Streets of Rage trilogy review by Jack Red

Hi everyone I'm Jack Red, honestly Streets of Rage is very high among my most treasured Sega games. All three of them are absolutely amazing games in their own right. In fact my sister in law at Otakon bought me a Streets of Rage hat. If that's not saying how much I love this series then what the hell will?

I just want to point out more clearly Streets of Rage 4 got allowed by Sega to be made by another team. There's a long history of attempts at Streets of Rage 4 including Fighting Force. Honestly I do plan on getting this game as soon as possible.

1. Streets of Rage (1991)

Believe it or not, this was the only Streets of Rage game I had as a kid. I know it's difficult to believe. Streets of Rage confirmed by Sega was created to compete with Final Fight on SNES. Which ended up having two slightly different SNES ports with the later only in Japan. You play as three characters Axel, Blaze and Adam to stop the corrupt businessman Mr. X.

No not the tyrant from Resident Evil 2, this Mr. X has a machine gun ho ho ho. For an early beat em up Genesis game it stands the test of time very well. Yes some enemies can attack you right before you do at times. Some bosses can be frustrating due to how they limit you from damaging them. Surprisingly none of them are flat out cheap like you expect from the genre.

OMG the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. I would even dare to say it's even better than Sonic 1's soundtrack I'm not kidding. There are eight levels with some interesting concepts. For example if you with another player reaches Mr. X at the end. He will ask if you would like to work for him. If one of the players says no then the two players must face each other for the bad ending.

Even doing this by yourself you have to replay the last three levels up to him again. But it will be tougher this time. Thankfully you will regain the ability to use your special move. Yes I should mention in this game your special move involves another cop firing at your enemies wiping most of them out.

This also does a lot of damages to the bosses. Once you reach level 8 you will no longer be able to use it. Also in this level you will be facing a lot of bosses you already defeated again. I would say the final level is easily one of my favorites among beat em up games. What you know about Final Fight like picking up weapons to attack enemies is slightly done better here.

2. Streets of Rage 2 (1992)

WOW this game is really good even for an beat em up game. This is easily one of the finest 2's games you will ever find on Sega consoles. Streets of Rage 2 improves on everything over the original. Axel & Blaze return with two new characters Max with Skate aka Adam's little brother. All four of them play incredibly different from each other.

Once again you will be playing through 8 levels. I felt some of these are some of the absolute best among beat em up games I'm not kidding. I would even say the bosses in this game are the best of the franchise. The soundtrack is so damn good that I actually consider it the best for an Sega game. It is in all seriousness that good.

Streets of Rage 2 made the levels beautiful, colorful & lively. This game has easy to pull off special moves. I would say all modes are more fun with another player. Now if you own this game on Steam you can use mods that do spice things up. Streets of Rage 2 chose to make level 8 mostly on an elevator going up to the final two bosses.

I felt this was a clever idea despite many classic beat em up games had elevator levels. It stands out since they added more boss fights with just enough breaks in between to keep the game being fun. This game is honestly so good you really don't mine constantly replaying it. A true master piece Sega proud to have under their belt.

3. Streets of Rage 3 (1994)

This game has a mixed reception among the fans Before I start breaking this game down. I highly recommend playing the original Bare Knuckle III over the US version. It sorta gets censored almost like Final Fight on SNES did a few years before. There is an extra boss removed from the US version named Mr. Ash.

This has the biggest roster of playable characters to date in the franchise. Axel, Blaze & Skate returns with Dr. Zan as the default characters. Believe it or not, three bosses or two in US version are hidden playable characters. All three of them aren't able of using weapons. Both Mr. Ash & Shiva requires as they're defeated to quickly input a code.

When you use a continue you can now select them. You also could do this to play as Roo the Kangaroo. Thankfully he is the only hidden character to have an alternate method of unlocking. You can input a code prior to going to the character selection. If you done it correctly Roo will now appear among all the playable characters.

The awesome codes doesn't stop there. Just like the previous two games there are codes for level select as well as adding more lifes & continues. This one lacks the extra Mania difficulty that's the hidden hardest difficulty. There is also super characters with infinite over powered special moves. There's two methods of achieving in the game.

1. As Skate quickly lose all your lifes to use up an continue without any points then among coming back you might become Super Skate

2. You must input a very tricky code to play as Super Axel that includes doing the same code clockwise until the game starts

If done correctly your characters will have very damaging specials to do ridiculous damages to the bosses. I should mention for some odd reason they reversed the color scheme for Axel. In the first two games in Japan, he is wearing a yellow shirt with black pants. They decided to use that in US version of SOR3 instead of his usual white shirt with blue pants.

There is also multiple endings with a few major changes to the story. It could even change whose the final boss. I know saving or not rescuing the chief in time is a condition for the endings. Another one is if you end up facing Robo X as the final boss. Defeating him in time or not will alter your ending. They really put a lot of thought into that.

I do agree the soundtrack isn't as good as the first two Streets of Rage games. There is a boss you have to defeat three times in the same level. There isn't much of a boss rush this time either. Honestly they could've done it like in TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist in it's boss rush level. Sorry I felt this game could've been more overall challenging.