{"id":1142,"date":"2021-04-24T17:45:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T17:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2021-04-24T17:45:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T17:45:58","slug":"streets-of-rage-4-review-same-old-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/24\/streets-of-rage-4-review-same-old-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Streets of Rage 4 Review – Same Old Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in May of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEAR YE!!!  HEAR YE!!!  MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!!  As we continue to stay indoors, I can\u2019t help but remember the last major social event I attended: PAX East.  While I was able to get my hands on some thrilling titles, there were many that I did not have the opportunity to try out.  One of those games was Streets of Rage 4.  <\/em>I stumbled upon a giant screen sporting four players enjoying the exhilarating beat\u2019em up combat.  I wanted to give it a try, but alas the line was too long.  REJOICE, MY FOLLOWERS!!!  Streets of Rage 4 <\/em>launched a few weeks ago, and I am here to tell you how this long-awaited sequel turned out.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our story begins ten years after the events of Streets of Rage 3,<\/em> the criminal mastermind, Mr. X, has been defeated.\u00a0 However, his children, Mr. Y and Ms. Y are trying to reclaim his empire.\u00a0 Despite the ten-year retirement, Streets of Rage <\/em>veterans Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding along with newcomers Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia are gearing up to stop the Y twins.\u00a0 They must fight through legions of goons, henchmen, and thugs to get to the Y twins in a comic book art style.\u00a0 You will notice how Mr. X\u2019s children have a different last name, so you can probably see how ridiculous the story is aiming to be.\u00a0 Like many beat\u2019em up titles, the story seems absurd, but totally fits the tone of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the start of each level, you will have your choice of character.  Cherry is a young rebellious teen who takes advantage of her speed when fighting.  Floyd is a walking tank using cybernetic arms to help pull enemies towards him.  Our middle-aged protagonists, Axel and Blaze, are more well-rounded in terms of speed and strength.  Each fighter has their own set of bone-crushing attacks, that fills me with glee and it wasn\u2019t long until I was cracking the skulls of every goon that crossed my path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, that glee didn\u2019t last very long.  While I don\u2019t hate Streets of Rage 4,<\/em> I seem to only be able to play it in small bursts before my rage starts boiling over.  As I replay numerous levels, I can\u2019t escape the feeling that Streets of Rage 4 <\/em>is deliberately catering to the fans of the old Streets of Rage <\/em>games, rather than add some modern innovations.  As someone who was not raised on a Sega Genesis, I can\u2019t say I found these Streets of Rage <\/em>traditions enduring.  While some might not find these issues to be deal-breaking, I feel that anyone looking to get into Streets of Rage 4 <\/em>should know about these grievances.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my initial run through the streets of Oak Wood City, I found myself losing health rapidly.  At first, I thought the mini-boss was the final boss of the level, due to my inability to survive.  It wasn\u2019t until my fourth time through the level, that I discovered that you could destroy the surrounding scenery to reveal food items that heal you or money for bonus points.  Sure, it might be obvious to someone who has played all the Streets of Rage,<\/em> but it is quite frustrating to know those first failed attempts could have been avoided.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Simple tips like where to find food aren\u2019t the only thing the game doesn\u2019t deliberately tell you.  While you can\u2019t block incoming attacks, there are certain moves that grant you invulnerability.  Does the game inform you which moves these are?  Well, they do mention them in the fight tips menu, but not while you\u2019re playing the game.  I initially discovered this fact after looking up tips and tricks to help me get through the arduous levels within the game.  While many enjoy looking up strategies and guides for games, I find it quite immersion-breaking.  I want to be living in your world; I don\u2019t want to tab out every five seconds to look up what I need to do to proceed.  I am not asking for Streets of Rage 4 <\/em>to give me Doom Eternal <\/em>style tutorial messages, but a simple textbox at the beginning wouldn\u2019t be amiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the same fighting tips menu, you will notice the game informs you that each character can perform some special moves at the cost of your health.  You will be given an opportunity to gain that health back by landing hits on the enemy, but if you get hit you will lose a large percentage of your remaining health.  While this does create a risk-reward system, I can\u2019t say I am a fan of this mechanic.  If I am character-wielding a guitar as a weapon, I want to be able to smash someone\u2019s face in without worrying about someone landing a cheap shot and costing me a large portion of my health bar.  You especially feel discouraged from using these moves when Streets of Rage 4 <\/em>loves swarming you with tons of enemies.  There could have been other ways to discourage players from spamming these moves; you could give them cooldowns or make them easily interruptible.  The current system does not make me want to even use my special moves and that feels like a mistake from a design perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other questionable design choice seems to be the life system.\u00a0 Every level you have two lives and the possibility of gaining more by scoring a certain amount of points.\u00a0 I am always reminded of the arcade cabinet days when I see games with live systems.\u00a0 Lives were there to fleece more quarters from players, but we have moved away from that model due to the fact people enjoy completing games.\u00a0 So every time I walk up to the boss after losing all my lives to his henchmen, I could only breathe a heavy sigh as I knew I would have to restart the level from the start.\u00a0 Some levels even seemed to be designed to steal all your lives like Chinatown and the Y Tower.\u00a0 Frankly, I don\u2019t see why there can\u2019t be a score penalty anytime we lose a life.\u00a0 You could even implement a system similar to the Dark Souls <\/em>souls mechanic, where we can earn those points back if we retrieve them.\u00a0 Something other than the archaic life system would be preferable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many Streets of Rage <\/em>fans might be rejoicing they got a game resembling their classic games, and all I can say is I am envious.\u00a0 I wish all these annoyances weren\u2019t dragging down my enjoyment of Streets of Rage 4, <\/em>but alas this is not the case.\u00a0 As my frustration with Streets of Rage 4<\/em> grew, I can\u2019t stop asking myself why I am not playing River City Girls <\/em>or Castle Crashers <\/em>to sate my hunger for beat\u2019em up action.\u00a0 It is a shame because there are plenty of aspects of Streets of Rage 4<\/em> that I love.\u00a0 I think the hand-drawn art style is captivating and being able to pull off screen-wide moves from collecting stars is so satisfying.\u00a0 However, the combat will grate on my patience where I can only recommend Streets of Rage 4<\/em> to fans and someone who has already finished River City Girls <\/em>or Castle Crashers.<\/em>\u00a0 Take heed developers, you don\u2019t need to completely sacrifice your vision when making your game.\u00a0 If you want to make a title for Streets of Rage <\/em>fans, then follow your dreams.\u00a0 Just remember some small little changes can be made to help newcomers see your vision and eventually become fans themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in May of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy. HEAR YE!!!  HEAR YE!!!  MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!!  As we continue to stay indoors, I can\u2019t help but remember the last major social event I attended: PAX East.  While I… Continue reading Streets of Rage 4 Review – Same Old Streets<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1151,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions\/1151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}