Streets of Rage Remake

By Pirate_Higemaru

Overall Grade: A

Streets of Rage is without a doubt, one of the most memorable beat em'ups of the 90s. It was beautiful, action-packed and had one of the greatest soundtracks on the Genesis. Unfortunately, it seemed to have fallen to the wayside when Sega made the move to 3D. As a result, we haven't seen any Streets of Rage games since Streets of Rage 3. People haven't forgotten about the series though and fans have been clamoring for a new game since 1994. These prayers for a new game have been answered albeit not legally. Enter "Streets of Rage Remake", a fan-game that has been in the making for the past 7 years. It includes all the playable characters from the past SoR games plus several new ones, it includes every stage from past games plus some brand new ones. On the surface it appears to be the most comprehensive Streets of Rage game ever envisioned but should it really have that title

Plot:

Streets of Rage Remake features a fairly bare-bones plot that has Mr.X returning to take over the city. The playable characters from the past three games (Axel,Blaze,Adam, Skate, Max, and Zan) all return to take down Mr. X and The Syndicate. The plot is told through a couple of cut-scenes that are shown in between each level. The dialogue is simple enough and despite a couple screw-ups, the translation is pretty good.

My only problem was the dialogue was the cursing. I don't have a vendetta against cursing and I don't care when people use it but it just felt..out of place in a Streets of Rage game. The game doesn't swear too much which just makes it look weird when it does show up. It's not terrible but I just felt it to be out of place in the game. It just felt like it was couldn't decide if it was trying to be risqué or not by cursing. It felt like when a movie adds in a curse so they won't get a "G" rating, the cursing just felt phoned in and out of place.

Graphics:

 The game, like past Streets of Rage games is beautiful. The game is accurately remade with neon lights and bright colors. It borrows many of its  sprites and backgrounds from the previous Streets of Rage games so you can probably imagine how it looks. The original sprites aren't very interesting because they're mostly recolors of older sprites. Some of the more original ones are quite clever however but they still aren't very special. Some of the enemy sprites do feature throwbacks to other beat em' ups (such as Final Fight) and those are always fun to pick out 

  The original stages however are simply grand. They fit in perfectly with the way the Streets of Rage games. They both feel and look like Streets of Rage levels and I was thoroughly impressed. The backgrounds also feature a few throwbacks to other Sega games (such as a Tomato Convenience Store in one level) which is a very nice touch.

The new cut-scenes border between fantastic and dreadful. They all appear to be done in this weird watercolor painting style which I really like but in some cut-scenes characters look very odd. Either their eyes will being doing something odd or their legs will look off. For the most part, the cut-scenes look good, it's only when there's a shot of somebody running in the distance that it messes up drastically.

The animation is fluid and there each frame moves like water. It's an absolute marvel that this is possible and it really shows that a lot of hard work went into making this game. The game also restores everything about the old SoR's right down to Blaze's panty shot from Bare Knuckle 2. It's incredibly comprehensive. Overall, it's a beautiful game and it captures everything that made the first three look great.

Sound/Music:

 The Streets of Rage series (2 in particular) is well-known for its music. The music had a very electronic-dance thing going on due to Yuzo Koshiro. Well, since this was a fan-made game, they couldn't get him but the new remixes are still pretty good. Some of the remixes (such as "Go Straight") are inferior to the previous versions which is upsetting but others (such as "Attack of the Barbarian") have been improved quite a bit. Some of the remixes still feel very Streets of Rage-esque while others feel like they've been pulled out of other games...which isn't necessarily a bad thing. One of my favorite BGMs happens to feel completely out-of place and I love it because of that. Unfortunately, many people may not like these changes to the soundtrack and they may be turned off by it at first. My advice is to listen to a few tracks and couple of times and see if they grow on you. 

The game's sound effects are standard fare and all ripped directly from the previous Streets of Rage games. The yells, the explosions, the laughs. They all sound like pretty standard stuff and I'll admit I'm disappointed I didn't hear more new stuff, but they're just sound effects so it's nothing major

Gameplay:

Gameplay is always something the SoR series excelled at. It's slow yet fast pace, intense action and high rate of explosions was always enough to keep a beat em' up fan interested. This game is no different. It keeps everything you loved about all 3 Streets of Rage games and combines them into one action-packed, fanservice filled beat em' up.

The intense difficulty of Streets of Rage 3 is lowered significantly and it makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Of course, you can change the difficulty to Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard or Mania mode. There's also a standard two-player mode and a co-op with the computer. Both are fun and can either ramp up the difficulty or make the game pretty easy. It all depends on how good you are at a managing your lives. 

Another thing about the game is all the variety. This game is HUGE, over 90 different levels, over 12 playable characters including brand-new original ones and 8 brand-new endings. It's a blast and it will take you quite some time to unlock everything. It's a Streets of Rage fan's wet dream. All 6 of the Streets of Rage veterans are playable from the start and you'll unlock a bevy of other classic characters that hardcore fans are sure to recognize. 

The boss fights are also very standard. In single-player, it's you an over-sized, overpowered boss. They're very manageable if you're able to memorize their attack patterns and if you can take advantage of when they leave themselves open, you shouldn't have too much trouble with any of them. 

The bonus games are standard fare as well. There's the "Battle Mode" which is pretty much a very boring 1v1 fight against playable characters in the game. It wasn't much fun originally and it hasn't aged well. There's also a boss rush which is both very challenging and very fun and a volleyball mode which is kind of boring. It just feels a bit too slow and clunky to be a volleyball mini-game.

This game combines all of the excellent traits of the first three games. Your police car backup from the first game, the special moves from the second game and the upgraded physics of Streets of Rage 3 are all combined into this game. It's an excellent design choice and I commend Bombergames for making it.

Of course, there are some negatives. For one, it's not online which isn't much of a flaw but I find it to be  awkward to have two people sitting at the same computer playing on a keyboard. Of course, this isn't a huge flaw because people might like playing with the computer more or they might not find it awkward. 

Another thing I don't like are the controls. If you're using the keyboard, get ready for some pain. Tapping the same button over and over again can get very tiresome after the third level or so and you'll just be begging for a USB controller. Jumping and kicking can be a chore due to how hard it can be to move yourself in the air while your kicking. Thankfully, the game supports all sorts of control options so you really shouldn't have to suffer for long. The game's hit detection involving knife-wielding guys also seems imperfect which is really annoying because they are some of the most irritating enemies in the game. Thankfully, one good kick should be enough to knock them off their feet. 

A third thing is the brand new "bike and motor-boat levels". They don't feel tacked-on or anything but they do feel, unfinished. It feels like you're guaranteed to lose a life on at least on of them. The boat feels far too big to allow you to avoid obstacles in the water and the enemies behind you aren't any better. The boat's hit detection is all kinds of dreadful, you can never place yourself in an area where you went get absolutely wrecked by some fat guy in front of you.

Overall:

This game is the perfect tribute to the Streets of Rage series. It's a simple blast to the past that shows how much people care about the series. The game shows how much love and care was put into making this the perfect Streets of Rage experience. I'd recommend it to both SoR fans and beat em' up fans. It's that good. If you haven't played a beat em' up before, then give this one a shot. That is, if you can find it. Tragically, Sega took down SoRR on April 15th due to problems involving copyright. We can only hope that Sega decides to be merciful and lets them go with only a warning. Actually, Sega should just hire the team. They would greatly benefit from them.