Overall 9.2 Graphics 9.1 Sound 8.8 Addictive 7.8 Story 6.5 Depth 6.8 Difficulty 7.6
9.2
I ain't mad at these streets! They are paved with fighting gold! endings
This is a true gem from Sega. A brawler through and through, you and a friend, its two player, pick a character and beat up rows and rows of thugs. Other games in this genre like Knights of the Round, Final Fight, Combat Tribes, Vendetta - falter to make their games as delicious as this game is. Its very addictive and fun. My friend Tubby bought all the Sega systems, I bought all the Nintendo, and I was over at his house for a week straight playing this. Your fighter gets some strategic moves not seen in all the other games, and the stages sometimes border on crazy, but it all works.
Graphics: 9
Bright, flashy colors pop from the moment you start moving in the game. While there are some dark parts to some levels for ambiance, its uncommon. The neon, the detail on the characters, subtle movements. The animations when Axel does his combo special! The hilarious animation as Skate (the kid player) jumps on a baddie's back and starts wailing on their head with punches! One of the best looking fighting games I've seen. The locations change wildly, from an street to a bar, and amusement park with a flying pirate ship, to a baseball diamond with a secret underground fighting arena! Streets of Rage 2 knows no limits. It gives you kids fighting, giant wrestlers, its insanity! But it looks good! So many characters (bad and good) stand out.
Despite this, a few technical things hold it back. Such as at the end of the first stage, you are clearly shown going in a door, then into a smoky bar, then you walk through a wide open area and now you're outside? The giant truck on the second stage is also at issue here (You get in and fight, then leave right out the front grill!).
Sound: 9
Glorious. Sega really brought it, and the heavy techno beats and scratchy synth work well in the gritty urban open level is probably the best in the whole game. The boss music is killer and one of my favorites. The strange music inside the alien cave (don't ask!) is appropriately mysterious. All the way up to the big boss, Mr. X, and his tense final battle music. Some of the middle tracks I didn't like so much (your mileage may vary), but it picked it back up towards the end for me.
The death sounds are quite funny and satisfying (see my meta game below), and most character voices are pretty good. The item sounds are a little weird, like picking up food, but its just a blip then you're past it, not worth dropping it for sound effects.
Addictiveness: 9
Holy cow did we play this game to death. Two player is a blast, although I can see how it could be a bother since you can hurt each other. One player up top and Second always at the bottom was our motto. All the 4 characters are pretty fun to play. I wish they had one extra you could play after beating it though (Adam?) just to add something more. Me and my friend who owned the game, our whole Rage 2 game changed when we acquired the code to play as the same character. Hilarity ensued as we came up with a little meta gaming -a game within the game.
We would both play as Max. The slowest, but most powerful, he is the only one who cannot change position after grabbing an enemy. Me and my friend had a contest to see who could grab the most enemies from behind to do his atomic drop (we referred to it as the "dreaded rear admiral" from a Simpsons schoolyard joke). Being so slow, its difficult for Max to get the drop on them, but if you could get the bosses, especially the last two, it was even more points. Hilarious fun.
Story: 6
I don't know, I just can't rate this as high as some people. Its a beat em up game! The story is very typical, a good guy has been captured, you go rescue them, beating up all opposition. The only variety here is 1) its revenge oriented as the boss lost to this person last game and 2) the two new characters are related/friends with the missing person.
If they had cut scenes about the missing hero, maybe a few bonus rounds where you try to prevent them from being killed - I don't know they could have done more. The missing character is only ever seen in the ending, which is a shame because I can think of several brawlers that put the missing person WITH the last boss, so you could see you were at the end and the evil leader had nowhere left to hide.
Depth: 6
You actually have a lot of moves, the highlights including a back-attack which felt pretty novel as it was a regular attack. It also had the obligatory "hurt bad guys but hurt yourself a bit to use" move - and these varied on effectiveness, but were for the most part pretty good. You also had the ability to change your grabbed enemy and attack them from behind, doing more damage (just not Max cuz he's too big to flip).
There is no bonus rounds, no hidden characters. Everything just plays out, and you pick up the items dropped from the barrels and crates. Nothing changes here.
Difficulty: 7
Ah this game could be pretty difficult. But its a lot of fun, you won't mind. Even if you fight a cheap wrestler that blocks nearly every grapple, or a boxer who might sock you out in a couple hits. Playing as two players increases the fun and the number of foes you two must fight, so use caution. The difficulty thankfully, is variable, and this would be for the medium setting in my book.
Overall: 9.2
This is a great game, with has player variety, a rocking sound track, and some of the best beat-em-up action in retro. Do not be afraid of these streets! Play on them!
Graphics 9 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Story 6 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.8/5
Submitted: 10-28-14
Review Replies: 0
9.6
Streets of Rage 2 ( a fighting review) tornadocam
The streets have become inhibited with criminals again time to take care of them again. Story: 8 Most fighting games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter do not have much of a plot. However, Streets of Rage 2 has a story to it. I think that is nicely done that the developers of this game would give a fighting game a story. The story reading from the manual and the intro stage is like this. After the defeat of the Syndicate and their leader Mister X having believed to be put out of commission returns. The Syndicate is back and badder than ever as the streets are no longer safe anymore. Mister X kidnaps Adam, who was a hero from the first game. Blaze, Axle, take Skate, who is Adams kid brother and get help from professional wrestler powerhouse Max to rescue Adam and bring the Syndicate down once and for all. Okay that was a nice story for a fighting game. How many fighting games can one think of that had a nice story to it? The plot is good, rescue Adam and take down the criminal organization. Now I did not give this a higher rating because well its your typical beat them up fighting game. Graphics: 10 The graphics are amazing in this game. How the neon lights flash in the background is a nice touch. The other stages have good backgrounds. The controls no matter who the player is using is very nice. They do not feel sluggish or lag at all in this game. In some beat up games I have played it seems like sometimes there is a lag. The first Streets of Rage game even lagged a little bit. So for this to be a fighting game and not lag or have sluggish controls really bumps up the rating. It should be of note that this game came out in 1992 maybe 1993 which was when Sega was at its peak. Games that have graphics like this show why Sega was at its peak. I would also like to add that the graphics look like something you would find in a play station game not a 16 bit system.Sound: 9Streets of rage 2 also had some of the best music of the game series. I will go further and say the best music compared to a lot of games. The first levels stage is the most memorable. Other stages have memorable tunes too. It is often fun to beat up the bad guys going along and listening to the awesome music. I also like how the bad guys moan and groan whenever the player knocks them out. It lets the player know that the bad guy is KO'ed. Also when a player picks up a weapon and uses it that is a nice sound the way it makes a cracking sound against a bad guy lets the player know it is doing a lot of damage. I do not remember the first streets of Rage having moaning and groaning in it.Addictiveness & Depth: 9This is a very fun game to play and it has high replay value. There are plenty of weapons to get from beating up bad guys with them or finding them. However, what makes this game shine is you have 4 characters to chose from. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. So, it is fun to play through the game with a different character. The graphics and sounds add replay value to this game. I find myself going back to this one than the other Streets of Rage games. For me personally it is because this one has a plot and the controls as I mentioned above are that good. This game has a lot to offer the stages can be long depending on how difficult the game is you chose. Getting to chose the difficulty adds depth to this game. If you chose an easier difficult level not so many bad guys around. If you choose one of the harder levels be prepared to get swamped with bad guys. So yeah I had fun playing this game when it came out and it is still fun to play now.Difficult Level: 8I wrestled with the difficult level on this game for one reason. The player can chose what difficult level he or she wants. I based my review on normal mode so that is what I'm going with. This game can be challenging at times. A lot of times the game just loves to throw thugs at you from all places. So, it is easy to get cornered and hope you find a weapon to use. Also some of the end bosses can be a pain especially after Level 3. Level 4 and up is the levels I had the most trouble with. Then there is the last level were you have to run the gauntlet of bad guys and previous bosses yikes. So this game is a challenge. But given the fact that one can adjust the difficulty of the game that is what keeps it from being a 9 or a 10.Overall: 9.6What can I say this is one of the best games that was on the market for the Sega system. This game as I mentioned was released when Sega was at its peak. This is a fun game and with so much depth it is fun to play through with a different character as I mentioned above. I really liked this game compared to other fighting games and compared to the other Streets of rage games. If anybody is new to the Streets of rage series I highly recommend this game. You won't be disappointed.
Graphics 10 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Story 8 Depth 9 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4.4/5
Submitted: 02-06-14
Updated: 03-01-14
Review Replies: 2
10
Streets Of Rage 2 dragonslayer444
Streets of rage 2 for the megadrive is without question one of the consoles elite titles and still hold in many people's heart as one of there favorite games of all time, me included. So what is the formula that made this game a true classic? well I will tell you. first off it was a vast improvment over the first game witch lay the foundations for this series, the graphics are great big bold sprites that are well animated and designed with a lot of variety, the backgrounds have a serious amount of detail in particuly for a 16 bit console game with some good special effects. Sound well the sound can really only be described as storming a kick butt soundtrack of hard house trance and club music not really my cuppa tea but work's well with this game and really spurs you on when you are in trouble plus each peace of music suits each area very well. In fact I think yuzo Koshiro has made the second best soundtrack ever (after final fantasy 7. The sound effects are great too like the sound's of the punches and the weapons making contact have a really meaty sound too them that make you think that they would really hurt, the bomb explosions are loud and crisp and the peoples screams as they die are just wonderful. Addictivness well there is lots of it either on your own as a lone warrior or battling with a fellow team mate it is great fun and does not grow old I really can not tell how many times I have played this through and still remains fun. Story quiet simple really MR X the protagonist of the first game leader of the syndicate is back stronger than ever before,but this time they kidnapped adam hunter one of the main heroes of the first battle, but this time they are joined by skate adams kid brother and max a wrestler and friend of axels. Depth of the game well what can I say it is a side scrolling beat em up so the depth is fairly average but it is pretty big for it's time and can take a while to get through plus it has lots of replay value. Difficulty a fair bit to be honest while quiet easy to beat on the low difficulty settings things can get very hard on hard, hardest and mania, with enimies getting faster more of them and increasing in stamina and using some dirty tatics and can be hard to finish even with 2 players. So here is my review I hope you like it and enjoy the game.
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 7 Depth 7 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4.2/5
Submitted: 08-20-10
Updated: 06-02-11
Review Replies: 3
9.4
Terror and havoic on the rage streets SuperCrash64
Looking at the Streets of Rage franchise...,It was a another classic set of games in a well done but short franchise,and definitely 1 of those games you would just want to have in you're retro gaming or genesis game collection,It was before the time I knew Streets of rage existed.Because I was mainly playing Final fight and other beat em ups (and I know I was not around at the time this game was released) I played final fights and others in a different way just not on this site. It was until 1 day I was searched for beat em ups,and this game came up as a result during the list. Now having tried this game I figured I give my thoughts on it. The 2nd game took everything completely from the 1st game which is on here,but I believe that 1 is called bare knuckle or that's probably streets of rage 3. The 2nd game made everything way smoother and a more pleasurable experience on the Md/Genesis.Lets go ahead and start the review.
Graphics of streets of rage 2:The Graphics of Streets of Rage 2 are directly improved over the original. As sprites were bigger badder and just overall better. The enemies now have more visible life bars which makes it a huge improvement over the original where the original it was ok.but still a bit blurry. There are also more enemies on screen at once,and even newer enemies are there such as bikers and others etc and they are . The graphics and characters in general look great and really makes the game shine while snapping kicking and bursting those doors down. As for the stages they look equally as good the sprites of the game, and catches along with the plot of this game very well. It just has a neat way of flowing with the enemies so playing streets of rage 2. Yea This game greatly improves over it's original counterpart. Just looking at this game just gives you a pretty nice beat down club with a very colorful and dark twist My rating of graphics would be a 10 no real flaws with graphics here. As they are very well detailed and are very colorful on the genesis and very well look great . Aww snap Killer sound in The house! As the Sound variety Is major pumping and busting down lots of those jerk enemies. Yea that's right I mean snap there necks!. The Voice samples are not too bad.not really bad at all some of the voices rather sound a bit scratchy,but For a genesis game what could you expect? So the sound variety is very good,but however the pitch "aka" the volume of the voices are a little bit low so when wanting to hear those dynamic sounds and voice overs in this game while collecting money bags and being a total killer machine. The sound may want to be raised up a bit in this case. (Soundtrack: The soundtrack Is incredible and fits funky fresh with the game. I mean just come on feel the grace of those suckers at the bars being a total beer mugger and you just coming around kicking there cans. and the tunes really catch along with this game beautifully As even the boss theme is so funky and dynamic in this game and the voice overs fit the characters look rather in a good way. The sound compartment is getting a -8 rating do to a bit low pitch( that could be my speakers or something but the sound is a little tiny for me) it's still a good game in sound compartment nonetheless. The Storyline Means the intentions of A dangerous foe returning After the game starts with a various intro of course starting the various plot and storyline of this pure classic. Anyways it starts out with the continuation of the first game's ending as the Streets of Rage gang celebrates there victory over the mysterious Mr X. So a year has passed over that time. And now 1 day Axel received a phone call from Eddie 'Skate' Hunter . Eddie had came home 1 day shocked to see his house so wrecked up and badly damaged and his older brother Adam to be nowhere found. Eddie had noticed at the front door a picture was attached. Showing Adam chained to the wall at the hands of Mr X. The criminal gang has returned and now the city is suffering like never before. Axel and Skate quickly rushed to get Blaze about the unexpected return of Mr X and his crime gang.Also Adam being kidnapped. So now the gang must defeat Mr X and his crime gang,and rescue Adam. As for the storyline it is incredible and makes so much of the bad guys seem so epic and dangerous. That's a really nice storyline that fits the game perfectly. Storyline rating 8 This is 1 of the longer beat em ups I've played ,and quite a challenging and fun gameThe depth of Streets of rage 2 and the game it's self. First off the game it'self doesn't really offer anything new expect for 1 and 2 player mode and a difficulty option. The game is 8 levels long with lots of challenge to come you're way and perhaps die a few times. but that's mainly dependable on you're skill level. As for me it takes me generally about maybe 5 hours to beat this game. The game is still enjoyable with many fun things and perhaps lots of death to come. Depth and addictiveness rating 7The difficulty of Streets of Rage 2 As I've mentioned in the depth This game is riddled with many boat loads of enemies and challenges to come and get through. As for by passing them yea...good luck with that. This game is incredibly hard because it took me about a week to get the hang of every boss in this game and even with that being said lots of beat me up games are meant to be hard. And this 1 is just a good acceptation to that statement. The controls work fine as they should once you configure them out. (Tip: you may wanna use the special attacks at the right timing during boss fights) Anyways difficulty rating I feel this game really deserves a 10 out of ten for how challenging it was for me. Overall Streets of Rage 2 is great and fun game. Overall rating 9.4
Graphics 10 Sound 8 Addictive 7 Story 7 Depth 7 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 4.1/5
Submitted: 05-24-13
Updated: 05-24-13
Review Replies: 2
5.5
Is it as Good as it Sounds? PhantasyStarWren
The first Streets of Rage game had its flaws, but it was still a pretty good game overall. Its graphics are the least impressive, but the gameplay was still good and brought up some cool ideas and mechanics. It even has a very nice soundtrack. I already reviewed the first Streets of Rage game on its game page, but I will definitely be comparing it to this game, Streets of Rage 2. I have a lot to say about this game, so bear with me.
Streets of Rage 2 was made by a different development team, known as Ancient. The man who composed the music for the first Streets of Rage, Yuzo Koshiro manages the Ancient company. We all know how well this game was received, as people were amazed by it. Not only has Streets of Rage 2 been claimed to be the best Streets of Rage game ever, but also one of the best beat 'em ups of all time. Many still enjoy Streets of Rage 2 to this day, as it is the most popular entry in its series. However, this is my review, so I'm going to tell you what I think about this game and if I feel that I can recommend it like I did the first Streets of Rage. This was the game that introduced me to the series, and I enjoyed the game in my earliest moments of playing it. Do my initial thoughts on the game match my current thoughts?
STORYOur story is mainly the same as the first game's, but with some differences. In the first game, three ex-cops quit their corrupted police force and took down a crime syndicate led by a mysterious villain named Mr. X. The ex-cops were known as Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding, and Adam Hunter. In the second game, Mr. X returns and attempts to lure Axel and Blaze into a trap by kidnapping Adam. The city is also once again a dangerous place, due to the work of Mr. X and his new and improved crime syndicate. However, two new characters join our heroes to bring Mr. X down again. One of them is a friend of Axel and professional wrestler, Max Thunder. The other is Adam's kid brother on roller skates, Eddie "Skate" Hunter. Now, I know a kid fighting on roller skates helping bring down a crime syndicate seems very strange, but I will explain why it's not so much a problem as you may think later on. In terms of story, not much has changed from the first game's, but we know that beat 'em ups don't really emphasize on story.
PRESENTATIONGRAPHICSWhen you start playing the game, you will certainly notice how much better the graphics look in Streets of Rage 2 than in the first Streets of Rage. Everything looks bigger and better in this game. Even the sprites are bigger than the first game's. This game's animation is also better than the first game's. Much improvement has been done in terms of graphics in every aspect.
SOUNDThe soundtrack in this game is considered to be one of the best soundtracks ever made for a video game, which was made mostly by Yuzo Koshiro. The music in this game follows the styles of house and techno. Each track also fits the scene nicely, and there is more musical variation than in the first Streets of Rage game. Yuzo was not making this game's music alone, but with another composer named Motohiro Kawashima. Motohiro was responsible for some of the tracks in Streets of Rage 2, including Max Man, Expander, and Jungle Base (which was made by collaboration). He contributes to the variety of this game's soundtrack, helping create a musical masterpiece. The sound effects are of higher quality than the sounds in the first game. Smacking enemies around sounds better this time around, but when the characters shout some of their newly acquired move names, they aren't that clear. For example, there are lots of people that confused "Grand Upper!" with something else. When I started playing Streets of Rage 2, I thought it was "Sun Claw!". The music and sound are nicely done in Streets of Rage 2.
GAMEPLAYCHARACTERSI noticed more diversity between the playable characters of Streets of Rage 2 than in the first game. The characters have more moves and even some unique commands for some of the new moves. Add for this game are defensive and offensive special attacks (which
replace the police car special from the first game), blitz moves, light and neutral jump attacks, more grabbing attacks, the ability to use your combo ender itself, the ability to toss any weapon at will, and even character specific moves. An example of a character specific move would be that Max could perform the Atomic Drop by grabbing an enemy from behind, then jumping and pressing the attack button as you descend. If you do it correctly, you will do heavy damage to the enemy that was unfortunate enough to get hit with it. Another example is that Skate could do an overhead throw by vaulting over an enemy and pressing the attack button as he is in the middle of the vault. If done correctly, your opponent will be thrown in the direction you vaulted, which implies that you can, in fact, change the direction of his overhead throw.
There are even weapon specific attacks that certain characters can do. For example, when Blaze attacks with a knife, she will do the only combo possible with a weapon in the game. Another example would be that Max hits anything behind him with a pipe or sword before hitting in front of him. All of the characters attacked the same way with mostly every weapon in the first game, but that's been changed here.
About the character balance, there's not much of it. Axel is the most overused character, but for very understandable reasons. His primary combo is the quickest in the game, especially when it starts. This means that he will most likely beat enemies to the punch, literally. Another thing he has over the other characters is his blitz attack, the Grand Upper. This is the most spammed move for Axel players that know how to perform it. People might not even use the primary combo because they are more fixated on using a two-jab to Grand Upper combo. Why not three punches? Because for some strange reason, Axel's third punch and also his back attack make the Grand Upper do less damage than it is supposed to. I'm not sure why, but it happens. The Grand Upper also starts off with invincibility frames, so it might even get you past an enemy's attack. Axel is the easiest-to-use and most effective character in the game.
Max is the second best character, considering how great his power is. He may be slow, but people tend to slide to speed up his movement. The slide can also act as a bulldozer and hit enemies in its path. The closer Max is to an enemy, the more damage he does to that enemy. The third punch of his combo does more hits (up to four) depending on how close he is to the enemy he is attacking. His grabbing moves are also very powerful. He can slam enemies in three different ways, and he has a headlock attack that does the most damage in the game, but not with a single hit. It does five hits, but it can finish on any hit that kills early. The strongest single-hit move in the game is the Atomic Drop, which I already talked about earlier. His Thunder Tackle is also a pretty good move if you want to charge through enemies with power. The reason why he is the second best is because he moves and attacks at the slowest speed.
Skate is the fastest character in the game, but his primary combo certainly isn't. Skate may be lacking in some areas, but in others he excels. There is a running mechanic in the game, but the only one allowed to use it is Skate. I'll go more into this lack of consistency later, but running certainly helps Skate's evasiveness and further improves his speed, as it can also help grab an enemy mid-combo. Skate also has some interesting attacks, such as his overhead throw (which I also talked about earlier), his Migraine attack, and his Corkscrew Kick. The Corkscrew Kick's distance can actually be controlled by holding Left or Right on the d-pad. He does have some flaws, however. His primary combo isn't very strong or fast, his blitz can get interrupted due to the pause delay (I'll tell you about pause delay later on), his back attack is a back flip that can get him hit due to moving backwards into an enemy that is too close, and his overhead throw may leave him open to an enemy's attack just after he finishes it. Skate requires more practice than Axel and Max to master, but he can be effective when you get to know him better.
I consider Blaze the best character from the first game. Here, I'd say she is the worst of your options. Blaze's new primary combo for this game is rather slow, and her combo ender won't knock an enemy down like it should every time you use it. Her offensive special, the Kikoshou, is also so slow that she may get it out of it before it comes out, especially when you use it during a frontal grab. She jumps so high that her jumping attacks may go over or be hit by an enemy that is too close. Her blitz can also go over an enemy that's too close. And because of the game's stiffness with pause delay and whatnot, she can't simply walk to an enemy for a grab mid-combo. There are some things that Blaze can do right, on the other hand. Blaze's back attack actually hits in front of and behind her, although the hit in front of Blaze requires being pretty close to your enemy to hit in the first place. Some of her attacks, including her jumping attacks and weapon attacks, have good range. I also mentioned she does the only weapon combo in the game with a knife. Being a judo expert, Blaze has good grabbing moves to go with her move set, including her newly acquired frontal slam attack. Along with Blaze's character flaws, I have more of a personal gripe: I actually wish they had used the design and moves from the first game. Why use some slow kick that doesn't even knock down every time like it's supposed to when you could do a stylish back flip kick off your enemy? However, I still prefer the frontal slam over a recycled back flip kick as a grabbing attack, and Blaze's jumping kick has more range in this game. She also has the worst character design in this game than any other Blaze in the series. She isn't completely terrible, but she's still the worst of the bunch. Good luck trying to master this character in Streets of Rage 2.
MECHANICSI just do not like the gameplay in this game. First of all, when I play Streets of Rage 2, it feels so stiff and slow. In Streets of Rage 1, you could walk up to your enemy for a grab as you do your primary combo. This isn't so easily done, because you get pause delay whenever you hit something, so you can't move to grab mid-combo without your enemy hitting you as you walk. You have to be REALLY close to grab an enemy in the middle of your combo. I know that the light jump attack helps in that aspect, but you can get hit out of that, as well. That may also happen very likely due to having too much pause delay. And because you get slowed down by pause delay, your enemies have some more time to attack. Some of the attacks you can do in the game may not be able to finish because the pause delay stopped you enough to be hit out of it. Skate's blitz and Max's offensive special are some attacks I know experience this problem. There's even a jumping pause delay, which I think is more of a glitch than something intentional, but I wish it wouldn't happen ever. Even when you're not hitting something, you still aren't able to move for just a little bit. There's also the problem of jumping in only one direction and not being able to turn around in the air, like in the first game. So, if you make a jumping mistake, you can't fix it. You can't even attack behind you while in the air because of this issue.
Some things that you could do in the first game don't happen in this game. When I talked about characters and moves, I never mentioned team attacks or reversal throws. That's because Streets of Rage 2 doesn't have them. This makes grabbing your partner and being grabbed from behind much less wanted. The typical solution to being grabbed from behind is to special out of it, but you can't do that right away. If you are grabbed from behind and an enemy approaches for an attack, you will definitely get hit. There's also another solution, which is to mash the back attack command (Attack+Jump buttons together, or hold one and press the other) until you break free. That's not going to stop the guy who grabbed you from hitting you anyway (although Max has the special case of his back attack hitting first). It also doesn't even matter if another enemy approaches and hits you anyway. You'll be forced to special if you are in this situation without Max and no other enemies. And, of course, the problem with hitting enemies with the defensive special attack is that you lose health if it hits any enemies. In the case of grabbing your partner, you used to be able to take that time to perform a team attack, which is when you vault over or throw your partner, and the one in the air does a powerful aerial attack. This was a good reward for using teamwork in 2-Player Co-Op. In Streets of Rage 2, all you can really do is throw your partner, as he or she holds Up+Jump to avoid throw damage. However, it still doesn't do as much damage as a team attack from Streets of Rage 1, and you can't even do a reversal throw on your partner when you get grabbed from behind. At least it's better than the case of being grabbed from behind by an enemy. Levels in Streets of Rage 2 don't have as many interactive environments as Streets of Rage 1, but I'll get to that when discussing level design.
There are also some things that this game added that weren't done right. I already talked about how pause delay can get you into trouble, but let's look at some other things. There is also a running mechanic in the game, but it was only given to one character: Skate. I find this to be a strange design choice, considering how all of the playable characters in Golden Axe, a past SEGA beat ‘em up released in 1989, could run without such a ridiculous restriction. Even when in Streets of Rage 1, where none of the heroes could run, that at least kept consistency. Running would certainly help my problem with being much less able to grab mid-combo, but only Skate gets the running ability so the others have to get really close. And the collision in this game is off, at times. I've fought certain enemies that would manage to somehow go through my attacks because the way the collision is set up is just weird. I have also had my special attacks go through enemy attacks, but not actually hit them. I remember a time I was trying to avoid a jumping kick with Axel's special, but then that thing I just talked about happened. In terms of difficulty, the game can actually be pretty easy until later on the “Hardest” difficulty. Saying that it is the hardest mode is lying, because there is a secret difficulty level that the game reveals the secret code for when you finish it on the “Hardest” difficulty. That is the difficulty where things get really crazy. The game is even easier if you’re using Axel or Max, and I talked about how effective they are. The new moves and varied characters contribute to improvements in terms of gameplay, but there are also mistakes made in Streets of Rage 2 that ruin the experience for me.
WEAPONSLooking at the arsenal of weapons you can use in the game, there is the same amount of them as in the first game. Returning weapons are the knife and pipe from the first game. The new weapons include kunai knives, katanas, and grenades. The kunai knives handle like regular knives, and the katana handles just like a pipe, but much stronger. The grenades are not something that you get on your own, however. They are thrown only by biker enemies, and those who want to use them must do it quickly by picking them up after they are thrown. Never let them explode on you, whether or not you decide to pick them up. There isn't as much variety as in the first game, considering there are two pairs of weapons that handle the same as weapons that were from the first game. Then again, the weapons in Streets of Rage 1 weren't too varied either. I just wish the bottle and pepper shaker would return in this game. Still, the weapon
selection is pretty good. My favorite weapon is the katana for being the most powerful weapon and not having high risk to pick up like the grenade.
ENEMIESThe enemy roster is bigger than the one from the first Streets of Rage. You have returning enemies from the first game that were changed around either a lot or a little for Streets of Rage 2, but you will also find new enemies such as some new street thugs, bikers, boxers, kick boxers, guys on jetpacks, ninjas, and more. Returning enemies consist of types of enemies that came from the first game, but have gotten changes in move sets, designs, and even names. Some have even been either promoted to a higher enemy tier or demoted to a lower enemy tier. One of the bosses from the first game, Bongo the fat fire-breather has been transformed into Big Ben, who is not an end-level boss. On the other hand, the dominatrix enemy Nora from the first game was just a regular enemy that appeared quite frequently and in every level. In Streets of Rage 2, the new dominatrix enemy is named Electra and serves as a mid-boss in most levels, but not all.
Some of the returning enemies from Streets of Rage 1 also had some of their features given to other characters. For example, Garcia (or Galsia in Streets of Rage 2) picked up lead pipes, spawned and threw knives, and could grab players from behind in the first game. Here, the knife-spawning and knife-throwing features were given to one of the mid-bosses, and the pipe-wielding and grabbing features were given to the bikers. Enemies in this game also show off new moves like anti-air moves and even special attacks. I suppose recycling enemies' features from the first game to give to the new enemies contribute to the roster's variety. But that just means we're seeing things that happened before, but with different-looking enemies. I still like the fact that they kept those features to begin with, and there are still new kinds of things enemies can do, so I'm not bothered by this too much. A more significant problem that I have with the enemies is that some of the regular enemies like Galsia and Donovan keep around the same amount of health for most of the game, but at least not so much later in the game. Overall, I think the enemies were handled pretty well.
LEVELSLike in the first game, there are eight levels to play through. In Streets of Rage 1, every level had one scene only. In Streets of Rage 2, every level has multiple scenes to fight in. This expands the level size and length and adds more variety. You'll be fighting in scenes like a bar, a truck, a jungle base, an underground arena, and even a baseball stadium. In the popular amusement park stage, you will find many scenes to fight through.
You will notice from the first level in the game that the screen will scroll diagonally down and right, but that's the only diagonal direction it ever scrolls. In fact, the first Streets of Rage had a level where the screen scrolled to the left.
The levels in Streets of Rage 2 are certainly prettier than the first game's levels, considering all of the graphical improvements over the first game, but they lack environmental interactivity. The closest to thing to interactive level environments is the one scene in the game where they put conveyor belts. You could also take advantage of any walls in the various scenes you play through and keep several enemies pinned to them, especially in a diagonally scrolling or elevator section. Still, there is not one pit to help dispose of enemies found in Streets of Rage 2. In fact, one of the elevator scenes that I thought should have a pit didn't have it. Streets of Rage 1 also had crusher machines in its factory level, but Streets of Rage 2 doesn't do much of anything for interactive level environments.
I should also point out that some of the settings of the levels in Streets of Rage 2 have been used in the first game already. In both games, you fight on a bridge, a boat, a beach, and a factory. I won't count the city streets or the syndicate headquarters because I believe those should normally be shared the way they were, as they fit as the first and final levels.
Also, some of the scenes in the game have the craziest enemy placement on higher difficulties. There are multiple occasions where you end up fighting off multiple jet-pack enemies, and there are just general cases where it gets too crowded with really strong or annoying enemies. Yes, you can try to avoid enemy trigger points by traversing the scene at a slower pace, but there are times when you cannot avoid it.
I like the fact that there are more scenes in each level and that they look better than levels from the first game, but I would like some interactive level environments in a game to help make things more interesting and varied. The whole game is mainly walk right on plain ground and fight enemies. And I know that what side-scrolling beat 'em ups are known for, but the interactive environments expand on variety in level design. I liked when Double Dragon had platforming sections because it added to the variety needed in order to help break up the monotony of doing the same thing constantly. The overall level design of the game is okay, but not that great.
CONCLUSIONStreets of Rage 2 has overall great presentation, as the graphics and soundtrack are great. However, the gameplay isn't all that. It seems slower and stiffer than the first game. There were also times when I almost fell a
sleep because the game wasn't as fun as the first one. Granted, there were new additions to the gameplay of this game that I did like. The new moves and more varied heroes and villains are indeed improvements. It's just too bad that some things were left out of this new engine that came from Streets of Rage 1. I especially think that some of the weapons and moves from the first game should have made it into Streets of Rage 2. And then there are things that Streets of Rage 2 adds that aren't quite done right. The overdone pause delay is part of what makes this game so stiff, and the only character that can run is Skate, which makes no sense at all. The difficulty doesn’t really increase so much until late “Hardest”. I think you're very likely to disagree with me, knowing how popular this game is, but I think this is the worst game of the 16-bit Streets of Rage trilogy.
I'm sorry to say this, but I give this game a 5.5/10.
It's a shame, because I saw potential in this game as I began to play it, but it disappoints me with its gameplay flaws today.
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 3 Story 3 Depth 6 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3.3/5
Submitted: 06-16-14
Updated: 03-09-18
Review Replies: 0
6.3
Streets of Rage 2: It continues justinfeena1
The second Streets of Rage game for Genesis.
Story:
Mr. X the syndicate boss has come back and kidnapped on of Alex's friends. Now together with 3 friends Alex goes on a trip to fight Mr. X and his criminals. The story is simple of course, but enough for the game.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is simple: you're walking from the left to the right and up and down and beat up the criminals with punches and kicks. Sometimes you get some weapons like pipes or knives to fight them and to heal yourself you can find food. Unfortunately the fights are not very dynamic and there are just a few combos. At the beginning you can choose of 4 players and each one got its own combos and moves. Another good thing is the pacing and balancing of the game. It starts of easy and with each new stage the enemies and bosses get harder.
Graphic/Stages:
The graphic itself is good and the characters are very detailed but the stages, even there are many different, are not very spectacular and don't have any highlights.
Sound:
The sound of the game is good, nothing special but it matches well to the mood of the game.
Conclusion:
Streets of Rage 2 is a cool fighter with a cool mood and music but unfortunately with just a few combos and not very dynamic fights. In the end I can say that I had my fun with Streets of Rage 2 but I'm a bit disappointed because I expected some more dynamic fights.
Graphics 7 Sound 7 Depth 4 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3.2/5
Submitted: 09-10-11
Review Replies: 2
9.9
#SaveAdam classgame
Of course this game got a sequel why wouldn't we want to do this again. This is one of the most hacked games out there, there's even a version where you can play as the Simpsons (in their arcade form good luck finding it online it would make a perfect addition to this site) I mean there was a reason why when I reviewed that game that I called it Streets of Rage Springfield edition
Gameplay and Story: Well the Crime Syndicate is at it again one year after Mr.X is defeated and this time the entire police force has either been fired or re-assigned so no special backup but now our heroes have special attacks, this time Blaze and Axel are joined Axel's friend Max, a Big Mean Wrestler (I would recommend playing as him for a majority of the game) and Adam's little brother Skate (his real name is Eddie) Where's Adam you ask? well that's why they're doing this again; Adam went missing during his shift and we find out he's been kidnapped by X's minions and they are back in power worse than ever and they gotta get Mr.X out of there for good this time it's personal
Graphics: they're about the same as the last game but we see some noticeable changes especially in Blaze, looks like she's wearing Panty hoes this time
Soundtrack: Well I haven't really played this game enough to really have the soundtrack really make an impact with me (I wish I knew about the game's existence sooner)
Addictive: Well if I had this game 20 years ago I would have played this constantly but I don't think PnP games existed back then otherwise I would have loved to have gotten more games there, even if a majority of what was there were copies of Shaq Fu
Depth: we have eight stages again but this time they are bigger. Like there are stages to every stage, you don't fight the boss til you reach that end stage.
Difficulty: they have a set stage of difficulty however I think I have finished the game as each player (well technically you can change players inbetween continues in this game which is a good feature) but man there were moments when I played the third game where I wish we had Max in the game but I'll rant about that IF I ever get to finish that game. I even finished SoR 2 as Skate once (which is shockingly possible even though his power is only rated one star) And those ladies with the whips? they're electrified this time which to me is a crime against humanity wait what am I saying? the fact that we can't take the whips from them is a crime against humanity why is it we can take the whips in Double Dragon but not in Streets of Rage?
Post review Follow-up: Well I'm happy to say that I technically own this game considering that it's part of the Sega Genesis mini but I wish I owned this game
This concludes my review, join me tomorrow when I review The Magic School Bus explores Outer Space
Graphics 9 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-02-22
Review Replies: 0
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