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Streets of Rage 4

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    Streets of Rage 4

    Putting my money where my mouth is, I pre-ordered this at about 11.45pm, and downloaded it immediately.

    I’ve only played the first level, but initial thoughts are that it’s a worthy addition to the franchise.

    The front end is arcadey and fast. There’s no messing about. When you press a button, it’s instant. There seems to be a fair number of features to explore, but I went straight into the story mode. It’s set ten years later. Axel carries more timber around the midriff. Blaze is probably less of a wad. The two other characters have very briefly-referenced backstories, but I can’t remember what they were. One of them was Zan’s student, or something. Who cares?

    Mr X’s kids are causing bother. That’s what you need to know. I picked Axel and, about 1 second into the game, paused it and started to mess around with the settings.

    The retro filter is... ghastly. I must have played SOR2 and 3 on a 14 inch portable, because on a 32 inch HDMI tv, the sprites are just a big old mess. Kudos to the devs for including it, though. I switched back pretty sharpish. The animations are neat. They jar for a few seconds, then it clicks. The backgrounds are lovely and colourful, even when drab. There’s options to reduce background detail and stuff, too. I tried it and it got rid of a few rats and things from the setting, but I really do prefer the game as it’s intended to be played.

    The retro soundtrack is a lovely addition, but in contrast to the visuals thing, I decided to switch it off in order to give the new soundtrack an airing. It’s ok. Too early to tell, really.

    The other staples are still there. The food is the same (although you can change the art). The sound effects for collecting them. The GO arrow. It’s all there. The first level was vibrant and energetic to look at.

    Gameplay wise, it’s spot on. I found myself reverting to the d-pad after a few minutes, just because. Axel’s uppercut is there. The back punch. The jump. The grab. The standard punch. The special. It’s all there. And it feels great. It feels just as meaty as it ever did, ably aided by great sound effects. Kicking/punching the bins, the way the character moves up and down the play area - it’s all as-was. So much so, that I was on autopilot, and didn’t get hit for the first 5 minutes. I was performing all the old tricks. The grabs and throws, the timed movement up the screen to grab an opponent from a certain angle. Avoiding the knife Galsias. Jumping over the Y Signal slides. It’s superb. They’ve nailed it.

    Then it started to get a bit harder. The level has a mid boss and a final boss that are very, very familiar. Old stalwarts reskinned, I’ll put it that way. It was familiar, yet still a challenge. I’m out of practice and I’d had a few liquid isolation dampeners by that point. So my reactions were sluggish. I only just completed the first level. Pathetic, and indicative that it’s not a pushover,

    The beauty of the game is its familiarity, with its slight twists. I managed to defeat Galsias in exactly the same way as I’ve always done. Donovan still managed to get the cheeky slap on me before I unleashed the blows. It’s like playing 2 or 3 again, nuances and all.

    The one or two new enemies I spotted seem decent enough. They fit in the world. There’s one type of lazy bum character you’ll enjoy slapping.

    Only notes of criticism - and it’s of me rather than the game in some places. Despite the familiarity of the controls, I kept having to pause to check the special punch. The backslap, too. There’s no double-tap forward run, like in SOR3, which is jarring. I can’t work out how to land safely as I’m thrown (which has been a lot).

    Minor things, though. As far as first levels go, it’s like a comfy pair of slippers. Different visual style apart, it could have been made 25 years ago. There’s the odd touch which is lovely and thoughtful, yet not obtrusive. Such as Axel’s right-right-attack button uppercut, which now leaves a few flames scorching along the deck. It’s a welcome addition, and not offensive in the slightest.

    These devs understand this game completely.
    Last edited by prinnysquad; 30-04-2020, 00:49.

    #2
    Got to Stage 2 and the Commissioner kicked my arse but my oh my this really is awesome, deserving of the high praise it’s been getting.
    It looks and sounds quality, it immediately felt like I was playing a Streets of Rage game as soon as Blaze walked on screen and started punching some thugs.
    Also now being able to mid air juggle characters and combo them works so well, a very welcome update to SoR.
    Last edited by Family Fry; 30-04-2020, 08:43.

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      #3
      This game is hard. I don’t know if it’s just me being out of practice, but it feels tough.

      I managed to complete stage 2 second go (those shield guys are hell), and stage 3 was a doddle. Stage 4, however, with what I presume is the end of level boss, is a pig. You get your lives reset at the beginning of each level (on Normal - I don’t know if it’s the same with other difficulties), but I just seemed to be surfing the edge of ‘Game Over’ the whole time.

      I’ve managed to find the throw land combo, which is good.

      Other nice touches so far:
      You can swap out your character at the beginning of each stage.
      There’s some nice effects on the ground when you land. A small thing, but just a little touch.
      The enemy interactions are a nice feature from Stage 2 onwards.
      The backgrounds have some neat features - at one point I was duking it out in the foreground, and in the distance I could see other brawls going on.

      This game really does play like SOR. It could have been made in 1995, gameplay-wise.

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        #4
        Managed to get through Stage 4 by using an assist. They’re a decent feature until you can hone your skills. It stops you from hitting a plateau. I traded an extra life for my score being divided by 2.

        Stage 5 was great. A really strong level, with decent tunes and some attractive level hazards.
        Stage 6 was tougher. It’s another really nicely-designed level, full of character. I managed to get through the mid-boss any some tough minions, before inexplicably getting smashed to bits by a room full of Galsias wielding weapons.

        The weapons are another area that’s been developed well. I’ll not list them, but each one is very good, and fully in keeping with the series. Same with the new characters. One type never takes his hands out of his pockets.

        Loving the combos. It’s really satisfying to throw a guy against a wall, have him bounce back into your punches, then finish the move with a grand upper.

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          #5
          I'm almost finished this now, on stage 6 (out of 8). It's an interesting one for sure, many positives and negatives.

          First off, they got the gameplay right. It feels like SOR, albeit a sort of hybrid of SOR1, 2, and 3. Some characters, such as Axel feel pretty limited and lacking in moves, but others, such as Cherry feel like they're from SOR3 on steroids. There are unlockable characters too which will be fun to play around with. Difficulty seems okay, it's somewhat challenging but not as much as the originals, especially as you save at the end of each stage and get a full refill of lives. There are even Nintendo style options to dumb it down and make it easy if you're struggling. There are of course some cheap enemies, but that's par for the course with games like this.

          Now the contentious parts - the aesthetics. Graphically, it's a mixed bag. A few of the characters look pretty good, but most look borderline terrible. The backgrounds are sketchy and kind of unfinished, with some looking more worked up than others. The overall impression is that it just looks misjudged. Lizard Cube's art worked okay Wonderboy, and I think would be fine in something like Rayman, but in SOR...? It just doesn't work to my eyes. It looks incredibly European, which I guess will work for some but not others.

          Then there's the music. The main level themes are by some French composer and are for the most part devoid of any melody and are essentially scratches, rhythms and dubstep type stuff. It's awful. The boss themes are from a range of guest composers and are far better, but none sound like they belong in SOR, and each is wildly different in style. Fortunately there's an option to use a selection of music from the originals, which is definitely how I'll be playing this.

          I'm playing this on PC and it runs fine and supports HDR, but it's turned way, way down and looks like SDR. There's no ultrawide support either, which wasn't a surprise.

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            #6
            Pretty much agree with the above. Plays fine, art style is horrendous and the early music at least forgettable. Doubt ill put it on again, would rather play Mutation Nation or Final Fight.

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              #7
              Guess the art style is marmite. I love the sketchy backgrounds. It gives the place an untidy feel that suits the aesthetic of the concept. I can’t be bothered with spoiler tags, so I’ll not go into details, but most stages have some wonderfully atmospheric backgrounds - both active and passive. I was super-impressed with the end of level fight of stage 5.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Baseley09 View Post
                Pretty much agree with the above. Plays fine, art style is horrendous and the early music at least forgettable. Doubt ill put it on again, would rather play Mutation Nation or Final Fight.
                Mutation Nation is very under rated.

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                  #9
                  Best get Eurogamer do a retro review then. Just bung them a few quid.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by vanpeebles View Post
                    Mutation Nation is very under rated.
                    Just like lots of stuff on the Neo, sadly

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by prinnysquad View Post
                      I can’t work out how to land safely as I’m thrown (which has been a lot).
                      Edit: ignore me, didn't notice you'd worked this out

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                        #12
                        I’m a bit rubbish at this, as it turns out. Probably should be no great surprise because I was never great at the originals or indeed similar games like Final Fight etc. With this type of game, I often lose interest pretty quickly because I find them pretty samey. I get the impression that this won’t be much different (it’s just a personal thing) but, so far, it’s really good. The animation is superb. The hits feel great (I’m on Switch) and the moves have a real weight behind them. The fighting is simple (which is often where things start to feel repetitive for me) but there are a few extra moves to play with. It feels really good and certainly true to the early games but with much better animation. It’s almost wasted on handheld mode on the Switch but you can really see the movement on the TV.

                        As per the trailers, I think I would love to have seen more background characters but the lighting effects and things like puddles and so on keep the backgrounds lively enough. The effects are really polished.

                        Music isn’t quite landing for me but I might just get used to it. There’s a turn of the century techno feel to some of it that reminds me of underground CDs I used to share with people in Oslo in what now feels like a whole other life.

                        But it plays great, looks great and it has clearly been made with a lot of thought and love.

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                          #13
                          I’ve reached the final boss (presumably). Too tough for me at this time of night though, so I’ll have another go tomorrow.

                          There’s some great stages later on. Each has its own vibe, like the original games. Good use is made of the environment, and a lot of the ‘new’ level features are actually throwbacks to the old games, just done differently. Several characters make welcome appearances.

                          I’ve tried the burly bloke, who is like a cross between Max and Zan. I thought his movement was sluggish at first, but some got used to the trade off between movement and power. I’ve tried Adam, who’s a joy to play as. I then tried Cherry, who slip-slides arl owa and has this bizarre tendency to over-skid. It means it’s like controlling a fighting speed skater. I thought she was a terrible character, until I persevered for a few minutes. Then it clicked. She’s a brilliant character. So agile, and adds a different dynamic to the way you approach some enemies.

                          More great weapons throughout, which I’m starting to use more of now.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I’m really impressed with SoR 4. It feels very much like SoR 2 to play but with better combos adding a new score chasing component. The way opponents enter the fray and bide their time is very much how the AI should be in a SoR game. I always liked using the long throw as an offensive move in the previous games and that’s been enhanced by the acceleration when you launch the unfortunate antagonist. Great touch.
                            I opted for the classic controls right away given I’m not too keen on games using loads of buttons at the best of times. Just the three buttons is fine and feeds into my muscle memory of the series. Best enjoyed with the bottom row of buttons on a good joystick IMHO.
                            So many nice little touches in the game like the character names and all the little animations in the background. I’m sold on the visual style now after seeing it in action on my TV. There’s a lot of stuff that’s subtle but adds to the aesthetics. There’s lighting effects, reflections in puddles and steam and smoke all really nicely done. I never noticed it in the pre-release footage but some of the art has a sketched look and printing dots you associate with old American comics. Possibly a little bit of influence from Into the Spider-Verse there.
                            The new soundtrack is ok but I think like the Dragon Trap remake I’ll be playing this with unfiltered modern visuals and classic FM sounds.
                            I must admit to being surprised by this game. I thought nostalgia would have me enjoying it but it really is a superb package and may in time reveal itself to be the pinnacle of the series.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by vanpeebles View Post
                              Mutation Nation is very overrated.
                              Corrected.

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