Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner Reviews as I want to take a break from Sonic and focus this time on another Sega classic. I wanted to go over the first Streets of Rage for the Genesis, a brawler that usually came out during the Golden Age. During that time, brawlers were the popular genre in the Arcades that mostly would see a console release later. However, unlike the others, Streets of Rage was a console exclusive that wasn't available in the Arcades. The strangest thing about the first entry is I didn't get a chance to play this until it came to the virtual console on the Wii in 2007. During the Genesis/Mega Drive’s second year this was Sega's response to Capcom's Final Fight Super NES port. Of course, Sega also had to compete against Nintendo’s platform with Technōs Japan’s Super Double Dragon. As you can tell they wanted to have their own exclusive beat ‘em up. The theme isn't any martial artist trying to save his girlfriend from a gang like in Double Dragon. Instead, you play as three ex-cops named Axel, Adam and Blaze as they stop Mr. X's corporate gang in the city. Gameplay Streets of Rage was developed around a traditional beat ‘em up style with a 3D plain, using various attacks and fighting hordes of enemies. There are additional weapons found through each level and the player obtains them either by smashing props or are dropped from enemies. The layout is still comfortable allowing you to jump in with ease just like in Final Fight and Double Dragon. However, Streets of Rage excelled better than Double Dragon and even outperformed the Super NES port of Final Fight. I always felt that way towards the series considering it was progressing the genre and not staying in its niche. Unlike Capcom’s Super NES port, SOR had a two player function which should always be included—Capcom pulling a Technōs Japan on Final Fight is truly puzzling while Sega understood this better than them. It's important because a game like this is something you should experience with other players as a team to defeat waves of bad guys. What adds to the two player mode is using your partner to perform tag team attacks to take out enemies. I was only able to come across a couple of them with one being to jump off the other to perform a flying kick. That is what two player action is all about and not even early games in the 80's did something of this caliber. Despite those little details like waves splashing on the shores most stages have a single endless background. The left image shows the third level as just a straight path until reaching the boss. There is no deviance like walking down a path into a different direction or a transition into a new area of enemies. The only time you see a transition to a new area is the last stage which they shouldn’t have waited up to that point. Now, the next point as seen in the second image has Mr. X give the characters an offer once the player(s) reaches him in stage eight. It was quite the interest feature since not many provided an alternative ending where the main bad guy wins. As for the characters, they too have strengths and weaknesses which actually balances the gameplay. That's especially true for the two player mode as you could have Axel and Adam as a power team. Or swap out one of them with Blaze for both speed and strength. There is also a special attack where a cop car will pull up behind the players to shoot a rocket or a barrage of bullets down on the enemies. Any common bad guys on the screen will get killed instantly, but the bosses will only take significant damage. That powerup really helped in most boss battles considering how cheap a few of them were aka the twin sisters. There are up to four difficulties to pick from, but the difference is you fight more enemies and take on two bosses per level. A surprising feature is probably at the end of level 8 when facing Mr. X as you can become his personal henchmen. There isn’t one beat ’em up that comes to mind with having a feature to let the player(s) have an alternate ending—Sega went the extra mile here over its competitors in many ways. Another plus is the good frame rate thanks to the Genesis’ hardware running 7.67 MHz That is much better compared to most Super NES titles like Super Double Dragon with its lower frame rate. It is always great for any game to run at a better fps than most people think. By 1991 every beat ‘em up had their exclusive mechanics not found in the other such as parrying in Super Double Dragon. In SOR it had used another player to do tag team attack with jumping off them to do a flying kick. The left caption shows Axel getting grabbed from behind by an enemy as he uses his free legs to kick away anymore goons. It was the progress the genre was making going into the 90s to keep things interesting instead of using simple attacks. If you didn’t know, playing on the multiplayer mode would have the players face two of the same bosses per stage. However, that is hardly the problem as in the fourth level the player(s) are up against the most annoying bosses in the game. The Twin Sisters — literal palette swaps of Blaze — will always gang up on the player if they are by themselves. When you have to spam one attack to beat a boss then obviously it isn’t good game design. Of course, there are some problems within this area of the game. For starters, most of the bosses have cheap attacks they constantly do until the battle is over. The wrestler and the twin female ninja bosses would do the same attack repeatedly of either charging or constantly flipping—Even coming close to the twin female ninjas would always lead to me getting thrown instantly. It was a problem with these older titles back then with the typical designers versus players mentality. The level design could have also been taken further other than following a straight path. Take Double Dragon II for example as the level design leads you to different areas of the same level. There weren't even transitional areas as seen in others and looking at the same scenery repeatedly gets boring. Sega eventually fixes these in the sequels since the designers don't always get it right in most first entries. Rating: 8.3/10 Graphics/Presentation As far as I am aware, there really was no brawler that had a unique style to its presentation. It would have a straight up theme like Marian getting captured in Double Dragon as that was all the players needed to understand. However, Sega would add its unique style for the presentation that most (not even Super Double Dragon) weren't even doing in 1991. It starts with a starlight city at night as the screen pans just with an underground style song. Then the theme is slowly explained in a scrolling text about the events of the game. That blows what Final Fight or Double Dragon could even do, and you can tell Sega took notes of the pop culture of the early 90's. The theme was a step in the right direction for the genre too since you were not saving a damsel in distress from a gang leader. Meaning, the woman protagonist was doing more than being a cliché plot device with Blaze Fielding sharing the spotlight. Others like Bad Dudes didn't revolve around this concept either, however, was there any main female protagonist helping the male characters in saving the President? Of course not and this game took it further for playing a strong female fighter that also wasn't sexualized. As mentioned, SOR excelled at the tiny details along the stages’ environments. The second image shows the streets in the middle of the night when troublemakers usually would linger around at that time. On the wall within the background is a poster as the top right edge has the paper flapping from the wind blowing on it. Then we have the stages’ bosses which are larger than the regular enemies. Even though it is true that SOR bosses weren’t as big as those in Final Fight, they still looked menacing here. The right image shows the wrestler who looks as if he can break the ex-cops in half. That is why the 16-bit bosses always looked great because that is the way you are supposed to make enemies appear. The visuals were a nice step up for most Genesis games containing animated backgrounds that capture the mood. The little details such as the second level with the wind blowing across the screen and the worn-out posters' edges flapping looked excellent. It creates a sense of tension considering the type of mood this environment would have during the late hours at night on the streets. The parallax effect also had good effort and easily surpassed anything the others were doing that year. The third Stage was the finest example of this with at least three separate backgrounds overlapping the other. As for the sprites, they weren't broad like in Final Fight, but they were still rendered with their own good style. Even their animation has good rendering as seen with Blaze brushing her hair to the side if you don't move. The soundtrack was truly fantastic because of the stylish underground tones designed by Yuzo Koshiro. The songs especially during the boss fights always engaged me while fighting off Mr. X's goons. Honestly, the boss theme had a calm sound, but it also had a menacing tone as the loud beats gave the feeling you were fighting a powerful enemy. The first stage gave an upbeat theme because of the downtown area. While in level 2 would have an eerie and tense tone due to the isolated streets from the late evening. The levels' songs contributed to their environments giving variety to the soundtrack. It was a treat at the time to see a strong female lead sharing the spotlight with male dominated games. Similar to Samus and Alis Landale, Blaze continued to raise the heat (no pun intended) in gaming for female characters. Even though she wasn’t the heavy hitter like Axel, her acrobatic attacks and fast paced moves made Blaze the best choice. Similar to the original Sonic, SOR does share problems that plagued the pack in-game. We begin with the detail on the sprites having some choppiness around the edges, and Sega probably was still learning the hardware. However, I'm convinced they could've fixed that as the sprites hardly had any smoothness on them. It's hard to compare when the ones in Final Fight or even Super Double Dragon had smoother details. They also should have made the characters a little bigger so it can add broadness to their forms. The sound effects needed work as well which is surprising when the music was designed by Yuzo Koshrio. They sounded weak such as the fire-breathing boss who acted like he was making farts from his mouth rather than blowing fire. In fact, most of these effects was as if someone was making them from their mouths too. The animation also needed some work because the bosses were a little stiff with their movements. Each one always had to stop for two seconds before the enemies would continue their routine animations. Despite some issues, SOR still presents a unique soundtrack with colorful environments to make up for its shortcomings. Rating: 8.2/10 Features/Content In terms of content SOR is on par with rest of the genre providing some replay value. The content includes a two player mode; different character playthroughs and four difficulty settings. There are about eight levels with no transitions from small areas to another. Out of most titles, the content had good development especially with the two player mode in that year. The characters having strengths and weaknesses is really a plus that ensures there are three ways to experience the gameplay. You can also see the same thing for the multiplayer to help mix and match a team. The content is certainly better than Final Fight on the Super NES, but I couldn't help to think Sega should've done more. The original Double Dragon on NES with its Mode B acted like a mini fighting game. It's not needed for SOR, but that would’ve given us more features to play around with. Sega could even improve on that feature by putting in one to two rounds as a secondary multiplayer mode. It doesn't need to act like the same style from Street Fighter II, but something a little close to this arcade classic would've been awesome. SOR seems to have gotten many things right compared to its competition in 1991. Rating: 8.2/10 Final Rating SOR was a great addition to the Genesis’ library thanks to Sega's experience with developing around the arcade system. The gameplay had similar features to the competition but the characters having strengths and weaknesses gave it an edge. Even the two player mode was designed well for this feature, so you can mix and match the characters as a team. The graphics saw the same quality design as the original Sonic by showcasing the power the Genesis could do with its little details and parallaxing. The theme isn't the most original, but it was executed a lot better than most as no damsel needed rescuing. While it is true that Samus from Metroid started the trend for badass women to take a major role, Blaze continued an important representation. Yuzo Koshiro’s magic created a classic soundtrack that provided the perfect moods for each level—It might not be his best work but damn did each track hit the right tones for those moments. The replay value is also pretty high between the multiplayer, different characters to choose and four difficulty modes. The game does have its shortcomings, but the pros outweigh those issues. Gameplay: 8.3/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.2/10 Features/Content: 8.2/10 Final Rating: 8.2/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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