Review
Played on: Xbox One X
Released: 2020
Released: 2020
Introduction
Gotta admit, I thought I'd reviewed this earlier! Such an important sequel for old-school Sega fans like myself. I'm of course talking about Streets of Rage 4 that came out April this year. Read about my love for the Mega Drive series here, if you want to get the story of this much loved, but long abandoned, beat 'em up series.
There's a dangerous path called bringing back old game franchise from the dead. We're talking the span from 1994 to 2020 in SOR's case. Can such a young developer get into the groove and relight such an old series like this, without completely messing it all up? This is, after all, a different take on going back like Sonic Mania did, relying on old school sprites to get the exact look of the old games. SOR4 goes for a modern 2D style instead.
Let's take a look at reviving one of the most iconic series from the 90's!
Plot and setting
Lets be honest, plots in beat 'em ups aren't exactly anything to write home about. Then again, most of them are from the 80s and 90s era, where story telling was held to a minimum in most games. SOR4 has the usual evil syndicate that needs taking down.
Bare knuckled, pun intended, hands on and in a brutal fashion you take on the neon-lit city with crime out of control. Of course there's a head boss of the syndicate that needs to be taken out too! This time around, the children of Mr. X, from the original trilogy, take on the good guys. A sibling duo of a brother and sister!
SOR4 captures perfectly the dark brutality of 80 and 90s visions of crime-filled cities in the close future. Complete with colourful neon lights shining from shop windows and clubs. We have bars, jails, rain puddled streets and little China locations going on. Plus, the classic sewers and back alleys which always appeared in games back then!
There's even a level on top of a moving train. Everywhere is littered with trash, graffiti and other details that really build the old school vibe of cities from retro games. They've nailed the right aesthetics, plus the storytelling is done in a overly cheesy, but tongue in cheek way.
Gameplay and features
Immediately as you begin playing, the controls feel how you'd want them too. Movements are fast, precise and well animated. It takes only a few seconds to start giving those bad guys a satisfying beating. It's what this genre is all about. Beating up endless amounts of bad guys, picking up bonus, melee weapons and food items from the ground as you go.
This time around, there's even more depth to the combo and movement options if you dig in. There's more variety in special moves and the game is built with this in mind when offering sbrutal boss fights and enemies with special moves against you. While I would have liked a running option, the controls otherwise just seem like a fantastic evolution from SOR3, which added more advanced techniques into the fighting. SOR4 might feel like one of the best beat 'em ups ever made in terms of gameplay.
For retro purists you can even set it back to a three button Mega Drive layout and play on easy, for the more basic feel of a casual playthrough of Streets of Rage. Although, I think you'll quickly want to play with more advanced controls to master the cool, new moves and flow to the combos.
Video
Having been slightly sceptical to the hand drawn, cartoon styled, visuals from screenshots and preview videos prior to release, I was relived to see it work in fantastic fashion when in movement. Combined with the precise and fast controls, the animation looks great. Characters look nicely drawn and combine well with the detailed backdrops.
Albeit, in what I believe, is only 1080p on all consoles, it runs super smoothly at 60fps. The lighting, colour schemes and attention to detail in the 2D environments gives SOR4 a really neat visual package. It doesn't look like the old sprite based SOR trilogy, but then again, it doesn't need to. It's a nice way to update to a more modern and detailed 2D look, better suited for large, moderns TV's.
There are a ton of homages to the old games if you keep looking! Plus, there's a few screen filters to try out, even a one with scanlines, but I didn't think they suited the modern 2D very well.
Audio
SOR 1&2 have some of the most memorable and fantastic music ever made for games. Setting the bar high for this sequel. I was relieved when I heard they hired Yuzo Koshiro to supervise the music direction. He's even contributed with a few tracks himself and in general the music direction is fantastic.
Sure, at first it doesn't sound like the electronic synth sound of the Mega Drive's Yamaha YM2612 sound chip, but as you're playing, you start loving it more and more. Combining that modern and classic SOR upbeat electronic style perfectly.
For purists there's even an option to turn on the old soundtracks with a nice selection of all the music from the old trilogy, even some of the 8-bit versions from the Master System. However, I preferred the new one as the old soundtracks suit the original trilogy best and I prefer that SOR4 has it's own identity. Nice addition though.
There's a satisfying and punchy weight to the sound in general, with a meaty sound to punching and kicking the bad guys around. Cool effects, like distant dance music from the back room of a bar and crowd noises in a dodgy looking police jail, help build audio atmosphere in levels, in combination with the visuals.
Crank that sound system up when playing this game!
Summary
After such a massive hiatus for the series, I'm blown away with how well the team at Dotemu have made something that looks, sounds and feels what a SOR game should. It brings tons of nostalgia back from the original trilogy, while at the same time being something fresh and unique.
This genre has never proved itself suited for a 3D conversion, maybe one day it will, but going for a 2D game has payed off really well for SOR4. Bringing modern benefits of detailed and incredibly animated 2D, to super high resolution screens of modern times.
If you loved the SOR games back on Sega's wonderful 16-bit hardware, then this is a sequel you, without doubt, should pick up. Anybody remotely interested in this old-school genre will love it and it becomes even more fun in coop with a friend.
Talk about an amazing franchise revival, yet keeping it feeling fairthful to what made it a classic and forever loved beat 'em up series back in the 90!
