Fluidity, Motion , Feel. Using dashes to get moves and inches in on characters with skate is just perfection. Honestly using Alex and Blaze without the dash feel like a step back. However the lack of reach from Skate is a detriment and everyone’s special moves feel different for different purposes , so different play styles are accommodated. I think the inches on screen to hit enemies or get hit is the prevailing detail. I think about the design of the factory with the moving tracks that affect you and your enemies where combos get dropped because of how they move you. Some solid level design there. Another level with a gimmick that changed how the core of the game felt would really raise this experience . From a visual standpoint it’s just a beauty to watch in motion, enemy designs are still great and obviously the beatem up design of the 90s has you beat bosses again as lackeys later. I am not sure which villains are all timers outside of Shiva, Mr X and Oehelits though . The baseball stage and that pirate stage visually are great to look at with some great backgrounds to stare at as you get chucked by an enemy. All in all this was a challenging play through much like the first one but it just feels great. Oh and obviously an OST that is gripping. It’s not surprising that this game endures in the memory of many.

Streets of Rage 2 é uma evolução do título anterior da franquia e, sem sombras de duvidas, uma sequência honrosa.

Os gráficos continuam lindos, achei eles até melhores do que os do 1.
Os cenários são lindos, os personagens também.

A trilha sonora é igualmente memorável. Ela continua muito marcante, inclusive, acho que reutilizaram a música da abertura do 1 lá pelo final. Nada contra.

Os personagens principais também continuam ótimos, achei o visual deles maravilhosos. Acho que só o da Blaze que eu achava mais icônico no primeiro jogo, mas isso nem chega a ser um defeito, só um detalhe. Também gosto do visual dela nesse jogo.

Os inimigos também continuam marcantes, destaque para os Bosses. Muitos Bosses do 1 foram reutilizados aqui. Alguns deles ficaram mais fáceis de derrotar, outros mais difíceis, bem como os novos bosses, que em sua maioria eu achei difícil de derrotar.
Eu achei Streets of Rage 2 mais difícil que seu antecessor, entenda: Você vai passar raiva. Principalmente com alguns bosses.
Achei a adição de uma barra de vida para os inimigos muito boa também.

O combate é MARAVILHOSO.
Toda a gameplay é mais rápida e fluída, tem um personagem ( O Skate ) que até corre.
Os golpes são rápidos e bem responsivos, é quase o mesmo que o do primeiro jogo mas bem mais refinado.
Aliás, não vou mentir, eu gostava muito de chamar a polícia no primeiro jogo. Esse especial era muito satisfatório e tiraram isso no 2. Mas foi por um ótimo motivo, adicionaram um especial em forma de golpe !
Isso fez o jogo ficar ainda mais dinâmico, parece que é um Fighting Game estilo Mortal Kombat ou Street Fighter em forma de Beat 'em Up, adicionaram até um modo duelo de Player versus Player.
Ah, e aquele gancho do Axel é uma das coisas mais apelonas deste jogo, hahaha.

Streets of Rage 2 é um outro clássico que é equiparável ou até melhor ( na minha opinião ) que seu antecessor.
Recomendo jogar até se não gostar tanto do gênero Beat 'em Up, pois é um jogo bem fora da curva e também pode servir como uma boa porta de entrada ao gênero - bem como Streets of Rage 1.
Provavelmente ainda vou jogar Streets of Rage 2 muitas outras vezes. Ele é realmente um bom jogo, ainda mais em co-op, sério, que modo divertido.

Seu visual, trilha sonora, gameplay e até personagens se provaram resistir a prova do tempo.
Tudo isto só prova porque ele é um dos clássicos dos Beat 'em Up.

A friend of mine on here Cowboyjosh sometime ago asked in a comment in another review if I find it hard to write about games I love in comparison with mediocre or bad games. This question has been rumbling around in the back of my head ever since and the fact is it's absolutely true. Criticizing something is pretty easy but trying to explain why something is good can be harder. I can throw out adjectives that something is great, fantastic etc. but that doesn't actually explain how it feels to me which is the part of the gaming experience I truly care about. Take Streets of Rage 2, this is one of my favorite games of all time. It's a game I play at least once a year every year for the last 30 years. I've played it on original hardware, emulation, Mega Drive collections, PC, Console etc. If there is a version of this I've bought it and played it yet on backloggd I have tactically reviewed Streets of Rage (A game I like), Streets of Rage 3 ( A game I hate) yet swerved 2 like the plague, so here goes, my poorly articulated attempt to explain why I love this game so much.

This was the first beat 'em up I'd ever played as a kid. When it released though I didn't own it initially. I used to run to a friends house after school so we could play it co-op, I sacrificed dinner on several occasions so I could keep playing as much as I could before I eventually got the game for myself. I couldn't get enough of it.

The atmosphere to Streets of Rage 2 is sublime. It oozes this 80's street vibe that many games have tried to copy to various degrees but never reached the same level. The neon lights, the punk hair cuts, denim jackets and mini skirts. It's a feeling, one that is just consistent throughout thanks to Ancient's wonderful use of colour and art design. The visuals are pretty simple in a lot of ways with fairly small character models allowing for more screen space when moving around and fighting. This is something I hate in it's contemporaries with huge models and little options for positioning. The bosses are all larger than life though and stand out in a striking way. For example the giant bald guy bare foot with huge boxing gloves, a massive oiled wrestler who looks like the ultimate warrior, a guy in a jetpack and a boss that looks like Street Fighter's Blanca mixed with the Predator. The boss that comes to mind every time though when I think of this game is the first boss, Barbon. He isn't visually impressive or all that striking but the lead up, the build to him in a short time just sets the tone for the fight. You fight through a bar and the barman escapes out into the back courtyard. The music stops except the patter of rain on the streets, there's no where else to run. He shouts "c'mon" before ripping his waistcoat off revealing his muscled torso previously hidden before the dropping of this insane boss music. It just gives me chills every time.

Interestingly bouncing off that last thought, I think streets of Rage 2 is actually the first game I noticed music, like really noticed it as a media on it's own rather than background noise to the game as a whole. I used to put Streets of Rage 2 in my Sega Mega Drive and go into the sound test in the options just to listen to it by plugging my cheap 90's overhead headphones with the orange foam ear covers and just listen to it. The thing is, literally every song for this soundtrack is an absolute slam. It's easily my favorite gaming soundtrack of all time. And the soundtrack just doesn't leave my Walkman's rotation.

And that's the core of this review, Streets of Rage 2 for me is a feeling invoked though a mixture of childhood nostalgia as well as consistent enjoyment year after year. From a gameplay point of view it's great if simple and easy but that doesn't matter. The emotional impact this game gives off for me every time I play it isn't something I can quantify and nor do I feel games should be broken down as rigidly as that and is something I'm trying to distance from more and more.

Streets of Rage 2 isn't a game, it's a vibe.

+ Amazing atmosphere.
+ My favorite game soundtrack of all time.
+ Wonderful art, colours and bosses.
+ Timeless.

I was surprised, to say the least, that Streets of Rage 2 still holds up as a very fine representative of the beat 'em up genre. It's always lauded as a timeless classic and while I had some issues with it, mainly centered around the slightly aged controls, it still managed to entertain me with a couple of hours of very fun gameplay, banging music, and great retro visuals. I am sure had I played it back in the day, when my tolerance for somewhat clunky movement was still higher, I would have counted it amongst my favorites!

What is the definition of peak fiction. This game right here. What do I need to be said that hasn't been said already. Streets of Rage 2 improves on the aspects of the first game so much in terms of music, graphics, gameplay and gameplay feel. The madlad that is Yuzo Koshiro did it again this time being a game director with his company. Streets of Rage 2 introduces so many mainstays in the series and I don't know what more to say about this fantastic video game of sixteen bit design. Although I never ever grew up with this game, I did play this when my mom gave me her old Genesis and loved this game. Streets of Rage 2 is the quintessential console beat em up for a reason.