Streets Of Rage 4 Review: 4 Ups & 3 Downs

Although Streets of Rage 4 maintains the original trilogy's layout, the endless criminals you face have seriously upped their game. They can use shields, prevent you from picking up weapons, counter your moves, and catch projectiles you hurl at them.

But there is one mechanic which makes certain enemies much tougher. No matter how much you adored the old games, there is one broken mechanic that makes most encounters a walk in the park. After knocking down a baddie, you can perform a flying kick exactly when they are about to get up to knock them down again. If you do this over and over, you can easily defeat a mini-boss or boss without getting hit one single time. This strategy even works on the final bosses of the first three games.

But in Streets of Rage 4, the bosses stay standing when you perform a flying kick, meaning you have to act smarter to take them down. The fact that every boss develops new tactics halfway through each fight also forces the player to stay on their toes at all times.