Action games are getting bigger, but they're also getting smaller. Titanic bosses and dizzyingly intricate movesets are the natural residue of progressing technology, but their weight isn't fully felt if spamming air dashes becomes a dominant strategy or a well-timed dodge roll is your best option in every scenario. Although Streets of Rage 4 is an old-school throwback, it represents to me what the wider genre would be better off evolving towards. Constantly deciding when to end a combo, when to shift your focus, when to pick up an item may not seem like much when compared to the spectacle of other modern titles, but the complexity created by the layering of these minutiae locked me in a flow state to a degree that really doesn't happen all that much these days. The health bar/special move system adds fuel to the fire- effectively asking if you think you can combo off a certain move, and then rewarding you if you end up being correct either way in a straight-up palpable elevation of the skill ceiling. Ultimate, precise, calculated knowledge of your own limited moveset is the big goal here, which makes the learning experience so, so fulfilling when compared to the alternative of primarily remembering and reacting to specific patterns. It'd be a sin if I didn't also mention the graphics. A comic book in motion is such an elegant fit for a modern beat-em-up, which is a pretty apt way to describe the entire game. While other retro revivals have found some decent success in revitalizing interest in their specific series, the newest Streets of Rage entry feels like it has the potential to do so for beat-em-ups as a whole. It's not compact enough to reach that arcade sweetspot of replayability, but that's the only real misfire that came from adapting the series' staples for a modern audience. The demand for golden age beat-em-ups has been dead and buried for decades at this point, and who knows if an EXTRA LIFE IN 2020 is really in the cards for the genre, but I do know that I might very well be a convert. First game of the roaring 20s that gets a "you gotta play this one" from me.