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
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Music
Sound Assistance
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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)

A pretty good conversion

The Good
The graphics are good considering the Master System's limitations. The changes from the 16-bit version are interesting as well. Instead of the crushers in Level 6, there are vertical electric currents to avoid. Level 6 also ends with a boss who is a little old man with a rocket-launcher. He is dressed like a stereotype English toff in a top hat and tails (?!) Certainly more original than just facing the Level 2 boss again. The game's still quite fun to play, especially if you have someone on hand to join in.

The Bad
Though this is a pretty good conversion in terms of graphics, the music is pretty dull and the fighting becomes repetitive. Of particular annoyance is the inability to grab enemies. Try moving in on them to hold them and you'll be given a punch or a kick for your troubles.

The Bottom Line
A scrolling beat-em-up in the style of arcade games like Final Fight. As one of three trained fighters, make your way through eight levels of street-fighting action. There are numerous weapons such as pipes, knives and the like which are hidden inside barrels and bins or which can be obtained by knocking them out the hands of enemies. In later levels, hazards such as holes in an uncompleted bridge present themselves. There's a two-player mode in which a friend can join in.

SEGA Master System · by Gary Smith (13) · 2007

Classic scrolling beat-em-up

The Good
First there was Final Fight,then came streets of rage,sega's own classic beat-em-up!.The city is in chaos,gang's roam the streets under the rule of Mr x,the Head of an evil crime syndicate.3 brave young police officor's go out to fight and restore peace to the city.My best bit's of this game are the boss battle's,one of the hardest bosses is probably the level 2 boss.I also loved the music and sound affect's that gave the game atmosphere.

The Bad
The grathic's can get a bit dull at time's,mainly on the first level,also the number of thug's that you face on a single screen can get really frustrating.Apart from those weak point's it's a great game.

The Bottom Line
If you ever see this game on Ebay or somewhere else,buy it!,along with an old Sega system to play it on.If you are a fan of beat-em-up's you wont be disappointed by streets of rage.

SEGA Master System · by william sterry (4) · 2006

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.

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