3D Streets of Rage

Genre: Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Wireless)

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Review:

Streets of Rage is an Arcade-style Brawler originally released on Sega Genesis in 1991 and later ported to numerous other platforms over the years (including Nintendo Switch), with the 2013 Nintendo 3DS release of the game adding stereoscopic 3D. This game has players controlling one of three characters as they fight enemies with fists and feet.

The presentation here is pretty good, with detailed 2D pixel art visuals that still look great by today’s standards, backed by an excellent chiptune soundtrack, and featuring some good bashing and shouting sounds as you and enemies pummel each other.

The gameplay here is pretty standard for Arcade Brawlers, though I felt like the game felt particularly stiff to control, and moving up and down into and out of the background was far slower than it should be. What’s more, you only have a very small selection of attacks, which results in this game getting repetitive pretty quickly.

The Nintendo 3DS release of the game adds a few extra features, such as the ability to play the game with different emulation modes or different international versions, screen settings, button reassignments, save states, and a new “Fists of Death” mode that makes it so every punch you throw automatically takes out any enemy, even bosses. It’s very silly, but a fun distraction if you want to feel superpowered.

Overall, 3D Streets of Rage is a decent port of a classic Brawler, but not a truly great one. The lack of move variety, stiff controls, and sluggish vertical movement all hold this game back, and while it’s still enjoyable, it can’t hold a candle to later games in the franchise.

tl;dr – Streets of Rage is a decent Brawler, but the controls are a bit stiff, there are only a very limited number of attacks you can make, and as a result it gets repetitive very quickly.

Grade: C

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