STREETS OF RAGE 4
This latest punch of nostalgia is a shell suit and a Fresh Prince quote away from perfectly capturing the feeling of gaming in the ’90s. Rampant EDM underpins every punch, kick, and piledriver. As sequels go, it’s better late than never.
It’s been 25 years since Mr X met his match, but Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding are back, along with Cherry Hunter, daughter of Adam, and
Floyd Iraia, apprentice to Dr Zan. Mr X’s son and daughter want to cause chaos by playing dance music with the power to turn anyone within earshot into a blood-hungry brawler.
What follows are ten side-scrolling stages of thuggery, with character-specific punches, throws, and specials enabling you to combo through the throng. The simplicity recalls the Sega originals; crowd-controlling specials eat up health so you need to use them sparingly and tactically.
But Streets Of Rage 4 is more than a simple button-tapper. You need to approach every enemy in different ways, using quick combos against shield-bearing cops, dodging and grappling one-punch karate men, and jumpkicking leopard-print biker gals. The DNA of the originals has been refreshed for modern times.
When an enemy grabs a knife you throw at them from the air and hurls it back at you, you’ll admire the detail. Then you’ll try it yourself.
You can juggle enemies off the background and weaponise environments for added style points – kicking enemies into a ball and chain on a building site sees it swing chaotically, causing carnage.
SLAP FIGHT
A Life Time Score system sees new characters unlocked the more you play. These include pixel-art recreations of familiar faces from the first three Streets Of Rage, playable in the hand-drawn sequel. These are no cosmetic offerings; they all play differently. Replicating the timing, special move systems, and moves from their past games, each offers a new way to replay Streets Of Rage 4’s beautiful stages.
Alongside Story there are also Stage Select and Arcade modes to test your skills against. The latter offers one credit to complete the game. If you really need a challenge, Mania difficulty doubles the number of enemies on screen, and in four-player co-op it’s a sea of flailing specials.
In motion everything flows impeccably, and the animation never fails to massage your eyes with its snappy combos and colourful, flinching villains. It’s possible to play the whole game in pixel art mode, but it’s a visual effect rather than a ground-up remodelling, which leads to blurring.
This is the only toe-stub in a sequel that warmly embraces its heritage – Easter eggs offer the change to play random ‘greatest moments’ from past games – and never fails to raise a smile. This is the sequel teenage me always wanted.
“YOU CAN JUGGLE ENEMIES OFF THE BACKGROUND AND WEAPONISE ENVIRONMENTS.”
VERDICT
Combat so crisp it punches your nostalgia into next week, Streets Of Rage 4 is a time capsule well worth cracking open for a short bursts of expressive thuggery. Ian Dean