Streets of Rage

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.

The Good
In Streets Of Rage you play as three ex-cops who quit cause all the corruption in the police and the city which used to be a nice place to live there names are Adam Hunter, Axel Stone, and Blaze Fielding so you clean up the streets by killing Mr. X the man behind the syndicate.

The gameplay is standard sidescrolling beat-em-up move from screen to screen killing and beating up bad guys with knives, glass bottles, pipes, and baseball bats throughout the 8 stages you have to dispatch of women with whips knife wielding maniacs and karate masters with a boss at the end of every level from Australians with boomerangs and clowns with wolverine type claws. At least this has team moves unlike other games you may have played.

But the music… oh how the music rocks the only song I can think of that’s not that good is the factory level the other 7 stages and the main theme are great kickass tunes.

The Bad
The graphics are not particularly good even for the year of 1991 with objects that aren’t the right size either too tall or wide.

The special move with the cop car is somewhat cheesy and is not usually needed as the game isn’t particularly hard.

The Bottom Line
Overall this game is a great genesis game while the second improves on it in just about everyway but that’s for another review.

The Good
Ahhh the game that started a direct rivalry between the snes and genesis beat em up genre. When Capcom brought Final Fight "a inferior port" to the super nintendo, the genesis stood up and produced Streets of Rage for their system though in the beginning a rather poor man's final fight. Lets talk about the good

The graphics for the time were decent. Though smallish compared to Final Fight they were able to support FAR more characters on screen to pummel compared to Final Fight. This game could support over TEN characters on screen to beat you to oblivion.

You get three characters to choose from. Axel, Blaze or Adam.

You get a special attack which is very useful in the game.

The Levels are quite varied and very diverse. Always a plus when playing a game where beating up people is the main focus.

The music! This game is the first game from Yuzo Koshiro. The Music in the Streets of Rage series has constantly outperformed the Final Fight series. In my opinion anyways. Some of the great themes in this game are the intro telling the storyline and the character selection screen. Most of the beats in the game are fairly memorable. The game beats Final Fight in the music respect hands down.

The Bad
Now for the downside of the first Streets of Rage game

Though more characters can be on the screen at once compared to Final Fight, the first streets of rage is inferior to final fight in the graphics department. Smaller characters compared to Final Fight.

The enemies are almost as cheap as Final Fight. They crowd you and beat the hell out of you and never let you up.

No Special moves like the first Final Fight. No character specials make this game more simplistic then Final Fight. Thankfully Streets of Rage 2 takes over soon.

Bosses can be EXTREMELY CHEAP. How cheap? Some of them can't even get a hit in with some characters due to their long ranged highly effective attacks that cause massive damage.

Cheap hits A PLENTY. FOR YOU!!!

The Bottom Line
This game is a great starting foundation for Streets of Rage for the inevitable SUPERIOR sequels which eventually overtake Final Fight in innovation and beatdown. A good game but not a classic like the sequel. Overall a good solid seven out of ten. Though if you have Streets of Rage 2 or 3 then this game pales in stark contrast to them or even the first Final Fight.

This game is dirt cheap and fairly easy to find. If you want some cheap good beatdown fun and can't find Streets of Rage 2 or 3 then get this.