I played it close to release on Gamepass, enjoyed it, and wasn't impressed. I bought it this year and now I consider it an impeccable game.

Beat 'em ups always had something that bothered me, hitting the enemy, him leaving the screen, waiting for him to come back and repeating it. SOR4 fixed this by implementing juggle mechanics. Enemy bounces off the corner of the wall, enable to do some really nice combos.
I love that special moves consume life, but that can be recovered by hitting enemies, creating incredible risk-reward situations. The game rewards aggressive style.
At first I only did jab and blitz attack combos (forward, forward and jab), but after looking at the robust tutorial and training mode I was able to extract much more from the game.
I love the artwork. The colors. How you can throw a weapon and pick it back in the air. I love how Axl looks like Simba in the concept arts, I love the retro levels and the mechanics in general...

It's a celebration of the series. It has several unlockable characters from the entire franchise, with specific mechanics for each game.

The DLC includes new weapons, survival mode and 3 new playable characters. In survival mode, new moves are unlocked for the characters, greatly improving customization.

I finished with all characters, my favorites were Estel and Blaze. because reasons