Streets of Rage 2

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

After Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Adam Hunter destroyed the evil Syndicate leader, Mr. X, the city became a peaceful place to live, and each one of them followed their own paths. One year later, after their reunion, Adam's brother Sammy returned from school to find their apartment in a mess, and Adam nowhere to be seen, and after calling his two friends, one of them notices a photo of Adam chained to a wall, next to someone they knew very well - Mr. X, who returned to turn the peaceful city once again into a war zone. Now, Axel, Blaze, Sammy, and Axel's good friend Max, a pro wrestler, must head out to stop Mr. X once again...hopefully for good...

Streets of Rage 2 differs from the previous title in several ways. There are changes in both graphics (characters now are bigger, more detailed and with more animation frames, and scenarios are less grainy) and gameplay (the rocket move was replaced by a special move that doubles in offense and defense along several new moves), along other new features such as life bars (and names) for all enemies and the radically different new characters.

Spellings

  • ベアナックルII - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Genesis version)

31 People (25 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Main Planning
Planning
System Design
Main Program
Main Enemy Program
Enemy and Demo Program
Music Composers
Sound Effects
Sound Driver
Project Management
Object Design
Main Design
Background Design
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 50 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 180 ratings with 11 reviews)

Best fighting game ever.

The Good
I'm not really the one for fighting games and very few have ever managed to impress me. However, this did. Sega have real gem with this game here and it's fantastic. The idea is that you are on a street with a character, (4 to choose.) and you fight different people, with different health and moves. The game boasts 3 different difficulty levels and it's AI is ahead of it's time. Different moves are good against different people and the enemies counter your moves, and have some have their own items. Speaking of items, there are many you can pick up and use against your enemy. The enviorments are interesting and you can smash up chairs and bins with your weapons. Each character has unique moves too. With multiplayer co-op and fighting avaliable, who wouldn't love this game?

The Bad
Nothing I can recall.

The Bottom Line
If you're looking for a fun, classic and strong beat 'em up. Get this game, for cheap. It rivals new games and has aged well.

Genesis · by Exeox (38) · 2004

Great fighting game

The Good
I liked choosing from 4 characters whose abilities were very different, and useful. The enemies were each unique. There was the regular kind of grunt guy that would only throw a sucker punch, then there were the kick boxers and the huge bosses.

Co-op was the best way to play the game. The sounds were great as was the music. A friend and I played through this game on all 5 difficulty settings many, many times.

The Bad
There is nothing that I can think of...

The Bottom Line
One of the best fighting games for the Genesis.

Genesis · by The Holy Moly (19) · 2004

The Legendary Beat em up. The game that topples Final Fight

The Good
Hi there and welcome to the game that crushed Final Fight. Let me talk about what this beauty does right.

The Graphics. A HUGE Improvement over the first streets of rage though not as big as Final Fight. HOWEVER the speed of the sprites and the number far outranks the Final Fight games.

Another great thing about the sequel is the complete revamp of the character graphics. Axel's sprite is bigger has more muscle mass then before and his clothes have a few more minute details compared to Streets of Rage 1. Blaze also has a few new graphical touches over the original streets of rage.

New Characters: Skate is a great addition to the game. He's blazing fast compared to Axel and Blaze and definitely max. Skate also adds some challenge due to having the lowest stamina and strength rating. Also Max joins in. A wrestler that is more akin to Haggar from Final Fight. Though it feels strange not having Adam in this game.

Special Moves! A improvement over Streets of Rage 1. You can now use a special move with the A button where like Final Fight you do a move that is a gang up prevention. Axel does a flaming dragon punch, Blaze does a fireball, Skate does a drill kick and max does a rushing dash. Great stuff. Also each character also has a regular special move. Like the "get da powa" uppercut move that Axel does.

More variety in the levels. In this game you go through bridges and arcades, beaches, a baseball mound, city areas. And several other amusing areas. Though to be honest I wonder why they go through this city on foot. Wouldn't it be easier to go through it by car?

Music. Is SERIOUSLY better this time around. Sure there are some remixes but the quality is far improved and sounds quite a bit better. The soundtrack in streets of rage 2 is the high point of the series and is a pinnacle in beat em up music pleasure.

Sound effects. There's far more this time and they sound far more clear and sharp compared to the original Streets of Rage game. There's punches, kicks, karate yells, axel yelling GET DA POWA, screams from enemies dying, knife hits and bar smacks. This game has tons of great sounding sound effects. Way to go.

The difficulty is adjustable and quite frankly this game gets insane once you start going into the hard and very hard and mania modes. This game offers tons of beat down and the higher the mode the more beat down you serve to the game. Playing this game is pure unadultered awesomeness when it comes down to it.

The Bad
To be honest the only nitpicks I can find about this game are below.

high scores disappear when game is turned off.

Why is it that only skate can run? Why not Axel, Blaze and Max?

The Bottom Line
If I could describe this game I would describe it as a pure rush. This is a pinnacle of beat em ups. Right up there with Double Dragon and just a scotch above Final Fight.

Beginners and Vets will love this type of action and the game never gets old. The game is also pretty cheap too ranging from 5-10 bucks so you won't be breaking the bank when picking up this cart. A give this game a deserving 10/10 for providing so much beatdown that it oughta be illegal.

Genesis · by Mr. Huh (105) · 2005

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cut fighting moves

In early beta versions of Streets of Rage 2, Axel had two very different (and familiar) attacks: a move VERY similar to a Shotokan Dragon Punch, and...a Shotokan Hurricane Kick?

Looks like Sega axed them for good reason: legal action from Capcom for unauthorized teachings of Shotokan moves to their characters. (Shotokan, by the way, is the fighting technique Ryu, Ken, and Akuma use in Capcom's Street Fighter series).

MC.K

In Stage 1, there is an enemy called MC.K who only appears once in the entire game. He is worth about 10,000 points, much more than any other non-boss character.

Music

Yuzo Koshiro claims to have been influenced by early 90's European club music while producing the soundtrack for SoR 2. This is mostly visible with the music in the first part of level 4, which bears an uncanny resemblance with the dance hit Move Any Mountain by The Shamen, released two years before.

References

  • Two fat thugs in the game are called Talk and Wanter. They're named after Talk Uchimura (Planning & System design) and Wanta (Project management).
  • Before the Round 4 Stadium, you can see a sign that says "It's like Boo!". This may be a reference to "Fat Boo" from Dragonball Z, which looks an awful lot like the SoR2 character Big Ben.
  • The character Skate resembles DJ Boy (from the game DJ Boy, another side-scrolling beat-em-up game). This arcade game developed by Kaneko was later published by Sega on the megadrive. In fact, Sega changed the name of the character from 'Sammy' in Bare Knuckle 2 (Japanese release) into Skate in Streets of Rage 2 (US release) and the US publisher for the Megadrive conversion of DJ Boy was the company "Sammy".
  • It's no coincidence that the fat enemies in the game often go by the name of 'Heart'. It's a reference to the popular manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto No Ken), which featured an extremely overweight martial artist also called Heart.

Version differences

  • Sammy "Skate" Hunter was renamed to Eddie "Skate" Hunter in the U.S. and European versions of the game.
  • Max Thunder, the hulking pro wrestler, doesn't appear in the 8-bit versions (Game Gear and SMS) of SoR2.
  • Only in the Japan version, the final boss smokes a cigar
  • In the US version, the jump kick animation of Blaze was changed. Originally her legs are wider apart and reveal her panties.

Awards

  • EGM
    • 1993 Buyer's Guide - Hottest Video Game Babe (Blaze)
    * Retro Gamer + September 2004 (Issue #8) – #64 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote) Information also contributed by [Luis Silva](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,61998/), [MasterMegid](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,44055/) and [Sciere](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,30979/)
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    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by Satoshi Kunsai.

    Windows added by Duduzets. PlayStation 3 added by Lain Crowley. Nintendo 3DS added by Michael Cassidy. iPad added by Rik Hideto. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. SEGA Master System, Game Gear added by RKL. iPhone added by Sciere. Macintosh, Linux added by Foxhack. Arcade added by Kohler 86. Wii added by gamewarrior. Android added by Deleted. Xbox 360 added by Ben K.

    Additional contributors: chirinea, Sciere, Alaka, lights out party, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, Thomas Thompson, Jo ST, Harmony♡.

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