The speed at which Cherry can run left/right on the screen in contrast with how excruciatingly slow you move up and down the screen is a great analogy for the conflicting feelings of playing Street of Rage 4. At times, this game pops. The music is great, the visuals are fantastic, and getting some combos off is fun and quite satisfying. Other times, I’m reminded that I’m playing a game from the year 2020 that is a painfully accurate recreation of a 90s arcade game. And my question to that is - why?

Gaming has come far since 1991, why put so much work into making a new game that feels identical to an old game in every way? The fact that you can jump left and right but can’t jump up/down the screen kills me. Please give me some way of moving around faster. A dodge button? A roll button? Anything. Please. Also, for the life of me, I could never figure out where I was vertically on the screen with respect to enemies. A good 1/4 of my attempted attacks were either just above or just below an enemy.

At the end of this day, Streets of Rage 4 is nothing more than an old arcade beat-em-up with modern visuals and a rad soundtrack. If that’s your jam, great. Personally, if I’m playing a beat-em-up, I’d rather play a modern take on the genre like Castle Crashers or Scott Pilgrim.

+ Mostly fun soundtrack.
+ Incredibly good and clean visuals.

- It controls like an old arcade game and completely ignores 30 years of improvements in video games.
- Movement is so slow. Why does everyone casually walk everywhere?
- Gauging vertical screen position with respect to enemies was a struggle
- You’ve played this game already. It just didn’t look as pretty before.