Streets of Rage (1991)

BEAT 'EM UP - Ex-police officers Alex, Blaze, and Adam try to take down the crime boss, Mr. X.

PROS:

++ Fun combat. Although it's an older game and the moveset is quite limited, I still had some good fun laying the smackdown on thugs. From my testing, it didn't seem like there were big differences between the three playable characters but I could be wrong. I'm excited for how they'll improve on the combat in subsequent entries. Right now, you can punch, jumpkick, throw, suplex, vault over enemies, and utilize a handful of weapons (the bat being the best).

++ Catchy music. These older SEGA Genesis games have great soundtracks.

++ Enemy diversity. The main enemy mob types had slightly different AI and tendencies so it made the combat more mentally stimulating than I expected.

++ Vivid art style.

CONS:

-- Bosses. These old-school games are tough, especially the bosses that are borderline unfair. Salute to anybody that can beat this game without save-scumming or using the rewind button. Some bosses were straightforward like the fire-breathing fat man, the wrestler guy, and even Mr. X, but the twin sisters and the guy with the claws had such unpredictable movement patterns and hit like a truck. The worst part is that these bosses start to show up as mini-bosses in future levels. Oh well, games back then are just harder than games today.

-- Time limit. I know that this is just another mechanic to make the game harder so that the arcade cabinets would earn more, but when you're playing on an emulator, it's just kind of annoying especially when enemy mobs are hanging out off-screen.

Through the use of a lot of save states and determination I finally beat this game, and wow is it ever a masterpiece! Everything from the satisfying gameplay to the excellent graphics and awesome soundtrack is perfect. Thought strap yourself in for a difficult ride because this game gets hard. My only complaint is that sometimes things hit you when it seems like they shouldn't. But otherwise this game is perfect.

I give it 9/10

Just beat this and in my opinion it's an overrated game. There are serious issues with the controls such as getting stuck picking up items instead of stopping the guy attacking you, how finnicky the throws are, and how precise you need to be to pull off the backwards jump kick.

Then, you have boss fights where you can loose all your lives if you end up in the wrong part of the screen. The is certainly beatable but only by figuring out very unintuitive strategies for dealing with bosses and overcompensating for the controls.

The best part of the game is definitely the music. Hopefully Streets of Rage 2 does a better job!

Streets of Rage is one of those titles reminiscent of the Shinobi series in that a graphical presentation makes up for some general lack in mechanics. It may be a simple side-scrolling beat-em-up, but it has some charm.

A once peaceful city has been taken over by an evil criminal syndicate who has the police in their pocket! Only a crack team of ex-police fighters can save the day! Story aside, you play as three characters with slight differences in ability (speed, jumping, attack) and take on a bunch of bad guys, with a second player available.

Second player might as well be the preferred choice, as your options for moves are limited. Most of the time you'll be punching, jump kicking, and perhaps a throw or two. This can put you at a severe disadvantage at times, but luckily abusing some inputs (waggling your punches left and right) and using stun-lock to keep enemies in place can serve as a suitable strategy. Much like Shinobi (I say this because the UI looks very similar), there's also a screen-clearing police barrage in case things get dicey.

The gameplay may be tough and crude but the presentation really shines. Waves crash along the shore, paper flies in the wind, and the lights gleam in the distance on the giant city in the background. If anything, this is a gorgeous game on the Genesis. Enemy animations are a bit rough to be beautiful, but most of it went into the backgrounds and the soundtrack, which is the real star. There's a bit of house and techno that hasn't really shown up in many games like it, making it worth a listen to.

Streets of Rage might not be unique in the slightest, but it's a graphics showcase for the Genesis and has some cool tunes to fight with a friend to. There's at least that!

Played the Genesis version.

This was my first time playing SoR and I have to say that it was a blast. I had so much fun punching the bad guys. You can choose one of 3 charactes to play. I went with Adam. Each one has a special move that can be use whenever you want as long as you have one saved.

The grapchis are really beautiful, so much vivid colors. I can imagine been shock if you saw this in 91'. The music it has to be the best thing of this game, Yuzo Koshiro is a freaking genius man, the techno vibes of each track are so well made. I can even listen to those songs on my music player.

The levels are really well made, they go from a train to a elevator, even a beach, with great details in each on of them.

The enemies go from "bad guys" with some jeans jacket to laddies with whips, and they change color as you advance in the game, to show that those enemies are stronger than the others.

If you are bad at beat'em ups (like me) you can choose between several difficulties, so everyone can play it and enjoy it as I did. You can beat the game in less than an hour, so give it a try.

Happy birthday, Sega! This review is in honor of you.

I’ve recently been subjected to the harmless and good-natured slander that I have something personal against Sega. See and cite the polemic passages of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, and “Bring Back the Bitter Rivalry of the 90’s at E3 2017” for reference. In my defense I will say: How the heck could I hate Sega when we share the same birth-city, Honolulu, HI?

Jeers and jests aside, I’ve taken steps to reform myself from my side-taking fanboyism of the 90’s where I clearly went with the better system, the SNES, and I can now enjoy Sega games for myself from the safe vantage point of reasonable adulthood. Thus in tribute to the cobalt king, I’ve decided to take a unusually positive look (for me) at one of their biggest retro franchises, beginning with the first Streets of Rage, known in Japan as Bare Knuckle: Furious Iron Fist.

Let it be known that Streets of Rage was so popular back in the day that even I, a kid who never owned a Sega system, knew about it. It was already well on its way to becoming a definitive title. The arcade-style, side-scrolling beat ’em up may not have been quite as famous as the character Sonic the Hedgehog but word of mouth was certainly hale and hearty where I lived at the time. The schoolchildren delightedly talked on punching and jump-kicking their way through scumbags and criminals in the urban environs. I even got to play the first Streets of Rage a couple of times at a friend’s house and I liked it even back then, though it dropped out of my memory and hence off of my nostalgia radar for years until I picked up the Ultimate Genesis Collection.

Finally having the chance to play that first iconic game again, a few things instantly struck me. I’ve plowed through so many beat ’em ups and brawlers over the years and a lot of them can feel very “cookie-cutter” but it’s not hard to see why Streets of Rage was foundational and significant. This is a good game and deserving of the praise it received contemporaneously. It brought the energy, difficulty, and handling of an arcade game to home console. I was very impressed by its soundtrack, right from get go with that text crawl before the title screen.

The gameplay feels somewhat slower and less adorned than other beat ’em ups, especially and obviously those which came later in time, but Streets of Rage’s grappling and combo attacks add a layer of intentionality to playing the game. So while there’s little in the way of objects to interact with and only a few weapons to pick up and use against the mobs compared to other games in this genre, it’s a game which is distinctive enough to stand out among the chatter.

I always got the Streets of Rage series confused with the Final Fight franchise. There’s good reason for this. Come to find out it’s due yet again to Sega’s dedication to taking down its rivals, a philosophy which apparently informed many of their business decisions and game development projects. Imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. Of course everyone forgets the latter portion of Oscar Wilde’s version: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery… that mediocrity can pay to greatness”, but by golly I said I’d do a positive Sega review, so we’ll leave off picking on them for another day.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.wordpress.com/2017/06/07/streets-of-rage-1991/

I forgot how classically amazing this beat em up is. Playing on my Raspberry Pi and enjoy it very much. I'm a huge fan of Final Fight. It was released in 1991 on SNES. Streets of Rage also came out in 1991. Both games are pioneers in the beat em up genre and there are things I like from each. Graphically Final Fight looks better and has larger more detailed sprites. Also I like the health meter for all enemies, not just bosses. There are a wider range of moves in FF. Your character can attack in 360 degrees clearing enemies from both sides. There's a drawback for this in which a small part of your health is deducted. Also your character can throw or pile drive enemies into other enemies which I find perfect for rearrangement of foes and managing where they are on the screen.

Now on to Streets of Rage. Bosses seem more difficult but with a shorter amount of health...if that makes sense. I like the "calling in your cop buddies" option, which can be used once per stage. It takes a lot out of bosses and clears a screen full of enemies. I haven't completed the game yet but will write a detailed review upon completion.

Overall I love the game and have become hooked right away. I must've missed this title growing up as my brother and I played nintendo exclusively. Only later in life did I buy a second hand genesis (with only SoR 2 and 3).

I also have SoR 2 and 3 downloaded along with FF 1, 2 and 3. There are lots of beat em ups to conquer in my future.