Streets of Rage 2 might not be my favorite beat-em-up on the Genesis, but it's a damn good one that improves upon everything the first game accomplished. Highly stylized with excellent character designs and animations and one of the best soundtracks on the system, Streets of Rage 2 feels every bit as good to play as it does to look at or listen to.
At a certain point, though, I just find beat-em-ups to be hard to review. Perhaps even the hardest. During this era especially, where games in the genre were so similar mechanically that whether one sank or swam was largely up to how good it felt in your hands. In the case of Streets of Rage 2, the sound effects on impact, the move sets, the way the hitboxes are tuned all add up to something that's just a lot of fun to sit with and blow a couple hours on, especially if you're lucky enough to rope a friend into playing a co-op Genesis game in 2022.
One thing that playing the Streets games with a friend has made me appreciate is how much better couch co-op is in brawlers than matchmaking with some randos online. I played some of Streets of Rage 4 online and, lag aside, it's just so lacking in comparison to sitting on the same couch and yelling at your friend for sucker punching you. Some bosses are also so difficult that it's clear they're designed to be taken on by two players rather than one-on-one. But really, as is the case with all beat-em-ups, this is an arcade game down to its marrow, and by design are meant to be enjoyed with other people in the same room with you.
I don't know where I'm going with this. Streets of Rage 2 is good, I guess? You should probably play it. Even if you can't drag a friend to your place, you should still play it. That's it, that's my review, thank you for read
At a certain point, though, I just find beat-em-ups to be hard to review. Perhaps even the hardest. During this era especially, where games in the genre were so similar mechanically that whether one sank or swam was largely up to how good it felt in your hands. In the case of Streets of Rage 2, the sound effects on impact, the move sets, the way the hitboxes are tuned all add up to something that's just a lot of fun to sit with and blow a couple hours on, especially if you're lucky enough to rope a friend into playing a co-op Genesis game in 2022.
One thing that playing the Streets games with a friend has made me appreciate is how much better couch co-op is in brawlers than matchmaking with some randos online. I played some of Streets of Rage 4 online and, lag aside, it's just so lacking in comparison to sitting on the same couch and yelling at your friend for sucker punching you. Some bosses are also so difficult that it's clear they're designed to be taken on by two players rather than one-on-one. But really, as is the case with all beat-em-ups, this is an arcade game down to its marrow, and by design are meant to be enjoyed with other people in the same room with you.
I don't know where I'm going with this. Streets of Rage 2 is good, I guess? You should probably play it. Even if you can't drag a friend to your place, you should still play it. That's it, that's my review, thank you for read