Review

Gameplay 80%

Streets of Rage is a classic arcade style action game that first came out on Sega’s 16-Bits console back in 1991 to compete against the popular Double Dragon and Final Fight titles. The objective of a Beat ’em Up is simple, defeat all enemies on the screen, walk a few steps, and repeat the process until you reach the Stage Boss.   You have a virtual D-Pad on the bottom left part of the screen to move around, and on the right side there are the 3 Sega Genesis Buttons, each for a different action. One for attacking, another one for jumping, and the last one to call a teammate and perform a special attack. When you hit an enemy, you can keep pressing the attack button to perform a combo, which ends with a final blow that sends the opponent to the ground. You can also jump and perform a flying kick, which knocks down enemies, but they get up faster than if you’ve performed a combo on them. Besides using your fists, you can pick up weapons such as throwing knifes, baseball bats, steel pipes, broken glass bottles, whips and more to defeat the waves of enemies coming at you. When you’re overwhelmed, you can press Jump+Attack at the same time to do a special moves the knocks down all enemies close to you, but you’ll lose a little of your health bar if you do so. You can also press the Special Attack button, which calls a police patrol car and a cop launches a rocket that explodes hwere you are, and greatly damages all enemies on the screen; but you can only use it once per life. You start out with 3 lives, each one with a health bar. You can pick up food items to replenish your health, and by winning points by defeating enemies, you can boost your score to earn a new life every 10,000 points. If you lose all lives, you can choose to continue in the level you lost, or start over.

Graphics 78%

Streets of Rage may have looked great for a home console game about 3 decades ago, and while the overall art design looks pretty good, the low resolution and lack of color seems a little dated on a modern HD display.   Overall it looks like a dark action comic from the time it came out, and there’s variety in the backgrounds. You start fighting on a bright casino, go to slum alleys, then the beach, later a factory, enter an office building, fight at the park and so on. The enemies are also pretty unique, of course you start with generic thugs, but then you get masked wrestlers, hunters with boomerangs, martial artists, and even clowns juggling axes before throwing them at you. The animation is also a little stiff, with characters having very few animated frames, so they don’t look as smooth and makes the game kind of dull to watch. The visuals of this title may not have aged as well as Neo-Geo classics such as Metal Slug, but are still acceptable for this day.

Production Quality 70%

Other than bringing back the classic Streets of Rage to modern mobile devices, it seems that Sega didn’t make any more modifications, and you end up with basically the same experience as the one in Sega Genesis.   You can play Co-Op via local wi-fi multiplayer, can use a controller for mobile games, and there’s a leaderboard to compare yourself with players all over the world, but is basically just a port of an old title. The only real addition is that now you can save your progress, when back in the original cartridge you had to start over once you turned off the Genesis/MegaDrive. It should be said that the music is great, and still holds up to this day. Is quite catchy, and you’d probably want to hear the chiptune beats of Bare Knuckle (original name in Japan) outside of the game.

Value for your Money 95%

Streets of Rage is free on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Now you can have the original game with you everywhere without expending a dime. There’s video advertising, but that’s to be expected, and if you’re a good player and never lose, you’ll hardly see an ad.

Launch Video

Summary

Streets of Rage may have been a total blast in the early 90’s, when the Beat ’em Up genre was at the height of its popularity, but for the modern player, the experience may not be that great. Is still a recommendable game for everyone that enjoys a good action/fighting free game, but compared to similar titles coming out nowadays, it may seem to simple; but retro players that enjoyed Brawler Arcades, just have to download it now. Pros

• Sega’s awesome Genesis hit available for free
• It has a save option and multiplayer
• The music still sounds great to this day

Cons

• Graphics look dated, with few colors and low resolution
• Just a port with very few new features

Game Help Guru Rating 79%