Streets of Rage 4 Smashes Onto Consoles and PC

Written By: Ready Set Indie Games

Streets of Rage is a game that I hold dear to my heart. I remember as a kid watching my brothers play the game, and then later on in life my sister and I playing the game and completing it multiple times. I remember always picking Blaze as she was my go-to and My sister picking Axel mainly because I refused to let anyone else play with Blaze. So when I heard Streets of Rage 4 was coming out, I was more than excited, for a chance to play with Blaze and the gang one more time. Before I begin my review of Streets of Rage 4 I’d like to thank Dotemu for providing us here at thedailygamepad.net with a free copy of the game for PlayStation 4 to cover for review. Without Dotemu’s generosity, I would not be able to write this review. 

Out of respect for those who have not to play the game yet, I am going to give a short synapse of the game’s story and be very vague. I will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.  In Streets of Rage 4, you start off playing as either Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding, Cherry Hunter, Floyd Iraria, or Adam Hunter. The syndicate is up to its old tricks again. After 10 years from Mr. X’s death, the city is being terrorized once again, this time by Mr. X’s twins Mr. Y and Ms. Y.  It’s up to our vigilantes to stop them.

As stated before there are five playable characters in the games before adding the retro unlockables. There is Axel Stone who moves slow but hits hard. Blaze Fielding also hits pretty hard and seems to be balanced like in the older games. Cherry Hunter, who is the daughter of Adam Hunter,  moves fast and does a lot of damage much like her father. She is also one of the only characters with a dash ability. Overall, if you enjoy playing with Adam or Skate you will like Cherry because she appears to be a mix between the two. Floyd Iraia, who moves way too slow for my liking in my opinion unless they are taking into account that he has two bionic arms. However, he makes up for it by being a powerhouse. The best way to use Floyd from what I gather is by using his moves that drain his life and then fighting enemies to regain his life. The last playable character before the unlockable retro character is Adam Hunter who is a progression unlockable character via story mode. He is the only other character with a dash ability. Hus power is not as powerful as Axel or Floyd but he still packs a mean punch, and he moves faster than Axel and Floyd but not as fast as Blaze and Cherry. There are multiple unlockables characters in the game that you have to unlock via scoring points through the Lifetime Score bar during gameplay. Which gives you replayable of the game.

The game offers five different difficulties. They are Easy mode which starts you off with six lives including zero (for a total of 7 lives) which can be good because if you die in this game, unlike the other games in the series, you don’t get to continue until the level is completed. Also in easy mode the lifetime score – which allows for you to unlock the retro OG team- levels slowly.  The next difficulty is Normal which starts you off with two lives including zero (for a total of 3 lives) and feels more like your easy mode. Also your lifetime score levels slow. The next difficulty is hard which starts you off with 1 life including zero (for a total of 2 lives) the enemies seem to score a higher amount of points, and this felt more like a normal mode than a hard mode. The Lifetime Score level moderately in this mode. The next difficulty is Hardest which starts you off with 1 life including zero (for a total of 2 lives), lifetime score levels faster, and this feels more like a hard mode than the hardest mode. The last difficult is Mania which can only be unlocked upon completion of story mode, but when it is unlocked you start off with one life including zero (for a total of 2 lives) the enemies come in troves although they don’t seem to be as strong, it’s just so many of them that it feels more difficult. This, in my opinion, is your true hardest mode.

The games have five modes that you can play which are Story Mode, the default mode to be played, and unlocks everything else. The best way to play if you can is online because if you play online with a co-op partner everything unlocks for both people. The next is Stage Select -which unlocks upon completion of Story Mode and allows for you to select any stage. Great if you want to practice your speedrun techniques or just get really good at the game.  Then there is Arcade which also unlocks upon completion of Story Mode/ You get one credit to complete the game in, unlike in story mode where you can change the character between levels. Whoever you choose is who you are stuck with much like playing an arcade version of the game. Next, we move onto Boss Rush again; this also unlocks upon completion of Story Mode and allows for you to go against all bosses from the game. The last mode that is able to be played is Battle, a battle royal mode with the characters of SoR can go head to head with each other. You must have at least two players to play this, be it via online or local co-op.

The game can be enjoyed via solo play, local-co-op, or even online co-op. The online co-op of the game is pretty solid. It has some lag spikes here and there but for the most part, ran really well. One of the glitches I ran into during co-op mode is when you try to change characters. If you select change characters but your partner selects ok, the game will stay on the stage cleared screen, forcing you to exit out of the game, at least during story mode I ran into this issue, but luckily story mode saves your progress so you can start at the next level. The controllers were pretty solid and responded and no delays as far as I  could see, and one of the big things I loved about the game was the ability to switch between the Retro Soundtrack which is a mixture of songs from the OG’s games in the series and the new soundtrack which are still both phenomenal in my opinion. I know a lot of people were concerned with the graphics of the game, but I felt that the graphics were really nice, giving the characters a more comic book-like feel, which was pleasant to the eyes for me.

Although there were things that I liked there were things that I didn’t like. Such as out of the five characters you could select only two were able to Dash. I understand why Axel and Flloyd can’t do it, let’s face it they are for a –better choice of words– mooses or powerhouses. However, as Blaze was known for speed in the other games, I was shocked to see that she didn’t have a dash ability even though in three she had a dash ability as well. Speed was one of the things that made Blaze enjoyable and the fact that she is a dance instructor she should still be able to move pretty quickly and so I feel that she warranted a dash ability. Another thing I also wish could have been a little better was Blaze’s Special Ability. It just doesn’t fit her character and comes off as a Storm or Phoenix from x men like ability. So, I didn’t really care for it. Sorry, I used to like Blaze a lot growing up so I tended to be very picky with her as she was my favorite character. However, I did end up finding a new favorite character in Cherry Hunter. Cherry seems to remind me of the old Blaze I played with as a kid, and it has been brought to my attention that perhaps everything has gone to Cherry Hunter to make her the new favorite as Blaze has gotten old.

I could sit here and pick through the issues with Blaze, but it’s not like she’s a bad character. I just wish certain things would have happened with her. However, there are some things I would love to have seen in the game such as a chart like in the older games that show the character’s speed, power, and technique. It would have been a nice touch. Even if it was like pushing a button to see what their stats were or adding them to the upper corner on the character select screen. Another thing I would like to see and maybe as DLC now would be is retro skins for all of the characters. I know the retro characters are unlockables but I would love retro skins for even the new characters as well, or even different outfits DLC for the characters based on the concept art for the game. That would have been awesome too and even a way to play the game in a retro format. I think that would add more to the nostalgia of the game.

Overall, Streets of Rage 4 is a great game and I do enjoy playing it over and over again. I am really pleased with the new installment of the game, and glad that the game does warrant replayability. I see that the game will be successful minus the few things that I found wrong with the game, and again that doesn’t stop me from playing the game one bit. If you would like to play Streets of Rage 4 for yourself you can do so on PC via Steam, humble bundle, and gog.com. On PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One for $24.99 USD. It should be noted that if you are a humble bundle choice member you can get the game at $19.99 USD if you use your 20% discount and for Xbox the game is included with game pass ultimate. It should be also noted that if you get the GOG.Com version of the game that it does not have online capabilities as it is DRM-Free. For those who want to add a physical copy to their collection physical copies will be available on July 24th but could only be picked up via a preorder, which seems to have closed now.  No matter how you pick up the game if you are a fan of the series I would say pick up the game because you won’t be disappointed.