Streets Of Rage 4 Review: 4 Ups & 3 Downs

Streets of Rage 4 is the revitalising sequel that everyone wanted but nobody thought could be delivered. The company, Dotemu, had the difficult task to make it stand against modern beat-em-ups while keeping the spirit of the original series. The developers could have botched the game with a modern redesign or converting it to 3D (as was the original intention when it was nearly released on the Dreamcast two decades ago).

Thankfully, the developing team maintained the old-school graphics, sound, and gameplay, making Streets of Rage 4 a masterful homage to the original series. The game has an incredible balance of being very easy for new players to pick up on but proves very challenging for the most dedicated fans of the franchise.

There is no question that the side-scrolling beat-em-up format is dated but what's wrong with that? Sonic Mania proved in 2017 that people are still eager for games of that era.

With the success of Streets of Rage 4, we will hopefully see more throwbacks to games of that generation (cough cough another Golden Axe cough). If we're really lucky, we won't have to wait another 30 years for Streets of Rage 5.