Streets of Rage 2

Streets Of Rage 2 developed by Sega and released in 1992 for the genesis is a very good 16-bit beat em up and will provide fun when playing solo or coop. The game has received multiple releases since then on the sega genesis collection for example, but the version I played for review was the playstation network version.

Streets of Rage 2 does a great job of executing the beat em up genre. It is pretty standard for the genre. The gameplay features side scrolling action, with various enemies and weapons to use. Some of the enemies include ninjas, regular bad dudes, biker gangs, and robots. The game has a few bosses that are reused throughout the levels with lower health. The bosses themselves can be fairly difficult, and it might take awhile to get their attack patterns down. Overall the bosses do feel kind of cheap, but the overall difficulty isn’t that bad. It is meant to be a tough game, and it is. The toughest parts are actually when multiple enemies are on the screen at once, and some of the last few levels in the game really ramp up the difficulty level. I haven’t played Streets Of Rage 1 yet, and in this game they have changed some stuff such as a cop car not coming in as a special attack and different weapons. There is a sword, a knife, a pipe, and a kunai to use in this game. The only weapons that are really useful are the pipe and the sword. You can also play as 4 different characters, with each having different stats. I preferred to play as Alex, who is the most all around character.

There is some story in the game, but like most titles of both the era and genre it is told with just a few static screens. The 4 characters are coming together to stop Mr. X for a second time, and this time he has kidnapped one of the playable characters from the first game. (ADAM) The story is there, but that’s not why you would play Streets Of Rage. The game has a nice design and presentation from the stage designs to the

enemy designs. Some of the enemies in the game are straight rips from other games such as bald bull (),adon/sagat (SF), and the ultimate warrior (wwf). It seems they were kind of lazy with some of the character design.

The graphics for the time are good, although I have seen better out of the genesis hardware. The stages are colorful and well done and include a baseball stadium, streets (duh), and an amusement park. The characters look pretty good as well. To me it seems that they spent more time on the stages, and less on the gameplay elements such as characters and explosions. The character animations are serviceable, but they seem a little stiff.

Overall Streets Of Rage 2 is a very good game to pick up and play, and I'm sure if you are a gamer that you have some version of this game lying around somewhere. Streets Of Rage 2 is pretty much the standard for the beat em up genre formula, but there are better games out there in the genre.

4.5 stars....(9.0)