A serious revitalisation of a 90s gamers favourite
WHEN it comes to remakes or reboots of older series, there appears to be two schools of thought. The first school says that the game must be preserved as much as possible, in order to stay true to the original vision and not to tarnish any vulnerable legacies. The second school of thought is more pragmatic: keep the general spirit of the game alive, but modernise every aspect of it in order to get the younger generations on board and in positions where they can be sold ludicrously expensive cosmetic items or arbitrarily paywalled DLC content.
Mercifully, Streets of Rage 4 is firmly rooted in the former school of thought. While the graphics are a definite step up from the blocky but charming sprites of the 90’s, this is still very much so a Streets of Rage game. The plot is predictably hackneyed, but the overall presentation - with all of its delightfully camp and corny trappings - is gorgeous and appealing in a way that can’t be explained by simple nostalgia.
Just like in the old titles, each character has a special move that does a great deal of damage at the price of a meaty chunk of your own health bar. One of the scant few new mechanics in Streets of Rage 4 takes this risk/reward dynamic and expands on it further, adding the chance for you to garner life back by successfully stringing together a combo of standard attacks. Any break in this combo results in that health being lost permanently. It really is a genius mechanic that marries perfectly with mechanics already present in the game.
Another enjoyable mechanic is the new weapon catch feature. If you time your button inputs just right, you can catch the rebound of whatever weapon you have just thrown. Acting almost like a mini-game in its own right, great timing can be rewarded with a constant loop of throwing your weapon and catching it, perhaps giving you the much-needed respite from whatever damage you may currently be enduring within the enemy’s reach.
Though Streets of Rage 4 is perfectly enjoyable played in isolation, the real fun (as usual) is playing through the campaign with your friends, online. Two-player co-op is an option that gamers would dearly wish to be in pretty much every release these days, but Streets of Rage has had that mechanic (albeit provided your friend was in the same room as you) since the 90’s.
Streets of Rage 4 is not just fan-service, it is a serious revitalisation of a series that is near and dear to many gamers who plied their trade during the 90’s. A strong recommendation for any gamer, new or old.