Return to the good old “Yarost Streets” – Review of Streets of Rage 4

The story of the famous Streets of Rage series from Sega was bright, but short. From 1991 to 1994, the series managed to be born, gain very popularity … and quickly and quietly die. It seemed that the series, known for its drive gameplay and the most unforgettable Chiptyun Soundtrak, was forever sent to the abyss of oblivion. It is unknown why, but the developers apparently did not know in what direction they would develop the concept of the following games. At some point, the developers from Core Design, along with Sega, planned to make a full-fledged 4 part, but creative disagreements appeared, and in the end they turned the development, and Core Design released its Streets of Rage for the PlayStation-Fighting Force console. Attempts to create a new part on the consoles of Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast were unsuccessful, and the players never saw the continuation. The only thing the Sega could offer the players was to reissue the trilogy on various consoles. For a long time, fan longing and fantasy gave rise to many independent games-clones and a bunch of modifications of old games, and some even began to make their own remakes. In every fan heart there was hope to see the continuation, but officially no developments were carried out. For more than 20 years, the series was considered an officially dead.

The entire Streets of Rage trilogy has been released on Sega Genesis from 1991 to 1994.

In 2017, the first hints appeared on the resurrection of a forgotten legend. French developers Lizardcube and Dotemu published Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap – a 1989 game remake, received quite positive critics estimates, and came to Sega with a proposal to create a sequel to Streets of Rage. The company agreed, gave all the necessary rights and licenses, and already in August 2018, the announcement of the new part of the series took place. The developers promised a direct continuation of the story, return the old characters and introduce a couple of new ones, as well as maintain the main gameplay of the series unchanged. The composer Olivier Derivier, known for his works on Obscure, Alone in the Dark and Remember ME, as well as other composers, including Yuzo Kosiro, was the author of the main soundtrack to the entire trilogy and the title theme of the series in particular.

Illustrator Ben Fikes has a very recognizable style. In addition to participation in the development of games, he also draws comics, illustrations for books and various media products.

The visual style of the game and animation was responsible for the illustrator Ben Fike, who gave his characteristic comic style to the past-Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. Guard Crush Games also connected to the development, which used their own modified engine from Streets of Fury. Further development took 2 years, and literally recently, namely April 30, a long -awaited release took place on all modern platforms. Whether the developers managed to return the forgotten legend, resurrect the spirit of the good old street fights and not to disappoint fans? Definitely! Streets of Rage returned and feels like better than ever!

The plot of the game originates https://slotsnogamstop.co.uk/review/magic-win/ 10 years after the events of 3 parts and it can be fitted literally in two sentences: a new threat hung over the city in the form of the Syndicate of the Gemini Igrek – the children of the deceased Mr. X. The aged Axel Stone, all the beautiful Blaise Fielding and the style of Adam Hunter once again defend the city, and the daughter of Adam – Cherry Hunter, and Professor Zana – a healthy man with cybernetic hands, will help them in this. The “History” mode invites players alone or in a cooperative for 4 people to pass 12 levels filled with familiar opponents and bosses, plot inserts, a big sense of nostalgia and a bunch of references to the past games of the series. Heroes will break through their way through the first games of the city streets and visit many new places: they will arrange a showdown in a police station, look at the biker club, will once again find themselves on a sea ship and even survive the crash of the aircraft. Throughout the plot, the heroes will meet both old enemies and bosses, and several new ones, including the heroes of past parts.

At the beginning of the players, a whole “missile salvo” awaits nostalgia: the same levels, characters and enemies, the same techniques, sounds and music as 25 years ago. In a sense, Streets of Rage 4 is a real remake and continuation in one bottle.

In the hardcore “Arkada”, the developers challenge the player, offering only one attempt to pass the whole game, without the opportunity to replay the level, and the “battle with bosses” sets an even more difficult task: to defeat all the bosses after another with one life and without an attempt to continue the game. To figure out several players who will allow anyone stronger to allow the “duel” mode.

At some moments of the battle with the bosses look especially epic and stylish. And what kind of window!

The combat mechanics of the new unit is true to its roots. The entire gameplay frame is an alloy of a mechanic from previous parts, slightly improved by modern chips. The movements of the heroes are quite slow, as in the first part: except for Cherry Hunter, all other heroes are deprived of the opportunity to run. The developers managed to maintain the timing and rhythm of the battles practically unchanged, which allows the player to fully evaluate the combat system the same as it was in the original trilogy. Superudars took from the 2nd and 3rd parts, changing a bit and improved towards modern trends. The captures and throws of enemies, a fight with weapons, and the collection of useful objects in the form of food, bags with money and gold stars, giving a special welcome remained unchanged. Although there is still a slight change associated with weapons: if the player throws any weapon into the enemy, then it will bounce away from that, and the player at a certain moment will be able to catch him. In this way, for some time you can hold the enemy or boss at a distance, but this trick will not work with opponents who also know how to catch and throw weapons. It is also worth remembering that the weapon has its own margin of strength, and at a certain moment it just breaks. Most of the enemies from past units were returned to the game, diluting the team of the old ones by a couple of new types. As always, opponents with knives, fire -breathing fat people and those who love to strike in the air of girls and kickboxers cause special irritation. The developers did not quite ask the bosses: some are too light, others, on the contrary, are too complicated. Sometimes the path to the boss through the hordes of opponents is catastrophically complicated (especially at the level of the complexity of the “maniac”), while the boss itself passes without much difficulty.

Throughout the game, you will rush about between the foreground, filled with action and special effects, and the background filled with a bunch of small details, mobile objects of the situation and sometimes encountered by a small mass of characters.

Against the background of most modern representatives of the genre, Streets of Rage 4 stands out for its visual style and magnificent animation of characters, strongly reminiscent of cartoon or comics (hello with an old Comix Zone). The design and detailed drawing of locations are pleasing to the eye, and the levels look more interesting and filled with life, compared to past games: broken windows, destroyed brick houses, neon signs and rickety lights, painted graffiti walls and night city in the background – all worked out to the smallest details. The construction of levels remains unchanged: the heroes pass the level from left to right, bypassing the pits and traps in the form of acid puddles, steam pipes and bare wires. In the same type of bonuses (food, bags with money and stars), as well as various weapons (from ordinary mop to medieval mace), at the levels you can find a secret Easter. So on the levels are the yellow slot machines Bare Knuckle (Bare Knuckle – the name of the Japanese version of Streets of Rage). If you take away the stun gun from the policeman and hit them with such a machine, then the player will transfer to the retro level to the battle with the boss from the Street of Rage 2. In addition, the player can unlock retro characters from the original trilogy, which increases the number of characters from 5 to 17. Each has their own animations, combinations and timings of shock. And so that the pixel characters of the 90s do not stand out against the background of modern levels and enemies of high resolution, the developers make it possible to turn on the retro filters of the screen, adding pixelization and effects as on old kinescope TVs. Everything is like in the good old 90s!

Unfortunately, the plot in the game is served with short drawn screensavers, and not high -quality rollers, how the game is made.

The final part of all this splendor is the soundtrack. The developers acted in an interesting way: for all levels, the chief composer of the project Olivier Derivier wrote the music, while the main topic and music for the first level was written by the same Yuzo Kosiro – the composer of the original series. And invited composers, including Motokhiro Kavasima, involved in the Soundtrack 2 and 3 parts of the series, Yoko Simomur, known for his soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts, as well as Scattle, responsible for the music of Hotline Miami and others, created compositions for bosses for bosses. Streets of Rage 4 is played well not least thanks to musical accompaniment, which has retained the spirit of past games. Club Electronic Music is still perfectly fed on fierce battles, and the further the player advances in level to the boss, the more tense the melody becomes, the atmosphere is embodied. The range of musical mood often varies from cheerful and light muzzle in the style of hip-hop Fank to a tense battle with the boss for oriental motifs. And the second part of the composition of Dirivier – Rising Up, which also sounded in the trailers of the game, turned out, in my opinion, even more memorable and suitable game than the title theme from Kosiro itself.

A special technique for each character is made in the best action-tracks: a bunch of special effects on the full screen and a pack of opponents flying apart.

By applying a layer behind the layer all the components of the game, the design of levels and characters, animation and gameplay, musical accompaniment and ton of nostalgia, the developers returned to life that very childhood game of many gamers of the 90s. The new part of Streets of Rage was not easy for them, if only because they themselves played original games when teenagers and children. They themselves, like fans, were afraid to ruin the legacy of the series, but everything turned out as it should have been: the great series returned on a horse, and proved that there is still gunpowder in powder! On the one hand, Streets of Rage 4 is a great game that is a vivid example of a qualitative approach to creating a remake and continuing in one person, but on the other, this is a fairly literal transfer of mechanics 25 years ago without special changes, wrapped in a modern bright and colorful wrapper. The main characters are too limited in their movement and techniques, which turns battles with bosses into a not too fascinating sight by the standards of the modern gaming industry. The plot in the game is primitive and simple, but the duration would like a little longer. I would like to hope that in the future we will see another continuation, where the developers will be able to give players a more worked out and diverse combat system in a compartment with a really interesting plot, which is made not just for a box. It is definitely worth playing for everyone, because such manual dressing projects come out very rarely, but not every modern gamer will have a game. Fans to play without exception! The frantic missile volley of nostalgia is provided!