(This is the 46th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Streets of Rage is Sega's answer to Capcom's very popular Arcade game Final Fight from 1989. In many ways, it's actually pretty much a copy of that game. It does have three reasons however, which make me happy about its existence. First: The challenge started in 1990, so I didn't play Final Fight. Second: The soundtrack in Streets of Rage is not only better, but it's one of the best soundtracks this challenge has seen so far. Third: The gameplay, while dated today, is actually quite addicting anyway.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 1/10

A criminal organization has taken over the city, and only three brave police offers are there to try and stop them. Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding. Wasn't expecting this much, let alone more from a game like this. They are slightly different from each other in terms of Power, Speed and Jump, and they specialize in a different fighting skill according to their bio, but from what I can tell their move-set is pretty much the same.

GAMEPLAY | 14/20

If you've played Final Fight, you've played Streets of Rage. It's a side-scrolling beat 'em up game where you walk through eight different locations, fight enemies and ultimately a boss. You use your fists, punch and slam combinations and melee weapons that you can pick up off the floor to beat up hostiles until they are knocked out. You have three lives per continue and three continues. There is one special ability you have that is the same for every fighter, which is police back-up that shoots a missile from far away to one-shot all enemies (excluding bosses) and to damage bosses significantly.

Overall, difference in characters is slim and there aren't many features here in general. You'd think that this makes the game very boring, and if you've played modern versions of this genre, it might be, but for someone who doesn't play beat 'em ups much, this was pretty fun. Combinations of combo attacks, followed by german suplexes and flying kicks can look pretty satisfying when it flows well. The simplicity of the gameplay itself even is enough to turn this into an enjoyable loop, though I do hope that next year's Streets of Rage 2 manages to build on everything, as that kind of potential is quite evident here.

Boss fights are a mess though. The majority of them are stupidly hard to even hit, so you often simply have to take the death and use the 1 special attack you have available after each time you die. You damage them enough this way to go to the next level. Unfortunately, this always meant the end for me at Level 6, which I assume is where the majority of players are stuck at, because fighting these bosses ultimately necessitates finding a way to "cheese the mechanics" and kind-of get bosses stuck in a loop they can't get out of. Even if you succed there, it doesn't really feel like you accomplished something, so there is lots of room for improvement here.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10

Voice acting is limited to the "screeching sounds of death" as I'd like to call it, which seems to become a familiar sound for Sega Genesis games. I don't know if it's the soundboard on the Genesis, I assume it is, but the synthetic screetchy sounds are definitely ones I still am getting used to. These screeches are also your indicator for having killed/knocked out enemies, and it's also the sound your character makes after a particular combination of moves. Apart from that, on the sound design aspect, I feel like punches could sound meatier.

The soundtrack however is the true highlight of this game. It already starts with the vibey main menu track , and it continues into the character selection screen. Even the first thing you hear when you start a new playthrough, that kick, will get you into buttkicking-mode instantly. And it just continues to be kick-ass from there. Great soundtrack.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10

The game definitely makes use of the Genesis' 16-bit tech by going into great detail with the environment itself. The first level, which plays on a street at night, has pretty much all buildings/stores in the back and their signs well-lit and has them flickering into different colors all the time to showcase the color-palette available here. In other levels, you are able to see the big city lights and buildings shine from afar and the lights reflect into the water even. What is less impressive here is the design of the enemies. There aren't many enemy types here, though enough of them do act differently, but instead, enemies are recycled by just changing the color of their clothes and/or hair to signal more difficult versions.

ATMOSPHERE | 8/10

It's Streets of Rage alright. You listen to kick-ass beats, kick ass and enjoy varied and partly beautiful, dark yet shiny environments.

CONTENT | 6/10

There are 8 levels, which is actually a pretty good length. Unfortunately, the boss design is supbar and I can't really say any boss fight has been enjoyable here. Fighting through hordes of enemies is fun before you get to those bosses, but the game does lack variety there or at least a better conclusion to those levels in terms of better bosses. Better, easier to fight bosses, a few more levels and less recycling of enemy assets wouldn't have hurt. Maybe in the next one.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10

This is pretty simple level design for the time. Side-scrolling beat 'em up action with bosses at the end of each level. The game does well to change up the scenery enough to counteract the repetitive nature of the gameplay a tiny bit, but ultimately, where it fails is with the boss fights, which absolutely could and should have been less of a crapshoot in terms of "can I actually touch the boss before he evaporates all my health in a couple of hits?".

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 2/10

Can't really give many points here when all of this has pretty much been done in a shockingly similar fashion in Capcom's Final Fight. It's a simple and fun concept, but nearly completely copied nonetheless.

REPLAYABILITY | 3/5

There are three characters to mix new playthroughs up with, albeit limited in differentiating factors. Other than that, the main motivation to play again after beating this is to up your score.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 60/100

You got one of the best soundtracks of the early 90's here and some simple, fun gameplay. Unfortunately, the boss design isn't great, the gameplay is extremely similar to Capcom's Final Fight and these days, you're likely better off trying newer iterations in the series, though it's worth starting here if you haven't experienced Streets of Rage yet, simply to hear the soundtrack in action.

Reviewed on Apr 18, 2023


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