough to master game design..
+ 1CC Arcade mode on higher difficulties feels very rewarding when completed.
+ Expanded movepool and properties to make it fresh for diehard veterans.
+ A great modern soundtrack.
Sword Yikes:
- 90s design for having limited defensive tools, you cannot block, duck nor parry.
- Enemies with super armour are the biggest jerks.
- Difficulty spike for the bosses when going in order (late game bosses feel a lot easier than earlier ones).
- 1CC Arcade on the highest difficulty is a very long playthrough to 1 Credit Clear than other beat em ups of the genre.
- Needs a training mode to practice juggles and situational combos like having more than 1 star.
- Retro Soundtrack needs better use of when to play tracks and ideally replace SoR1 8-bit tracks with SoR1 16-bit tracks..
- If you're not a person who wants to get S ranks or complete/master 1CC Arcade Mania, replay value is limited.
+ A great modern soundtrack.
Sword Yikes:
- 90s design for having limited defensive tools, you cannot block, duck nor parry.
- Enemies with super armour are the biggest jerks.
- Difficulty spike for the bosses when going in order (late game bosses feel a lot easier than earlier ones).
- 1CC Arcade on the highest difficulty is a very long playthrough to 1 Credit Clear than other beat em ups of the genre.
- Needs a training mode to practice juggles and situational combos like having more than 1 star.
- Retro Soundtrack needs better use of when to play tracks and ideally replace SoR1 8-bit tracks with SoR1 16-bit tracks..
- If you're not a person who wants to get S ranks or complete/master 1CC Arcade Mania, replay value is limited.
Rating:
Excellent: A
Review code provided by DotEmu.
Ideal links to check out!
Streets of Rage 4 - Behind the Gameplay video
Streets of Rage 4 - Behind the Music
Streets of Rage 4 - Behind the Art
Streets of Rage 4 - Behind the Tracks
Streets of Rage 4 - PS4 Blog post - Why retro characters are not 1:1 faithful
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