5/5 ★ – PhilMyth's review of Streets of Rage 4.

Originally written for Nintendo Village: https://www.thenintendovillage.com/articles/streets-of-rage-4-review *** It’s been 16 years since players last took to the Streets of Rage, and indeed, since Beat ‘Em Up’s were considered a staple genre of any console release. There’s been a few indie efforts in recent years, some of them rather strong too, but the return of one of the most iconic franchises in the genre could well herald a renaissance of the bare-knuckle brawlers that dominated the 90s. That’s down to the fact that Streets of Rage 4 pays excellent homage to the trio of titles that came before it, whilst marrying superb gameplay with modern features to create the best Streets of Rage yet. Martial Art From the moment the opening animation shifts from the nostalgic city-scape to the frenzied Saturday-morning cartoon brawling, it’s clear that Streets of Rage 4 uses the love and admiration for its predecessors as a springboard from which to forge it’s own identity. Chiefly, that’s taken care of by the fantastic new art style. Developer Lizard Cube did an exceptional job of bringing Wonder Boy up-to-date in 2017’s Dragon’s Trap remaster, and they’ve worked their magic yet again here. It would’ve been easy to opt for some 16-bit pixel art, but the hand-drawn designs of each and every character and criminal pop spectacularly off of the wonderfully detailed surroundings. Finding a pause in the action allows you to take in the little nuances that make each of the pleasingly varied stages a delight to punch and kick your way through. Whilst the new soundtrack understandably doesn’t feel as immediately iconic as those that came before it, each level’s theme ebbs and flows with the action nicely. It too builds on what came before it. Whereas the original games soundtracks were based on the club music of the 80s and 90s, here it’s modern techno, electronica and dubstep that fuel the game’s audio engine. In a nice touch you can also opt for a retro soundtrack in the game’s options menu, and this will hit you with the biggest of the game’s many nostalgia waves. There’s also the ability to add retro and CRT filters if you want to go the whole hog, though it is a little weird to see that wonderful hand-painted artstyle buried beneath artificial scan lines. Packing A Punch With Mr X defeated for good in Streets of Rage 3 it falls to his offspring - Mr and Ms Y - to fill the role of criminal mastermind this time around. The plot, such that it is, is hardly enticing, but then these games have never exactly been narrative-driven affairs. Still, whilst what little story there is won’t win any awards, it does allow for some cool cameos and fights along the way. Speaking of which, the fighting in Streets of Rage 4 is superb. Again, it just feels like a Streets of Rage game, and the love the developers have for the franchise shines through. There’s a much greater emphasis on combo-building here though, with points rewarded for streaming together impossibly long strains of attacks. Each hit thuds off your enemies in the most satisfying way, and when you successfully combine strong and weak attacks, aerials, backwards hits, specials and defensive moves - not to mention the litany of items, both old and new - in one flowing movement, you’ll feel like an absolute god. Enemies come in a fairly wide variety, though the usual pallet-swap mechanic denoting tougher iterations is in effect. Fortunately, the game does continue to introduce new baddies throughout the campaign which will keep you on your toes, as will the awesome boss fights. There’s some great appearances that I won’t spoil here, but you’ll have to be at your best to emerge unscathed. Your inability to attack vertically does make this difficult and a little bit frustrating at times. The vertical dodge-roll from Streets of Rage 3 has unfortunately been axed, leaving you open to a pumelling if you don’t quite line yourself up correctly. Still, learning enemy tells and attack patterns and getting yourself out of the way promptly should see you right. As will learning the nuances of your own character. There’s four on offer to start with, with more unlocked as you go. Newcomer Floyd’s lumbering powerhouse requires a whole different approach to the speedier attacks of Blaze. Whereas an over-reliance on her ability to hurl foes away from her will show you up if you opt for the more close-quarter combat of Cherry. It’s fun experimenting with the different characters, and it’s welcome to see the ability to switch between them at the end of each stage or if you get the stuffing kicked out of you. Finding someone who gels with your particular playstyle is the likely key to success, but they each have their own individual merits, and are all animated beautifully. You can crank the difficulty up several notches if you find you’re laying waste to foes with too much ease, though I had to use a number of continues in my first playthrough on just the Normal difficulty. Hard, Hardest and Mania offer additional challenges, with the latter adding extra enemies all with thicker skin and stronger punches. If you’re truly a glutton for punishment, the hard-as-nails Arcade mode challenges you to complete the entire game without a single continue. Combined with the host of unlockable characters and online leaderboards, it means there’s plenty of challenge and replayability on offer. Friendly Fracas As well as four-player local co-op for the first time, Streets of Rage 4 also allows you to jump online to tackle the game with a friend - or a complete stranger. You can open up your playthrough for anyone to join, or search for ones to join yourself. If you’re looking for a friendly companion, the game even makes use of the Switch’s recently added game invite feature, which is nice to see and made jumping online for some 2 player brawling pretty easy and straightforward. The competitive Battle mode returns too, and whilst Streets of Rages’ gameplay doesn’t quite lend itself to competitive fighting in the way the Tekkens and Street Fighters of the world do, it’s another fun distraction from the main story, with plenty of stages - each with their own hazards - available. Wrapping up the package is an Extras option in the menu which lets you check out a bunch of the game’s artwork and view stats for each character. I would’ve preferred to have seen these stats in the character select menu on each stage - it seems odd to have them tucked away here - but nice to have nontheless. VERDICT Streets of Rage 4 proves itself worthy of the name through incredibly satisfying combat and a host of goodies and easter eggs that fans of the franchise will be delighted with. Where it excels though is in forging it’s own identity. The presentation and artstyle is simply sublime, and the wealth of challenge and replayability - supported by modern features like online co-op and leaderboards - mean this is a game that Switch owners should adore, even if they’re brand new to the series.