Streets of Rage 2

aka: 3D Streets of Rage 2, Bare Knuckle II, SoR 2, Streets of Rage II
Moby ID: 6633

Genesis version

Taking The Streets To The Bare Knuckle

The Good
Streets Of Rage 2, followed shortly after SOR 1. In 1992, the sequel to one of Sega’s most promising franchises hit the Genesis, like a baseball bat to the head.

In SOR 2, Mr. X the villain, defeated by the Adam, Axel, and Blaze, is back and out for revenge. So he abducts, Adam. Blaze and Axel, head out after him, joined by to new fighters. Skate, Adam’s little brother, and Max, a friend of Axel’s and a wrestler.

The game takes you from the streets, to a baseball field, to Mr.X’s base. The levels never seems out of place. Unlike many games of this genre, Final Fight, and Captain Commando, to name a few. And you can often see previous levels from your current one. The team combos are back, which of course was one of SOR 1’s best features, even many newer games do not make use of this feature. There is still a large verity of moves. If you are thrown by an opponent you can still recover in mid-air and take no damage.

Gone are the area effecting moves from it’s predecessor. Now new power moves like “Bare Knuckle” are available. Each fighter has several. Using them drains life from your fighters, so don’t count on them when your health is low.

The Game has much more to it than SOR 1. Stages are now multi-part. And are overall more plausible. With mini-bosses as well as stage bosses. The enemies are also more varied and the game relies less on “palette swapping”.

The Graphics are a vast improvement fro than of SOR 1. It is almost like comparing 8 bit, to 16 bit. The fighters are now huge on screen, giving the game more of an arcade feel, which it is trying to do. Blaze is even hotter.( Pun intended!) The backgrounds are sharp and have lot’s of detail. This game really helps one appreciate the beauty of 16-bit graphics.

The sound is improved over the previous game as well. The punching sounds are more realistic. Gone are the metallic punch sounds of SOR 1. As one would expect the score of SOR 2, by Yuzo Kosihiro, is excellent. Not as good as than of SOR 1 but still good.

The Bad
The plot is pretty absurd. How could Adam be taken hostage? Have you seen him fight? He kicks ass. And some how he is taken prisoner. Plus I hate the save the kidnapped person plot it is a major cliché.

The music is not as good this time around. And the game is too easy. Even on the higher difficulty settings.

The Bottom Line
Overall, if you want to see what all the fuss is over the SOR series, this is the one to play. And if you like it try the others.

by MasterMegid (723) on August 27, 2006

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