Jack Red reviews Streets of Rage 4

Hi everyone I'm Jack Red, I couldn't be any happier with how SOR4 turned out. There were several attempts bringing back a few beat em up franchises. A couple of them didn't go far while this one blew everyone away. Considering a lot of years passed in real life since SOR3. The odds up to that point was heavily stacked against it.



Streets of Rage 4 takes place ten years after the previous game. Axel with his friends goes to stop Mr. X's children. Funny enough they are calling themselves Mr. & Mrs. Y I'm not kidding. I take it their grand children will be named Mr. or Mrs. Z lol. Let's be honest, this game is very good in every possible way.

I never thought I was going to say this but it is better than the original Streets of Rage game in my opinion. It does come so close to SOR2 bujt I don't consider that a disappointment. If anything they really went all out with this. The first two games has eight stages while SOR3 had 7 stages. SOR4 pushes you further in 12 stages.

I really liked they changed the boss health bars in this. In many beat em up games you either have to take down several health bars or beat them up until they are defeated or in some cases flashing colors. You get a nice size health bar with a picture of that boss. This does apply to a few times you face two bosses at once.

I also love they give you retro versions of several characters. Now that by itself was mind blowing to me. Now add in retro songs from the first two SOR games. Yeah this is a party I'll never leave. All new characters fits in perfectly bringing their own unique style to the game play. The older characters are greatly updated to help stand the test of time.

This game is out on several platforms. The crazy part is Sega wasn't involved as close as much as the original three games. A new team took such an ambitious project head on. I strongly believed they absolutely nailed it. I might be one of the select few reviewing this that played the only release game that nearly was SOR4.

Fighting Force was originally going to be that game. I have owned it on PlayStation 1 and more recently on Nintendo 64. This was the closest attempt at giving us SOR4 before a long time waiting for the actual game. There was also an attempt on Sega Dreamcast but then new board members chose to cancel the game.

The point is this could've easily been a disaster waiting to happen. Instead we ended up with a game that's really damn good. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing with great sound effects. They do introduce some new game play mechanics with my favorite being throwing a pipe at a short distance. If you remain close by, that pipe goes right back in your hands.

Geez they just got away with ripping off Star Wars lol. They actually given us a new refreshing take especially in how the story is told. It works way better than how SOR3 done that. The controls are perfect, you got some nice surprises. Like a handful of stages has an Bare Knuckle arcade cabinet. You need a taser to attack one of these to do a quick retro boss fight.

The last one gives you Shiva & Mr. X respectively. What do I think about his children? Mr. Y is a psychopath that really doesn't take orders or crap from anyone. His sister Mrs. Y is one of those queen bitch types. You know she has to rule it all getting angry at the very sight of a threat. He uses several weapons while she uses a sword.

I do like we get to fight them separately before the final boss fight where you face both of them. Also you have to deal with a giant robot during this too. I also like the new common enemies you'll face through out the game. The achievements/trophies ended up being way better than I was expecting them to be.

You also have arcade mode where you only get one credit aka continue to finish the game. Boss Rush mode with all the bosses excluding extra retro ones. You can play this with three other people online. The highest for this franchise yet. I also liked you can earn up points to unlock characters. Thus giving you more reasons to keep on playing.

Streets of Rage 4 is really well worth the wait. This game is in all honestly a miracle it ended up being this good. I am still blown how much work that went into this game. It is one of the finest beat em up sequels I ever played. I am proud as a long time fan as well as a huge Sega fan to own this. I strongly, highly, deeply recommend this game to everyone especially to fellow beat em up fans.