Streets of Rage 2 Reviews

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9.0

The Sega Classics would be better if they actually showed you playing them to your friends.

One of the bests beat'em up ever created.

Best beat 'em up ever!

Wow. Pleasant technical 'busca-raons'. Note: time recorded doesn't fit the real gameplay cuz emulator.

I enjoyed this much more than the original streets of rage. They have removed the cool call for back up button and replaced it with a crappy special move that uses up your own health. They have also introduced anoying flying enemies that are really difficult to work out exactly where they are because to the 2.5D graphics. Aside from that it is pretty similar to the original so I can't put my finger on why I liked it so much, perhaps it is because the easy mode is that bit easier so I didn't find it as frustrating. But this is a classic that is well worth a play.

Streets of Rage 2 is up to 2-players beat-em-up in Final Fight style and a hot direct sequel to SoR. It was made by Ancient, Yuzo Koshiro's company, which I belive to be the main developer, along with Sega of Japan and some “Shout! Ow” that I have no idea about. Released at the end of 1992, to make it the best X-Mas gift for kids along with Sonic 2. It also came as pack-in title with some consoles. It came on 16 Megabit ROM. It actually was made a big deal of, as it was the first game for Sega Mega Drive to be this big (in West). Looking at how huge character were compared to SoR1, it sure made a great impression. If you wonder, the previous big deal was port of Strider with the first ever 8 MEGAPOWER! It had some ports. 8-bit Sega is of course inferior, albeit quite different. On another hand, 3DS port is the one you should seek. The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version. You also get to pick Japanese version, if you want that Blaze jumping kick pantie shot and Mr. X with cigar. Now, technical part about Sega's emulation here: The Sega Classic games that you purchase on Steam count as DLCs for "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" game that should appear in your library. It has Bedroom HUB which is the one with many features yet lags for many and Simply Launcher which lacks Workshop and Online but at least it works just fine for everybody. However, Simple Launcher has it's fair share of glitches as well. It can crash. And it does the second time you go to main menu, so always quit after saving there so it doesn't crash when you want to save next time! Emulation itself, mostly sound, isn't that good but it does it's job. Also, yes, emulator supports quick saves. As alternative, you can use external emulator to run games that you purchased. Sega kindly placed in all games that you purchased in "uncompressed ROMs" folder that program itself doesn't use, just change file extension to ".bin" or so. The file for this one being "STREETS2_U.68K". I also demand you to read digital manual of this game first. You can find it here on store page or go to "manuals" folder of game root and open "04 SOR2_PC_MG_EFIGS_US_v6.pdf". Has online (in Bedroom HUB only) and local multiplayer. So, what's the big idea behind this sequel? Well, that's simple: Street Fighter 2 came out not long time ago and it blew the game industry up. It was a post-SF2 world and people were now taking lessons from it. In this case, Ancient brought the feel of combos and fighting into SoR, as well as making each character feel unique, pulling off different moves on same control input. And yep, they were successful! You can feel an impact of each hit, the sound is right, the speed of animation is right. They made SoR2 to be a bit slower paced than SoR1, but I am pretty sure you are going to stop caring as soon as you beat your first punk. Then again, if you set it to highest difficulty, you will barely manage to get space and breath time from all the enemies attacks. And the AI of them also was changed. They are less annoying, not trying hard as much of staying out of your range like in SoR1. You know, they don't hide outside of screen edges anymore. Actually, the game took super specials from Final Fight, where characters do crowd control move which makes them lose a small amount of health, instead of ESWAT car bombing everything. It does add a bit of strategy into game and it allows you to get out from enemies grab. Always worth using if you feel you are about to beat up, the health punishment is tiny. Protip: To land onto your feet when thrown press Up+Jump. And there are four characters now, all having their own game style. You also get to change them between continues when you lose all lives. There are veterans Axel and Blaze. Adam was made into princess in peril because having three similar playstyles were deemed as too much. Blaze playes like SoR1. Axel is now thin legged and wearing cool jeans, with a ability to spam Dragon Punch sorta move on forward-forward-punch that I keep hearing as “GRANDPAPA”, being the best all-around character. Max is not unlike SF2 Zangief. He is slow, but once he gets his gorilla paws on punk, he will do great damage. Skate, on another hand, is radical in another way: fast yet weak. He is the only character who can dash. Sadly, he is too weak overall. The thing that annoys me the most is how unpolished dashing is. Did you know that if you want to dash in opposite direction, then you will have to press into that direction not two, but three times! And while the game is totally awesome, with varied stages (there are few per level) and great bosses that don't feel gimmicky and feel a bit more like natural fight. However, I am not amused with how weapons were handled. For some reason, developers have decided that protagonist has to drop the weapon when he (accidently) grabs an enemy. And yes, that means that weapon's health takes a hit, as it can be dropped only 3 times. Ouch! Throwable weapons that are knives and kunai are also way too weak. They are about as strong as a single punch even when thrown. Knives are worthless, Nothing like in SoR1. And yea, characters use weapons a bit differently. Just range and speed thing. Skate is too slow with pipes and such, you can see him sweat. Max is so cool, he hits with pipes anybody behind him. And Blaze is special case with knife, doing three-hit with them that is so slow that once again I would rather not pick knives up. Protip: To throw weapons, press Punch+Jump. Better hold Punch and then press Jump. And yep, graphics are mind-blowing in this game when compared to SoR1! Character sizes have more than doubled, the animation is even richer! It has a cartoonish-anime art style as well. And they finally show the health of enemies too, ha! The music is as delightful as ever and is half the reason why the game is so addictive, all yay Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima. And despite having all the huge sprites, it can actually pull off having up to 6 enemies at same time on a screen even in two player mode, without flickers or huge slowdowns. And SNES people say that Blast Processor isn't real, ha! And yep, there is options settings. There is usual sound test. You can also set amount of lives you have and difficulty, which impacts a lot of things: such as damage, reaction of enemies, health of bosses, even their amount at times. By the way, here is a fancy thing: if you beat the game on hardest, the game will tell you a cheat code, which also gives “mania” difficulty! And yep, there is also a 2 player multiplayer. You can either play with your fam in coop through the main game or do the duel not unlike Golden Axe. In cooperative you don't collide with each other, but there is friendly fire, so watch out. There is also no team moves like in SoR1. Should be fun however! The game does give more health items when you start with two players. Occasionally doubling mini-bosses too. As for duel, ehhhh, it's still not SF2, despite being inspired by it. Though it does get a bit funny random with specials that you can deactivate, as you can break you out of combos and throws. With weapons pre-placed on arena. Nothing deep or balanced, a mere bonus mode. Overall, yep, one of the best beat-em-ups ever. Because people say so. And I don't know about you, but I respect the kind of developers who can make a completely addictive game without any “grind for more grind”, ten thousand unlockables, leveling and other things to keep people in the game. Just a game that is proud to be just a game, ending when it should, making you want to play it again another day. Trying it for 5 minutes and ending up finishing it with sweaty hands and on the last life. Respect!

The Best Video Game Series in the Genre Beat 'Em Up. Play This Game With a Controller is a Unique Pleasure!