Personal History

Back in the 90s, beat ’em up games were the best way to play multiplayer. With only limited technology available, to have players scroll in one direction while beating up hordes of enemies was a really engaging compromise. You smash the A button, and then you bash the A button, and then you thrash the A button (Anything else rhyme?). Just as your character on screen is getting his ass kicked, so is your body from relentlessly spamming buttons. The best beat ‘em up games merge the mind (engagement), body (my hands hurt) and soul (I have to restart!?). No game did beat ‘em ups better than the Streets of Rage franchise. Except today, we’re not talking about the classic trilogy that defined the era, we’re talking about its newest installment, Streets of Rage 4. Let’s see how much fun an updated take on a dead genre can be.

Let’s Talk About the Game

 SoR4 was made in early 2020 by Developer Dotemu, the same people who made the new TMNT Beat ‘em up game. Right off the bat, you may recognize the design changes. Adam’s character select picture doesn’t look like a guy in blackface anymore and Axel looks like a Wolverine-like recluse. All the original characters get updated appearances, including every character from the previous games except Roo (kangaroo), Dr. Zan, and Skate. There are also 3 new characters whose designs I was less than impressed with but do expand the roster. Some nice ideas but the new characters look like trash in my opinion. That, however, doesn’t stop the game from being amazing.

So, in the old games, you’d walk right, punch, punch, punch, punch, and the bad guy dies, right? Fun for a little bit but gets monotonous with how limited it feels. In this game, you walk up and hit a guy with a 5-piece combo sending their carcass flying across the room and crashing through barrels. Wow, okay, I feel a power inside of me that I’ve never felt before. Combat is so satisfying that it feels like you’re in a Japanese anime.  

If you combo someone near the edge of the screen, the enemy can bounce off the edge and allow you to continue a combo. So, you can kick a guy’s ass across the screen, bounce him off the edge, and carry him back across if you’re good enough. It doesn’t end there either. You can combo multiple enemies at the same time if they get sucked into your Tasmanian Devil dust ball of violence. Imagine 10 bad guys walking in and getting dealt with in one swoop. I’m giving the impression that it’s easy, it’s definitely challenging, but possible, and boy are there some possibilities here.

Each character has their own flavor for violence with different moves and combos but be sure to try out the DLC exclusives, SoR4 Max Thunder, and Shiva before forming any opinion. My favorite element is when a boss character comes out and my friends and I launch him into the corner and purposefully keep him from bouncing off the edge and escaping, thus trapping them. We just “yard stomp” them into oblivion, turning a few-minute fight into a 10-second beat down. Bosses are somewhat difficult at first but after some practice, you can make them feel like the grunts they send your way.

You can combo bad guys into oblivion, however, you also can get yourself “yard stomped” by the same wave of enemies. With great power, comes great responsibility young grass hoppa’. Unfortunately, nothing I say can explain the thrill of succeeding at this game, you’ll need to try it for yourself.

The story mode of SoR4 is you clearing through levels, fighting bosses and mini-bosses along the way. My main critique of the story mode is that there should have been more levels. I enjoy scrolling through the scenery and fighting in different avenues, all the while house music bumps in the background.

What makes up for the lack of levels is the Survival mode that is introduced with the DLC. In survival, you’re confined in one room that alters with each level. After defeating the enemies of each level, you unlock power-ups that aren’t in any other mode in the game. These power-ups give you elemental damage and buffed stats. The downside is that enemies also get stronger as the levels increase. Survival mode is what took this game from being a novelty co-op game and turning it into something longer-lasting.

Final Thoughts

This is getting long so I’ll end it with some fun tidbits. The music is excellent! A ton of bangers that will have you replaying levels just to flow and vibe. You can also turn on the classic game soundtrack as well! The art is excellent! The new art style is clean, and it also features options to change the art style to pixels like on the Sega Genesis, which is a nice touch. The controls are very fluid, you shouldn’t complain about them very much. Classic enemies return, which is excellent. On the flip side, only some of the classic enemies get updated versions. the non-SoR4 classic enemies do appear, but only in survival mode. You have online multiplayer and 4-player couch co-op, this game delivers for the friendships.

Okay, now the bad. The boss designs aren’t very good, in fact, the character designs themselves are probably the worst aspect of the game for me. The story is dumb and forgettable with hardly any effort put in. The fighting itself is great though there are bombs and explosives laying around that kill you way more often than most enemies ever will, so that’s not too fun. I wish I could punch my way through an explosion but alas. The final battle is also underwhelming and maybe the easiest boss fight in the entire game but getting there is the real trouble. That’s really it. SoR4 is a great game, with longevity despite a short story thanks to the survival mode DLC. Music slaps, the characters slap (literally), grab a few friends or fight alone. The block is hot.

Meta Score

Experience 9/10

Multiplayer 9/10

Music 10/10

Graphics 8/10

Longevity 7/10