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’t 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. I stumbled upon a giant screen sporting four players enjoying the exhilarating beat’em up combat. I wanted to give it a try, but alas the line was too long. REJOICE, MY FOLLOWERS!!! Streets of Rage 4 launched a few weeks ago, and I am here to tell you how this long-awaited sequel turned out.
Our story begins ten years after the events of Streets of Rage 3, the criminal mastermind, Mr. X, has been defeated. However, his children, Mr. Y and Ms. Y are trying to reclaim his empire. Despite the ten-year retirement, Streets of Rage veterans Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding along with newcomers Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia are gearing up to stop the Y twins. They must fight through legions of goons, henchmen, and thugs to get to the Y twins in a comic book art style. You will notice how Mr. X’s children have a different last name, so you can probably see how ridiculous the story is aiming to be. Like many beat’em up titles, the story seems absurd, but totally fits the tone of the game.
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’t long until I was cracking the skulls of every goon that crossed my path.
Unfortunately, that glee didn’t last very long. While I don’t hate Streets of Rage 4, 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’t escape the feeling that Streets of Rage 4 is deliberately catering to the fans of the old Streets of Rage games, rather than add some modern innovations. As someone who was not raised on a Sega Genesis, I can’t say I found these Streets of Rage 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 should know about these grievances.
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’t 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, but it is quite frustrating to know those first failed attempts could have been avoided.
Simple tips like where to find food aren’t the only thing the game doesn’t deliberately tell you. While you can’t 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’re 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’t 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 to give me Doom Eternal style tutorial messages, but a simple textbox at the beginning wouldn’t be amiss.
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’t 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’s 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 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.
The other questionable design choice seems to be the life system. Every level you have two lives and the possibility of gaining more by scoring a certain amount of points. I am always reminded of the arcade cabinet days when I see games with live systems. 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. 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. Some levels even seemed to be designed to steal all your lives like Chinatown and the Y Tower. Frankly, I don’t see why there can’t be a score penalty anytime we lose a life. You could even implement a system similar to the Dark Souls souls mechanic, where we can earn those points back if we retrieve them. Something other than the archaic life system would be preferable.
Many Streets of Rage fans might be rejoicing they got a game resembling their classic games, and all I can say is I am envious. I wish all these annoyances weren’t dragging down my enjoyment of Streets of Rage 4, but alas this is not the case. As my frustration with Streets of Rage 4 grew, I can’t stop asking myself why I am not playing River City Girls or Castle Crashers to sate my hunger for beat’em up action. It is a shame because there are plenty of aspects of Streets of Rage 4 that I love. I think the hand-drawn art style is captivating and being able to pull off screen-wide moves from collecting stars is so satisfying. However, the combat will grate on my patience where I can only recommend Streets of Rage 4 to fans and someone who has already finished River City Girls or Castle Crashers. Take heed developers, you don’t need to completely sacrifice your vision when making your game. If you want to make a title for Streets of Rage fans, then follow your dreams. Just remember some small little changes can be made to help newcomers see your vision and eventually become fans themselves.