Imperfect Game: Streets of Rage 4

Hello and Welcome to Imperfect Game, less of a review blog and more of an excuse to write about video games and today am covering Streets of Rage 4. Now Streets of Rage 4 is a retro throwback title of the original Streets of Rage series which I think was found on the Genesis-era of sega titles. Its story is a simple excuse plot basically summed up as “A new crime organization was founded and now it’s time to kick ass.” I personally only played one of the original Streets of Rage games and it was Streets of Rage 2 which despite its age and Nintendo hard difficulty was a pretty fun title to play.

The main gameplay loop involves you controlling one of a dozen different characters each with their own moves and differences aside from just visual and audio and beating up any and all enemies that stand in your way while moving through the stage. Each character has access to special moves that drain health but gives you a bit of green in your health bar that recovers health if you beat up more enemies. My favorite character to play has to be Axel as he has a simple combo that involves his forward special being used just before the basic combo has finished plus his as basic as white bread which fits a basic bitch like me perfectly. In general, you can combo surprisingly well if you understand the game well enough. I’ve personally only completed three playthroughs and am still able to combo mook enemies and bosses alike.

The Bosses are the highlight of Streets of Rage 4, having their own attack patterns and gimmicks. Though they do reuse bosses more than twice they do it by combining existing bosses together so it’s still fresh. My favorites have to be the duo boss on stage 8 where two snake-holding women use fire and acid to fight you, they're both based on the 1st stage’s boss of just a single snake girl using electricity to fight. They feel good to fight and combo off of and the added danger of a second boss to worry about helps shake up an otherwise straightforward fight. My second favorite fight has to be the duo boss of Mr. and Ms. Y one being a gun swinging lunatic and the other a calm and deadly swordswoman. Plus they eventually start using a giant robot to fight which is cool. Some bosses fell a bit flat in my opinion as Shiva was a bit too easy to combo to death, he looked like a cool feudal Japanese guy with some kind of clone gimmick but was a bit too easy to beat up. What a shame but hey not every boss fight can be a masterpiece.

The visuals are amazingly good, they look hand-drawn and remind me of a comic book art style, plus they use dynamic lighting similar to the game Skullgirls so you can see a bit of glow on the characters if they're near dynamic lighting in the levels. The effects from things like explosive barrels and character special moves look great too. The sprites are sharp and crisp.

The enemy variety is great, you have dozens of different types of enemies to fight over the course of the twelve-stage campaign. You have thugs that run with a knife kept on their midsection, enemies that can grab you and toss you, you have enemies with shields that need to be broken before fighting as usual. You even have some nerdy types of thugs that throw bottles of fire, acid, and electricity. They do start reusing sprites and changing their colors to make stronger versions of these enemies but I would rather have that than risk the enemy types becoming bloated. The amount of enemies the developers managed to fit into a somewhat short game is crazy for me to think about.

You also have items in this game, you get two different healing items: an apple and a turkey, one heals a little and the other heals a lot. Then you have weapons found either on the ground or being used by enemies in the game. I don’t really like most of the weapons as I can do twice their damage output by using the character’s moveset and apart from special cases like vials of chemicals used by the nerdy types of thugs and the weapons with large hitboxes like baseball bats and spears. Lastly, you also have the money pickups that just increase your score, a bit boring if you asked me.

The stages look just as good as the sprites, they look hand-drawn in the same comic book style as the characters and the number of environments ranges from the usual streets and city locations to more specific places like a pier and a police station in the middle of a prison breakout. You even fight in a modern art museum where you can wield a gold-plated turkey as a goofy melee weapon.

I had quite some fun playing Streets of Rage 4, while I can only complete the game on the easiest difficulty and still often get my ass kicked. I had fun beating up thugs and bosses and enjoyed the many stages. The enemies are challenging but fair while also having unique characteristics to them. The bosses are the ultimate test for the skills you pick up and learn in this easy to play but hard to master beat 'em up game and I think it makes me crave more retro-themed games in my PC library. It’s a wonderful 2D love letter to its genre and legacy that's apparent even to me who only played a single retro beat 'em up game in its series. Its game design reminds me of Touhou Project games, they both have easy-to-use controls but are difficult games overall. Anyways this has been an Imperfect Game and thanks for reading.