Streets of Rage

aka: 3D Streets of Rage, Bare Knuckle: Ikari no Tekken, DSWAT, SoR, Streets of Rage Classic
Moby ID: 6599
Genesis Specs
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Description official descriptions

Streets of Rage, Sega's answer to Final Fight, follows the story of three young police officers (Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding) in a city controlled by a criminal syndicate led by a "Mr. X" where crime is rampant, which leads the three heroes to make a pact to leave the force and topple the syndicate by themselves.

Gameplay is straightforward and simple. Three buttons are used, one to jump, other to attack and another to perform a range attack from a support police car. Each character has a limited set of moves that include punching and kicking or performing a back attack (if in the open), two grapple moves (depending if holding the opponent in front or by the back), a flying attack, and if playing with another player two additional tag attacks, and different abilities: Adam is slow, but a good jumper and a hard hitter, Axel fast and also a hard hitter, but a lousy jumper and Blaze fast and a good jumper, but weak hitter. Levels are in typical arcade side-scroller fashion: move from left to right (with two exceptions), clearing screens from enemies one after another as fast as possible while avoid taking damage with a boss in the end. Some levels feature "death drops" where the player must avoid falling, while throwing enemies there at the same time, including a typical elevator level. Several items are scattered on the ground, from melee weapons and bonus points (and lives or additional police cars) to apples and turkeys (to restore health).

Spellings

  • ベア・ナックル 怒りの鉄拳 - Japanese spelling
  • 스트리트 오브 레이지 (베어너클) - Korean spelling

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Credits (Genesis version)

18 People (12 developers, 6 thanks)

Game Designed By
Programming
Designed By
Music
Sound Assistance
Special Thanks To
Presented By
  • SEGA
Cover Artwork by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 48 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 166 ratings with 10 reviews)

Bleedin' awesome.

The Good
Streets of Rage is definitely the best beat-'em-up I've ever played on the Genesis, and one of the best beat-'em-ups ever. It is only bested, in my opinion, by Capcom's arcade game Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.

Since the game is simple, I may as well keep the review simple: terrific graphics, awesome music, great level design and lots of fighting moves. The scenery changes, the music changes, the enemies change, the only thing that more or less stays permanent in this game is the violence...

... and oh, what great violence indeed.

The Bad
Nothing really, it's quite complete.



The Bottom Line
A terrific beat-'em-up, definitely the best on the Genesis and worlds better than its sequel.

Genesis · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2002

A great fighting game during a dismal year for Sega.

The Good
Streets of Rage.....

I say it was a dismal year, because this was the year the SNES was released. 1991. A system that pretty much threatened to blow everything else out of the water....

When Final Fight came out for the SNES I was furious because it had been rushed out mid-development so that it would be ready for the SNES launch in America. That meant that levels, characters, and two player simultaneous mode were NOT IN THE GAME.

All was not lost. Sega released this little gem, Streets of Rage. Streets of Rage is an obvious rip-off of Final Fight (a side-scrolling, fighting platform game). The graphics are inferior to Final Fight and the sprites are smaller, but the graphics are still good and make the game enjoyable.

The game actually has more moves than Final Fight. Its longer than Final Fight (for the SNES). It has more types of enemy characters than Final Fight. And finally, it is actually a TWO PLAYER game. Quite rare for this genre back then.

The Bad
The graphics were not as good as Final Fight, not by a long shot. But they were still roughly arcade quality. About on par with the Double Dragon games (the arcade versions, not the NES).

That's about it. It was pretty good.

The Bottom Line
If you like this one, I'd recommend Streets of Rage 2. You have to try that one out. Its pretty nice.

Genesis · by Majestic Lizard (670) · 2007

Interesting start

The Good
It's hard not to start without mentioning the soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro. For a console that was pretty much laughed for the poor sound abilities, having one of the best soundtracks in the history of videogames is no easy feat. Still, you've probably heard so much about the soundtrack that it's almost pointless to go in details on how not only it sounds good, but also fits the mood of the game perfectly, so for the sake of brevity, I'll just say it's rated "5".

Gameplay works fine for most of the time (except a couple of parts mentioned later), and it's perfectly possible to define a strategy and apply it without much problems. Two player interaction makes things a lot more interesting, as combination moves and avoiding hitting the partner during the 7-opponent brawls surely open the strategy of the game. Characters are different enough to force different tactics, mostly based on hitting power (Axel and Adam) or Jumping and Speed (Blaze). Some scenarios include traps (such as industrial presses or pits), and mastering the use of them (or the spot to launch a punk from the elevator in the seventh level) is a shortcut on the way to victory, and let's be honest, very amusing.

The Bad
While I love the genre, SoR does one of the things I usually loathe - the way women are portrayed in these ga... oh wait, nevermind. Still, using the same boss twice, the second time with a second added and both with a different colour palette is a cheap way to increase the overall difficulty level. Honestly, I can only image what went in the heads of the good people at Sega: "Hey now, we have the boomerang guy, the fangs guy, the wrestler, the fat guy and the cheap re-use of one of the main character sprites. Now what?". Well, as expected, once beaten they return in later levels with slightly different colours. In fact, pretty much of the 8th level premise is fighting bosses. All over again.

Graphically, while not being horrible, the game is lacking a bit of polish as backgrounds are a bit grainy and characters without much detail and animations lack a couple of frames here and there. However, we're talking about the first game in the series, so it can be excused. A final mention goes to gameplay. First, the lack of a dash button make some enemies such as the fat man very hard, and generally slow and over-reliable on "strafing" to approach certain enemies. Second, the special attack. While all mighty and powerful, one should ask if it makes any sense. I mean, why can't our guys just storm a level, speeding and running over the punks using the car? And how can the bazooka be so accurate not to harm friendlies in site? Thankfully, it was replaced by a more useful move in the second game of the series, so like the graphics, it can be excused (but penalized in score) again.

The Bottom Line
In the end, while still being one of finest examples of the Mega Drive's early titles, it had most shortcomings sorted out in the second and third (the original Japanese version, at least), and can't hold a candle to them. However, when placed against similar titles for the platform, it still manages to be one of the best. It might not have the graphics and moves of the second, or the plot and multiple paths of the third, but it's still a solid gaming experience.

Genesis · by Luis Silva (13444) · 2006

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
DSWAT j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】 (93195) Jul 20, 2013

Trivia

References

  • Many in-game sounds and even the main font were lifted directly from Revenge of Shinobi.

  • In difficult situations, you can press the 'special attack' button. A cop will drive by in a car and set the entire environment on fire with a rocket launcher. The artwork of the police car may look familiar, it's exactly the same car used in E-SWAT: Cyber Police, an older SEGA arcade title which also got converted to the Mega Drive.

  • The game is referenced in the second episode of the second season of the US Netflix series Narcos. Pablo Escobar can be seen playing the game with his son on a Genesis system. He gives his son instructions and comments on having to fight a woman.

Release

One of the few games to be packed in with the Genesis.

Soundtrack on vinyl LP

In summer 2015, Data Discs released a vinyl soundtrack with the remastered soundtrack from the game. The remasterings were done in collaboration with the composer of the original game tracks Yuzo Koshiro. The LP features 16 tracks, 8 on each side. The recording were made from the original NEC PC-88 files, as well as a sampling from the Yamaha YM2612 chip of the Mega Drive/Genesis console.
(Source: Product description on Data Discs website, LP at Discogs)

Awards

  • EGM
    • 1992 Buyer's Guide - Hottest Videogame Babe

Information also contributed by Jo and Robbb

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Satoshi Kunsai.

iPad, Android added by GTramp. Nintendo 3DS added by Michael Cassidy. Windows added by 666gonzo666. Wii added by Guy Chapman. iPhone added by Sciere. Linux, Macintosh added by Foxhack. Arcade added by Kohler 86. Game Gear, SEGA Master System added by festershinetop.

Additional contributors: chirinea, Sciere, Alaka, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, Thomas Thompson, GTramp, Rik Hideto, Jo ST, Harmony♡.

Game added June 7, 2002. Last modified March 25, 2024.