As funny as it is to call Streets Of Fury "The game made by the guys who'd go on to be knwon as the Streets of Rage 4 devs that has Nostalgia Critic in it", but it honestly deserves more than that. There's a lot of the DNA that would go on to form SOR4, from the game's greater focus on combos, to the wide cast of characters and the global score counter tied to further unlocks to encourage the returning player. And damn, what a stellar combat system the game has; genuinely feels like one of the cloest attempts to replicate Devil May Cry's focus on both grounded and aerial combat.

The visuals, going for the style of the original Mortal Kombat's digitized actors, are probably done for a budgetary reason, but I can't deny that it does give them a goofy little charm that certainly help it stick out from other beat-em-ups on the market, and while not much of the soundtrack is likely to stick with me, there were some damn good tracks in there that had me bobbing my head amidst the action. And that's all the hallmarks of a damn good beat-em-up, and for a cheap price as well, so you don't lose much if you pick it up. With the amount of content there is to go along with its fairly short campaign, I can definitely see myself coming back to this one for a long time to come!

I bought this game because it was goofy and it has the Nostalgia Critic in it, and that in itself is funny. But it kept me going from the intricate fighting system that encourages combo stacking and air juggles. That and the Nostalgia Critic being in the game is great. They actually made him a solid fighter.

Definitely a overlooked beat 'em up, you should play it, I'm so glad this game led to Streets of Rage 4.

It does get a point off because there's no Evil Nostalgia Critic skin.

I was feeling nostalgic one day and opened up my old copy of Nintendogs for nintendo ds, but instead of seeing my dog Barky i see Doug Walker the Nostalgia Critic but somthing isn’t right! He had ultra realistic eyes and they were bleeding and he had a twisted grin on his face. I can hear the Nostalgia Critic theme song in my head but it is corupted and it is played with screams instead of on a electric guitar. And then he came out of the screen and i thought wait this isn’t the nintendo 3ds (haha) But the i saw that he had a gun and he aimed at my head and said ”Hello i’m the Nostalgia critic, but you don’t need to remember that anymor” with a menecing laugh he pulls the trigger and then i die.

An update of an older Xbox Live Indie title (indie marketplace for the 360) that uses digitized actors as the playable and enemy characters in a beat em up. Over 20 characters to play as with their own combos and special attacks, with many of them also appearing as enemies. Many of the characters likely being friends of the developers but some being related to esports or internet personalities, so if you ever wanted to beat up Paris street gangs as the Nostalgia Critic, for some reason, you can do that.

Looking at the game you would assume it would be terrible but the attacks flow and animate fairly well, the combat is heavily combo focused with you having a light, heavy, and more powerful stamina (stamina relating to your ability to block not your health) using attack that changes style if you are stationary or holding up, down, or forward, you can block and parry, dodge, jump between three lanes like in Guardian Heroes, and build up fury to unleash three different special moves per characters.

Enemy types have a bit more variety than you would expect as they tend to fight differently and have different colored outlines that can signify different power levels or behavior.

Not amazing but fun for a bit, a lot deeper mechanically than I would have thought. Developer went on to work on Streets of Rage 4 that I thought was one of the best beat em ups I've played so surprising amount of talent here.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1490583156310765570