Streets Of Rage 4
Developer DotEmu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games Publisher DotEmu Format PC, PS4 (tested), Switch, Xbox One Release Out now
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Things are rarely just as we remember them, but Streets Of Rage 4 manages the impressive trick of being exactly the way we recall the classic ’90s side-scrolling beat-’em-up series, in all its vibrant rose-tinted hues.
Almost everything feels familiar. Moves, characters and enemies – from brightly mohawked street punks on seedy, neon-lit streets to strobing dancefloors packed with cyberpunk psychos – are portrayed in a beautiful, hand-drawn art style that affords them a bold, comicbook feel, the very image of what our brains believe they really did look like decades ago. You can even turn on a filter to pixellate and add scan lines.
That’s the first clue, perhaps, that there is little to no reinvention here – tonally and mechanically, this is obsessively reproduced. But where the old games might feel rough around the edges, things have been boosted and bettered. Attack animations are more fluid, but each blow connects with hefty cracks and whuds; movement feels modernised, with imperfections such as the way enemies had a tendency to disappear off-screen well and truly ironed out. Only once does the traditional one-way side-scrolling betray a fundamental flaw, when our progress is halted because an unseen enemy is stuck behind some chairs and we have to backtrack to disentangle him.
Alongside Axel, Blaze and Adam are new characters Cherry (a nimble fighter) and robot-armed Floyd. Each has their own moves, such as Axel’s upper-cut and body slam; basic attacks flow into weightier combos, and a double-tapped quick-dash knocks down enemies. Alongside a powerful finisher there are two special moves, one defensive, the other an unblockable attack, traded for a little health which can be regained by landing hits. A reverse kick or punch is effective when enemies have you boxed in, and you can grab and throw enemies, bowling over other goons. A wide range of returning bad guys ensures a mix of behaviours to deal with at any one time: enemies that block, those that barrel at you, or use ranged weapons or aerial attacks. The AI, though not overly bright (it’s a beat-’em-up, after all), is smart enough to occasionally surprise.
The joy of a good beat-’em-up is in its simple, yet compelling, loop – keep punching and moving – while learned knowledge of enemy attack patterns and weaknesses, and best use of your own attacks, drives you to beat those high scores. Any gimmicks would have muddied the waters – what you need to bring a goldenage beat-’em-up bang up to date, it turns out, is a team of fans with the hands of a heart surgeon and an eye for why we fell in love with it in the first place.