Streets of Rage 4

Genre: Arcade Brawler

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local) / 2 Co-Op (Online)

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Review:

Streets of Rage 4 is a long-awaited return to Sega’s classic series of Arcade Brawlers whose last installment, Streets of Rage 3, was released on the Sega Genesis in 1994. With the development of this new installment being handled by the combined efforts of Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games, and Dotemu, there was good reason to wonder if this new revival of the series could capture the magic of the Sega-developed original trilogy. When the game finally came out in 2020 on multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch, players finally got their answer – not only is this an excellent installment in the series, it may very well be the best game in the franchise.

If there’s one area where Streets of Rage 4 towers over its predecessors, it’s in the presentation. Quite simply, Streets of Rage is absolutely gorgeous, with an incredibly detailed hand-drawn art style with superb animation for all of its characters. All of the game’s playable characters and every last one of the villains is rendered with an amazing amount of detail and animation, and the backgrounds are similarly detailed and full of personality. In fact, I think I’d go as far as to say I don’t think I’ve seen another Arcade Brawler that looks as visually gorgeous as this game.

Nearly as impressive as the visuals is the excellent soundtrack this game has received, getting a good mix of orchestral elements, percussion, synthesizer, and some sampled vocals. This is a soundtrack I could easily see just tossing on in the background while I go about my day, and it makes for an excellent backing to the butt-kicking you’ll be doing in this game. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite out of what’s on offer here, but Character Select, Estel: Round 1, On Fire, Shiva, and Aphex Train are all top-notch. Yeah, I’ll just say this game is on my short list for one of the best game soundtracks of 2020 so far.

When it comes to the gameplay, the improvements made in this game are much more understated and subtle. For the most part, this is the same sort of butt-kicking action the series has been known for since the beginning, without any drastic changes to the formula, which remains as good as ever.

That’s not to say that there are no changes here, though. One of the nice additions here is that while using special moves still depletes your energy, players now have the opportunity to earn that spent energy back by attacking enemies without getting hit. This makes it a bit easier to make the call to use these attacks, as a skilled player needn’t look at it as an exchange of health for a brief use of power, as they can simply earn that health back. This also makes it a much easier call to use area-clearing special attacks if you’re worried about getting hit – a chance at regaining that health is certainly better than losing it for sure from the attacks of enemies swarming you.

This game also adds the nice touch of being able to grab items in mid-air, meaning that you can toss items at an enemy, snag them as they bounce off, and then toss them again if you like. There’s also a new limited-use “star attack” move that’s unique to each character (I particularly liked newcomer Cherry’s use of the move, which has her plowing through enemies while jamming on her electric guitar).

Oh, and regarding the characters, this game includes two familiar faces from prior games, Axel and Blaze, as well as newcomers Cherry and Floyd. However, players missing some of the older characters from prior games need not fret – the game also lets players unlock additional characters, including the rosters of characters from former games in the series, complete with pixelated graphics and the old move sets. This is an amazing bit of fan service that really goes to show just how much care was put into ensuring that this game wasn’t just piggybacking off of an old popular franchise, but truly seeking to honor that legacy.

And of course, one of the staples of the genre, multiplayer co-op, is fully supported here as well, supporting 4 players locally or 2 online, and letting players decide whether or not to enable friendly fire

Not everything in Streets of Rage 4 is beyond reproach, though. Character movement in this game is a bit on the sluggish side, which is especially frustrating when I see an attack coming but lack the speed to move out of the way in time. Also, I wish this game took a cue from other more modern games in the genre and added some sort of leveling or progression system – I tend to find this sort of thing helps to keep games in this genre from getting repetitive quite so quickly (though in the game’s defense, it manages to stay fairly varied throughout thanks to its diverse lineup of enemies).

In the end, while there are certainly places where Streets of Rage 4 could still improve, it is nevertheless one of the finest entries in the genre, and one that both honors its predecessors while absolutely leaving them in the dust. The gameplay here is strong, with small but good improvements to the genre formula, as well as great co-op play. And of course the presentation is some of the best this genre has ever seen. All in all, this is an absolute must-have game for fans of fun, arcadey action games, and especially for fans of Arcade Brawlers.

tl;dr – Streets of Rage 4 is a return to Sega’s classic Arcade Brawler franchise after an over 25 year absence, and perhaps the wait was worth it because this is not just the best game in the series, but one of the best games in the genre, with a gorgeous presentation, a fantastic soundtrack, and small but clever improvements to the core gameplay. There are still areas where this game could be improved, but overall this is a must-have game for fans of the genre, as well as co-op Action game fans in general.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Action Game, Best Music, Best Song – Character Select by Yuzo Koshiro

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