I will admit, even if I did have a good amount of fun with the original Streets of Rage, it has aged pretty poorly over time, and while I wouldn’t consider it to be bad by any means, I wouldn’t tell people to start with it if they wanted to check out the Streets of Rage series. Maybe you could get some more fun out of it with a friend, but there are plenty of other options out there. Nevertheless, since the original was successful and noteworthy enough, it was going to get a follow-up, and unlike with Golden Axe, they were actually going to TRY with this game. It really makes a difference when developers actually care about the game that they are making, doesn’t it? This resulted in a sequel that has been critically acclaimed across the board, with many remembering it fondly, and it being considered one of the best beat-’em-ups and games of all time: Streets of Rage 2.
When viewed at from a surface level, this game really doesn’t do that much different from the original Streets of Rage, aside from a couple of changes, and for those that aren’t familiar with these games, they would probably question why you would even bother playing this title in comparison to the original. However, when you play through both the original game and this game, as I have, you can clearly see a big difference between the two, and it is obvious which one you would most likely prefer over the other. This is a fantastic follow-up to the original, as well as a fantastic game in general, and while I wouldn’t consider it to be one of the greatest beat-’em-ups of all time like others, and certainly not one of the greatest games of all time, I can say with confidence that I had an absolute blast revisiting this game, and I would definitely go back to playing it if I wanted to replay a beat-’em-up that wasn’t from Capcom.
The story is “evil comes back again, go stop them”, which is to be expected from a beat-’em-up from the 90s, so I won’t complain about it, the graphics are wonderful, being a major improvement from the original game, and providing plenty of distinct locations and colors to get absorbed in when viewing, the music is great, having a great soundtrack to accompany the ass-kicking you will be doing, even if not all of the tracks are memorable as others, the control is pretty similar to the original, although it feels much better to handle this time around, due to the variety of moves you can pull off, and how smooth it feels, and the gameplay is basically if you took the original Streets of Rage, polished it as much as you can, and added just enough onto it to make it feel like a new experience.
The game continues the beat-’em-up gameplay from the original, where you take control of one of four characters, each with their own individual stats to experiment with, go through a good handful of levels, beating up a seemingly endless supply of goons and baddies of various shapes and sizes, grab money, food items, and several weapons to help you out along the way, and fight plenty of tough bosses several times throughout the game. Like I mentioned earlier, this game doesn’t really do anything different from the original game, aside from adding new playable characters, as well changing up how special attacks work, which can be seen as a bit of a disappointment for some. Thankfully, what makes up for that is how good it feels to play.
While the original game was definitely still functional, it did still feel pretty rough for a beat-’em-up, and what didn’t help was with the bullshit bosses that would pop up at times, being some of the main hurdles I had when it came to enjoying that last entry. Thankfully this time around, it feels MUCH better to beat dudes up, especially with the accompanying soundtrack and visuals amping up the energy, and the bosses also aren’t that much of a problem… even if some of them can be annoying at times. It really shows just how much can be improved on in between installments, making for a solid beat-’em-up all around with no real issues to be seen (take that, Golden Axe).
Now, with all that being said, if you didn’t really get into the original game, I’m not exactly sure how much you can get into this one. Yes, it is no denying that it is a definite improvement over the original, but it doesn’t do that much to make it stand out from other beat-’em-ups available at the time, so if you didn’t really find the original to be all that interesting, you may not get anything out of this one. Thankfully though, I was able to have a good amount of fun with the original, and this game just managed to take that amount of fun that I did have with the original and double it, even way back in the day when I first played it, so I am glad that I decided to revisit it after all this time.
Overall, despite not adding that many new features at all, this was a great way of improving over what the original gave us, and it is still a wonderful game even after all the years since I played through it originally. I would definitely recommend it for those who were fans of the original Streets of Rage, or fans of beat-’em-ups in general, because you will definitely find something to like about this game. So, now that we have gotten to what many consider to be the peak of the series, I look forward to being disappointed by the later games… that probably won’t happen, but hey, you never know.
Game #318
When viewed at from a surface level, this game really doesn’t do that much different from the original Streets of Rage, aside from a couple of changes, and for those that aren’t familiar with these games, they would probably question why you would even bother playing this title in comparison to the original. However, when you play through both the original game and this game, as I have, you can clearly see a big difference between the two, and it is obvious which one you would most likely prefer over the other. This is a fantastic follow-up to the original, as well as a fantastic game in general, and while I wouldn’t consider it to be one of the greatest beat-’em-ups of all time like others, and certainly not one of the greatest games of all time, I can say with confidence that I had an absolute blast revisiting this game, and I would definitely go back to playing it if I wanted to replay a beat-’em-up that wasn’t from Capcom.
The story is “evil comes back again, go stop them”, which is to be expected from a beat-’em-up from the 90s, so I won’t complain about it, the graphics are wonderful, being a major improvement from the original game, and providing plenty of distinct locations and colors to get absorbed in when viewing, the music is great, having a great soundtrack to accompany the ass-kicking you will be doing, even if not all of the tracks are memorable as others, the control is pretty similar to the original, although it feels much better to handle this time around, due to the variety of moves you can pull off, and how smooth it feels, and the gameplay is basically if you took the original Streets of Rage, polished it as much as you can, and added just enough onto it to make it feel like a new experience.
The game continues the beat-’em-up gameplay from the original, where you take control of one of four characters, each with their own individual stats to experiment with, go through a good handful of levels, beating up a seemingly endless supply of goons and baddies of various shapes and sizes, grab money, food items, and several weapons to help you out along the way, and fight plenty of tough bosses several times throughout the game. Like I mentioned earlier, this game doesn’t really do anything different from the original game, aside from adding new playable characters, as well changing up how special attacks work, which can be seen as a bit of a disappointment for some. Thankfully, what makes up for that is how good it feels to play.
While the original game was definitely still functional, it did still feel pretty rough for a beat-’em-up, and what didn’t help was with the bullshit bosses that would pop up at times, being some of the main hurdles I had when it came to enjoying that last entry. Thankfully this time around, it feels MUCH better to beat dudes up, especially with the accompanying soundtrack and visuals amping up the energy, and the bosses also aren’t that much of a problem… even if some of them can be annoying at times. It really shows just how much can be improved on in between installments, making for a solid beat-’em-up all around with no real issues to be seen (take that, Golden Axe).
Now, with all that being said, if you didn’t really get into the original game, I’m not exactly sure how much you can get into this one. Yes, it is no denying that it is a definite improvement over the original, but it doesn’t do that much to make it stand out from other beat-’em-ups available at the time, so if you didn’t really find the original to be all that interesting, you may not get anything out of this one. Thankfully though, I was able to have a good amount of fun with the original, and this game just managed to take that amount of fun that I did have with the original and double it, even way back in the day when I first played it, so I am glad that I decided to revisit it after all this time.
Overall, despite not adding that many new features at all, this was a great way of improving over what the original gave us, and it is still a wonderful game even after all the years since I played through it originally. I would definitely recommend it for those who were fans of the original Streets of Rage, or fans of beat-’em-ups in general, because you will definitely find something to like about this game. So, now that we have gotten to what many consider to be the peak of the series, I look forward to being disappointed by the later games… that probably won’t happen, but hey, you never know.
Game #318