Beat em ups are great!!! I sure love 'em... So Streets of Rage 4! I have always heard that the previous SoR games were legendary for the genre but I've never actually played them yet - but if they're as good as SOR4 I get it.
You play as one of 4 (5 later on) members of the team who helped bring down the "Evil Mr. X" from the previous games - now 20 years later (I believe this is the distance between SOR3 and 4?) his kids Mr. and Ms. Y are developing a mind control weapon to take over the city! Pretty stupid plot obviously but its a beat em up so who cares? I do think the characters are actually done pretty well - everyone gets at least a few scenes to show how cool and heroic they are and most of the major antagonists have oodles of charisma and are fun to fight (a few become good guys later too!). So nothing amazing going on here like Scott Pilgrim but quite good. The story plays out over 12 levels and they all have a pretty good aesthetic though there are a few standouts - the initial streets and alleyways, an underground lab area, going up the skyrise, fighting on a plane... Each of these also has some type of hindrance or mechanic to them as well + a new enemy to take advantage of them. Electrical wires, slippery floors, explosive barrels left about, plenty of neat ideas to keep the beating feeling fresh.
Gameplay is standard beat-em-up but a bit slower than I tend to like. You have to double tap to start running and your lateral movement is GLACIALLY paced which can make some fights awkward. This is more balanced of course because moving in the Z axis means it is a lot easier to dodge attacks from your enemies though it also caused me to miss a number of times as I wasn't quiiiite sure where my fist would end up and that on top of the slow movement caused the game to drag a bit though. The combos and abilities also seemed a bit more straightforward compared to other beat em ups - You have a short attack and a long attack + a special button and it felt like there was some combo list that I didn't have access to? I would do cool moves from time to time but had no real idea how I managed to do that lol. So I do wish the game was more clear in how it controlled. Returning to the special attacks though: there's a great layer of strategy there as their special move has a good deal of I-frames + drains your health. Doesn't sound too great right? But Streets of Rage 4 just decided to steal Bloodborne's Rally system and it is GREAT! It lets you trade some potential HP later to protect yourself now and encourages you to go on the offensive ASAP once you're out of the shit to get your lost health back. I mean the rally system in general is just a great mechanic so I can't blame them for lifting it.
All this said let's get to Streets of Rage 4's greatest strengths: the art style and the music. In a genre with some colossal titans in both categories (Scott Pilgrim + Castle Crashers) SOR4 stands among them - if not above them. The characters and levels are all hand drawn and they are friggin' gorgeous. Every animation flows into the rest and each is oozing with style and quality. The music is some of the most hoppin' shit I've heard in so long, basically every track is a 9/10 at minimum. Listening to the OST as I type this out is a treat.
Streets of Rage 4 has a super style to it and while I do think the gameplay is great, some elements of it are not to my preference which held it back a bit. Also I do think there is a bit of dearth to its content - most of its playable characters are old sprites rather than actual new characters + no ng+ + no real stats or progression type system that many newer beat em ups have do detract a BIT from the game. This however is one of the games this year I do wish I could spend more time with... maybe next year!
You play as one of 4 (5 later on) members of the team who helped bring down the "Evil Mr. X" from the previous games - now 20 years later (I believe this is the distance between SOR3 and 4?) his kids Mr. and Ms. Y are developing a mind control weapon to take over the city! Pretty stupid plot obviously but its a beat em up so who cares? I do think the characters are actually done pretty well - everyone gets at least a few scenes to show how cool and heroic they are and most of the major antagonists have oodles of charisma and are fun to fight (a few become good guys later too!). So nothing amazing going on here like Scott Pilgrim but quite good. The story plays out over 12 levels and they all have a pretty good aesthetic though there are a few standouts - the initial streets and alleyways, an underground lab area, going up the skyrise, fighting on a plane... Each of these also has some type of hindrance or mechanic to them as well + a new enemy to take advantage of them. Electrical wires, slippery floors, explosive barrels left about, plenty of neat ideas to keep the beating feeling fresh.
Gameplay is standard beat-em-up but a bit slower than I tend to like. You have to double tap to start running and your lateral movement is GLACIALLY paced which can make some fights awkward. This is more balanced of course because moving in the Z axis means it is a lot easier to dodge attacks from your enemies though it also caused me to miss a number of times as I wasn't quiiiite sure where my fist would end up and that on top of the slow movement caused the game to drag a bit though. The combos and abilities also seemed a bit more straightforward compared to other beat em ups - You have a short attack and a long attack + a special button and it felt like there was some combo list that I didn't have access to? I would do cool moves from time to time but had no real idea how I managed to do that lol. So I do wish the game was more clear in how it controlled. Returning to the special attacks though: there's a great layer of strategy there as their special move has a good deal of I-frames + drains your health. Doesn't sound too great right? But Streets of Rage 4 just decided to steal Bloodborne's Rally system and it is GREAT! It lets you trade some potential HP later to protect yourself now and encourages you to go on the offensive ASAP once you're out of the shit to get your lost health back. I mean the rally system in general is just a great mechanic so I can't blame them for lifting it.
All this said let's get to Streets of Rage 4's greatest strengths: the art style and the music. In a genre with some colossal titans in both categories (Scott Pilgrim + Castle Crashers) SOR4 stands among them - if not above them. The characters and levels are all hand drawn and they are friggin' gorgeous. Every animation flows into the rest and each is oozing with style and quality. The music is some of the most hoppin' shit I've heard in so long, basically every track is a 9/10 at minimum. Listening to the OST as I type this out is a treat.
Streets of Rage 4 has a super style to it and while I do think the gameplay is great, some elements of it are not to my preference which held it back a bit. Also I do think there is a bit of dearth to its content - most of its playable characters are old sprites rather than actual new characters + no ng+ + no real stats or progression type system that many newer beat em ups have do detract a BIT from the game. This however is one of the games this year I do wish I could spend more time with... maybe next year!