STREETS OF RAGE HISTORY - A MOVIE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY!

the year is 1990 and we are at the dawn of the 16-bit console wars the mega drive is a fairly new system first seen released in japan of 1988. we are not yet at the point in time where sega have become particularly popular and the system is still being outsold by both the nintendo famicom and pc engine placing sega in third place in the console wars these systems are not the only problem for sega though as the same year would also see the release of the super famicom nintendo's very own 16-bit console putting further pressure on the gaming company so sega would have to soon innovate to be competitive amongst the super nintendo's early library was a home port of the popular game final fight an arcade game that had previously received game of the year awards for its overall quality as mentioned in last week's video covering the game final fight was a beautiful title for 1989 and somewhat of a technical marvel that had built on and improved on everything that taito had achieved with their double dragon 2 game previously the title that played the largest influencing factor in the game's development final fight is and was one of the greatest arcade games ever made for nintendo getting a title that carried such name value on the super nintendo was a huge win for the company but the port had a lot of flaws most notably far less enemies on the screen missing areas less playable characters but shockingly of all no two player co-op mode a feature that was possibly most alluring of all when it came to playing final fight in the arcades as all of this was going on sega were taking note the company were already no strangers to the beat-em-up genre and had seen success with the release of golden axe golden axe had released in 1989 in the arcades the same year that final fight had arrived and the game had even been ported over to the sega mega drive that same year too the arrival of golden axe on a home console would be much smoother than that of final fight and the title on a home system was much more faithful to the game found in the arcades most importantly all the game's two-player co-operative play features remained intact which as stated earlier is a fundamentally important feature of a game of this nature golden axe was a hugely popular game set in a conan the barbarian style high fantasy medieval world however obviously stylistically very different the final fight a game that had a very different feel to it which was arguably even cooler looking than golden axe so in a quest to release a final fight style game of their very own and one that would actually allow cooperative play on a home system sega would task team shinobi the people behind the very gritty revenge of shinobi game with making a new beat'em up that would use the golden axe engine yet stylistically look more like final fights streets of rage would first see release in japan in august of 1991 under the title of bare knuckle the game will be published by sega and directed by nori yoshi oba the same man who headed the super shinobi series and have previously worked as a planner on wonderboy in monster land bare knuckle was a game that had been made bespoke for the sega mega drive system this meant that the game ran perfectly on the hardware and two-player cooperative play functioned well in fact the game could be experienced in the arcade 2 anyway via the sega megatech system the arcade unit that featured eight internal cartridge slots allowing the arcade operators to change what games are available to play streets of rage was one of the games made available for this unit and like other titles on the system played exactly the same as at home the only real change with the arcade version of the title was it provided additional data for the top screen of the megatech units which displayed the system's menu but in terms of streets of rage or bare knuckle history the arcade release of the game is a mere footnote and it is the mega drive version that changed home console gaming forever the game opens up with a star wars-esque opening scroll giving you the game's basic story the write-up is laid over images of skyscrapers that are being panned across in the background this straight away gives you an indication of the game setting upon reading the text you will probably notice the plot shares similarities with final fight if the game is set in a dangerous city overrun and controlled by crime syndicates this time though you play as a group of police officers who have sworn to clean up this crap hole the game's opening texts read they are willing to risk anything to achieve this even their lives when playing streets of rage the influence of its predecessors and contemporaries could not be more clear like in golden axe which had seen released just two years prior you control characters as you fight your way through various stages with enemies appearing from both sides as well as other locations this game very much follows the established arcade bitmap formula stylistically you will instantly notice that streets of rage very much achieved its goals overlooking and playing similar to final fight and we will discuss more about the mechanics and level design shortly once again like final fight the game starts out by prompting you to pick one or three characters each of which have their own unique set of variant attributes the three characters as mentioned are all police officers in their early twenties although each is set to be a master of a different fighting technique the black guy adam hunter is a boxer the white guy axel stone is a martial artist and blaze miguel is a specialist judo expert more important than their fighting styles though is how the game lays out their attributes blazers are good at jumping and possesses speed but lux power adam is powerful only jump high but lacks speed whereas axel is fast and powerful but no good at jumping i would say that this is a great reference to this movie however sadly streets of rage predates it by a year ultimately no character in my opinion is better than the other and it just comes down to personal preference with which one you choose to play as in terms of controlling these characters streets of rage takes advantages of the mega drive's early three button controller many players will start out the game by hitting a which is the character's special move that simply serves as a screen nuke the b button is for attacking and the c button is for jumping if you take the a button from the screen nuking out of the equation the control schemes like the game's visuals is once again very similar to final fight with all moves being executable via the use of the two buttons on the controller's directional pad each of the three characters have a simple bass strike and attack which is achieved simply by tapping the attack button and combos can be performed when this button is tapped four times consecutively german attacks are performable when hitting the attack button in mid-air and rear attacks are possible when hitting the jump and attack button simultaneously grappling and rear throws are also possible via hitting the attack button whilst holding down a directional pad grappling combos can also be achieved by hitting the attack button consecutively whilst grappling as you may notice thus far all of this is very final fighting although the game builds on established mechanisms further by implementing even more tactical maneuvers into the mix more reversals are possible when an enemy grabs you and you can even land safely when thrown if you press up at the correct time prior to landing changes do not simply end here though because as mentioned unlike final fight on the super nintendo streets of rage offers two-player cooperative play much like final fight's original arcade outing this home console game though enhances cooperation further as team attacks are executable in this one this includes the ability to hold an enemy in place whilst your teammate pummels them and the ability to vault over others on the playing field so looking at the controls and basic gameplay structure so far although very much built on final fight sega's game was a lot more than a simple copy and paste of a successful game and they added many mechanics to make the game arguably even better than the 1989 classic and leagues ahead of the super nintendo port now moving on to the game's stages the player or players in many cases must make their way fighting through eight stages known as rounds in this game another trope taken directly from final fight like in other beat em ups there is an assortment of different reoccurring enemies to take down each of which feature different attacks and movement patterns apart from using your arsenals of moves to take these down once again like in double dragon and final fight weapons can be picked up and used in order to inflict extra damage amongst the items located on stage floors are also objects that allow us to replenish health repeat special attacks and even gain extra lives within these stages or rounds as the games like to call them the character sprites look graphically very different from those founded in final fight these sprites in streets of rage appear to be smaller and offer less detail than those found in the capcom classic a case could be argued though that they're smaller in scale nature allows them more range of movement across the game's screen if axel and co-inflated to hagger and company size though they would look very pixelated and inferior indeed but all in all satan did an awesome job with their sprites for such an early mega drive title back when developers were still learning how to get the best out of the hardware the first round of the game takes place late at night in a neon light laden street whilst the game was released in 1991 the opening stage reeks of 80s glory and looks like the sort of backdrop we would associate with the period today modern homage to 80s martial arts movies such as the short film kung fury for example draw upon this sort of aesthetic speaking of this art direction it was famously used in the 1984 film streets of fire a movie that decided to have served as some of the inspiration for the story and gameplay found within both double dragon 2 and final fight so it appears that streaks of rage has gone one step further with this inspiration by including stages that look even more similar to the film and even going as far as to have a very similar name if you want to see a movie that looks to have heavily influenced an entire video game genre then watch streets of fire moving through to round two this trend continues in fact the second stage looks remarkably similar to the first stage found in final fight a stage where you walk past multiple dilapidated looking buildings round three is also similar to a final fight stage featuring your characters walking past multiple palm trees with a city backdrop behind some of the enemies even look similar too including this dominatrix looking whip-wielding sprite who looks remarkably similar to poison round 4 once again looks very final fight a stage featuring a waterfront in the evening with the lit up city in the background in some ways the games are so similar it almost pulled us on plagiarism i guess at least the characters are walking across a bridge at this time round five takes place on a boat although not a stage copied from final fight stage design is very similar to the train stage found within that game both stages focus on fast scrolling through the vehicle windows to emphasize movement and both stages see the ground itself moving to illustrate motion even further it is interesting at how similar the design of these two games are round six is a constructiony sort of area with multiple obstacles across the level which is once a cane also featured in final fight round seven starts out in a lift again a final fight feature before making your way through to round eight a trump tower like posh building featuring gold pillows once again just like in final fight basically until i made two videos one after the other on these two games i never truly realized how similar they were as i had never looked at them back to back before but i am really shocked at how similar most of the stages seem to look once again like final fight a phrase i am getting tired of using in this video most of the stages each have their own unique disproportionately large boss each with their own attack pattern that must be memorized and mastered in order to easily beat the final boss fight is unique as the game offers multiple endings based on whether or not you or your partner choose to join him in fact if you make opposite choices then you even have the opportunity to fight each other about your opposing views the multiple different scenarios that can play out at the end of this game was a fairly fresh and innovative concept for the time particularly for a game in the beat'em up genre once again a little cherry on top that makes streets of rage such a special little game on release this game was universally praised by journalists and well received everywhere as a result megatech magazine's review said it had excellent sprites backdrops and brilliant music adding great gameplay and simultaneous two-player action and you've got an essential buy later down the line mega plays the game at number six in its top mega drive games of all time list illustrating this title's lasting appeal past this point the mega drive would not be the only system to receive this game and the following year of 1992 would see streets of rage arriving on a handheld system this game gear version of the game would as expected to be extremely scaled back on the simple 8-bit hardware and as a result would only feature 5 out of the 8 original cuts were made when poor adam was axed from the game reducing the play choice down to just axl and blaze as expected with a handheld entry the graphics had been scoured down to suit a handheld system but still leaps and bounds officially more pleasing than anything that ever arrived on the game boy due to this title being on the game gear two-player cooperative play is no longer possible but all in all i would not be complaining about this title if i picked it up for a handheld in 1992. sega did quite a good job really the game would be ported again in 1993 this time over to sega's 8-bit home console the sega master system quite a funny move really as this would be like nintendo deciding to bring mario odyssey out on the wii u but several years after the switch launch but i guess the 90s was a different time the sega master system was still extremely popular in brazil at this point and had large audiences in europe and australia too so it just made sense to put this big ip on the popular 8-bit platform whilst architecturally the master system and the game gear are very similar surprisingly this game is a completely different port which is much closer to the mega drive version streets of rage for the master system features all eight stages all three playable characters and as you can see was ported in a cracking effort on such simplistic hardware you simply would not find the game on the nes that looks this good it is just a shame that this bright polished entry does not seem to feature cooperative play but all in all sega opened up the streets of rage franchise to a larger audience than simply their 16-bit mega drive market these 8-bit versions of the game are much more impressive than all of the 8-bit micro computer ports of final fight but i guess this illustrates the quality differences between games published by sega and those by us gold yuck in august of 1991 sega released the first ever streets of rage game the game was created using the same engine as golden axe but was reimagined to look and play similarly to final fight due to the fact that final fight was a hugely popular arcade game and debuted on the super nintendo as a console exclusive arcade versions of the game aside streaks of rage on the mega drive was superior to final fight's home port on the super nintendo with the most important factor being that streets of rage featured two-player cooperative play where as final fight on the super nintendo would leave the feature out for this reason streets of rage brought a true beat-em-up arcade experience home whereas final fight was just yet another regular single-player console experience streets of rage instantly not only become one of the best games available on the sega mega drive but instantly one of the greatest console games to exist full stop and a justifiable reason to want to own the hardware over that of the competition the first game known as bare knuckle in japan was such a smash hit that developing a sequel to the game was simply a no-brainer sega were keen to create this game as quick as possible in order to continue to rapidly expand their system library and remain competitive against nintendo keeping all of this in mind sega would aim to have this title released before christmas of 1992 in north america just over a year after the original game debuted on the system in order to achieve this sega would pull in a lot of outside help and would recruit several development teams to work with them on an ad-hoc basis in order to get this game out in time for the festive period some of the game's programming some planning and some graphic design was outsourced to a company known as shout design works this studio was newly established in 1992 by akishi imai a dot artist who had previously worked to atlas in fact some of the game's main programming and system design can both be accredited to shout eminem software would also be tasked to work on the title they too would take on planning aspects in the development of the game and would be given the responsibility of handling the game sound driver eminem stands for this which translates everyone making money together harmoniously an ethic that company founder mikito ichikawa stood by this inspirational individual was upset with japanese working culture and had gone on record to state i had seen people take credit for other people's hard work not only that i had witnessed several deaths from overwork managers took advantage of shy and modest programmers they would pick some programmers as lead and these programmers would work so hard thinking we were chosen we must work hard they would eventually burn out sometimes the worst awaited them i thought this was very wrong but these things were allowed to happen without anyone even questioning the situation i decided to start my own company where i wouldn't allow such things to happen sadly as we know this negative aspect of japanese culture still persists to this day contributing to the country having one of the highest suicide rates in the world however it is nice to know that some individuals including those who worked on streets of rage 2 had been recognizing and trying to tackle these issues for quite some time demo programming and some of the enemy sprite work was carried out by hic and work was also carried out on the game by ancient who would play a huge role in developing various sega games for many many years ancient would arguably take on some of the largest aspects of the title's development this would include further game planning the game's main design including the background objects and many of the game's characters ancient would also create the game's legendary composition and sound effects under the leadership of yuzo koshiro so as you can now see the development of streets of rage 2 was a huge undertaking and an impressive collaborative effort between four different development studios along with sega who were overseeing the entire project the game was also programmed by many other team members who worked on the original game the game was made to be bigger and better than any mega drive game that had been made before it and all of this was made possible due to the programmers improving the mega drive cartridge specification which allowed the team to add more features and additional memory cash by creating 16 megabyte cards all these efforts would hugely pay off since as we know the game was both a commercial and critical success in fact we can go as far to say that this is commonly regarded as the best entry in the series the best game in the meetup genre and one of the greatest video games of all time there is so much information on this iconic games development out there and i shall touch on some of the interesting tidbits regarding it throughout this video but first let's focus on how this game functions and what makes the game in many people's minds stand above the original entry just like with the real life release in the game's story one year has passed since the events of the first game and for the feat of mrx and his criminal organization one day blaze receives a phone call from skate the younger brother of adam a playable character from the previous game it turns out mr x is back has kidnapped adam and has retaken the streets this simple story establishes the game's narrative putting the player back on the streets fighting through waves of enemies with this time stakes being even higher than ever before for the most part streets of rage 2 remains largely unchanged from its predecessor in terms of gameplay however there are some notable changes that set this game apart from the game that came before it for starters streets of rage 2 features much bigger sprites bolder backgrounds and even diagonal scrolling which was included in the opening stage to really separate this game from what came before it a case could be made that the original streets of rage game 4 the mega drive featured more impressive gameplay than the original final fight arcade game but final fight still held the graphical edge with bigger and more impressive sprites streets of rage 2 rectified this by offering a game that looked arguably even prettier than the arcade classic game a woman known as ayano koshiro of the development house ancient came up with the characters special moves and attacks whilst the first streaks of rage game was heavily inspired by final fight ayano was inspired by a newer and even more successful capcom game with that of course being street fighter 2. regarding this in the past she has stated there was also a certain flow to the fighting that we wanted i'm sure you've played street fighter 2 my brother and i did too we liked it so much we bought a cabinet and had it installed in the officer ancient my brother and i like the way they fought in street fighter 2 and between the two of us a shared vision of the fighting of streets of rage 2 arose two jabs followed by a straight punch there's some heavy hits and the enemy goes flying that kind of flow had to be in there in regards to the game's combat ayano also goes on to explain why streets of rage 2 features a different playable lineup of fighters than the previous game axle and blaze remain but as mentioned earlier adam is now gone with him being kidnapped as an excuse for him no longer being a playable character in reality the team at ancient felt that adam didn't really bring anything different to the table than that of axel with the character sprites being much bigger in the new game ayano wanted the characters to have more varied attacks and movement and the introduction of two further characters was just a quick and practical way of achieving this change the two new characters first include skate adam's younger brother who we mentioned earlier skate was designed to be a super maneuverable character with a tricky style that requires some skill he was made with experienced bitmap players in mind the other new character is of course the pro wrestler known as max who i guess is streets of rage's answer to haggar max obviously has a power style who was partially created due to ayano's brother yuzo adoring throw-based characters ayano viewed the roster as well balanced giving players a choice between using two very standard characters and two quirky new ones speaking of the characters in streets of rage 2 and the game's combat inspired by street fighter 2 the characters each have their own unique blitz attack which allow players to deal colossal amounts of damage with a single hit they can also execute what is known as breakout moves which are used to break holes which allow players to damage enemies from both in front of and behind them players must use blitz and breakout moves strategically though as using them decreases the character's life bar a mechanic that seems to have been plucked right from final fight characters all have unique moves too for example axel can execute a grand uppercut the unique moves do substantial damage without the need to deplete the player's own life bar in terms of the game's stage design from the opening stage alone you can see that a lot of influence has been drawn from the previous game however everything looks bolder brighter and more beautiful than it ever did before as mentioned earlier a standout feature of the stage is some of the diagonal scrolling instantly indicating to the player that although they are playing something familiar they will be in for a different and even more impressive experience later in the stage you soon find yourself brawling through a bar area another element used in final fight that was not included within the first streets of rage game by the time you get through to the second stage you find yourself crossing the bridge featuring a beautiful nighttime city backdrop a theme we will once again be very familiar with if you've played streets of rage or final fight however brand new mechanics are quickly introduced with the inclusion of motorcycle riding enemies a new element completely for the genre whilst stage one and two both really established to the player that they are experiencing a new streets of raid game in terms of aesthetics stage 3 really begins to mix things up as you fight your way through a dazzling theme park that even sees your characters battling on a pirate ship of all things stage four though is where the developers really start getting a bit more experimental as the level is alien themed going back to ayano kashiro once again she provides insight on this stage by stating the biggest influence on that stage progression was probably the contra series each stage in contra is like whoa and gives a sense of backstory to the game it's not conveyed in words of course but i think you get a sense of it just from the stage progression she also mentions that streets of rage 2 was filled with things that my friends and i loved back then you remember the enemy jack the one with the knife his palette swap is called bino these names jacombino came from this soybean candy we all loved stage five takes place in what appears to be a park near the theme park from stage three which serves as a backdrop for the stage eventually the player descends down a lift i guess because what would a beater might be without a lift segment eventually ending up in an underground boss encounter stage six takes place both below and above the deck of a moving boat if you can remember back a moving boat stage is also included in the first streets of rage game which seemed to be inspired from the moving train stage from final fight these style stages look great due to ground moving below the players and the scenery scrolls in the background a great style stage that seems to be a staple of beaten ups the following stage starts out on a beautiful beach which soon seems to play a fight in their way down the road monroe becomes more war-torn looking as the player progresses with further cracks in the concrete appearing barbed wire fences popping up along with sandbag barricades hordes of bite riding enemies also confront the player on this route from everything we have just seen it seems that during this part of the game it is designed to seem like the player is progressing closer and closer to the final boss encounter first they crossed the sea landed on a beach and more enemies barriers and obstacles start appearing as they approach closer to the boss's keep the level design tells a story in streets of rage 2 in itself much like what ayano was mentioning when talking about contra earlier the 7th stage features the factory-style trope of these sort of games and includes conveyor belts robots more lifts and everything you would expect from a level of this style in fact it seems that the player continues to progress in an upward motion until finally you seem to reach atop a tower on stage 8 wherever final boss encounter eventually takes place the last level is a gauntlet that throws everything in the player's direction in a typical final frontier fashion which ultimately ends in a showdown with mr x which we shall get to shortly in streets of rage 2 you will notice that many of the enemy sprites have just as much detail applied to them as the playable fighters a lot of scrutiny went into the production of each of these and koshiro of ancient found the process of each of the enemy's creations very frustrating at times to quote her she said this was down to the quality of the enemy pixel art we got back from the people we outsourced that work to i had to have them redraw it so many times somehow what i was saying just wasn't getting through to them in the end i had to do it myself i retouched a lot of the backgrounds myself too but i will say that the backgrounds done by nakai satoshi were amazing stuff like the area where you're inside the ship the atmosphere of the pipes and the rust i was amazed at what he pulled off with such a limited colour palette the amount of different looking diverse enemies paired with the stages beautiful bold backdrops are just a few of many elements that make streets of rage too special but the staff working at ancient were certainly key players in achieving these feats amongst the stage enemies each level of course also has a boss encounter each paired with a unique attack pattern to add to the game's challenge and strategy the last throws of the game feature the player ascending the lift putting their learned skills to the test facing off against all the bosses again in a boss rush gauntlet those who master this challenge can only then face off against the machine gun wielding mr x atop the tower in an attempt to finally beat this game once and for all all of the enthralling action and beautiful artwork in this game is of course accompanied by what many consider to be one of the greatest in-game soundtracks in all of history most of the game's compositions were composed by yuzo koshiro a man who nintendo power once stated was arguably the greatest game music composer of the 16-bit age these streets of rage 2 soundtrack is considered the head of its time featuring a blend of swagger in-house synths dirty electro funk and even early trance elements three of the fantastic tracks in the game were created by moto hero karashima a japanese video game composer and techno producer who would go on to work on streets of rage 3. when this game finally reached shelves in december of 1992 the game obviously received a wide level of critical acclaim gamepro gave it a perfect score of 5 out of 5 stating that against the final fights and super double dragons of the world streets have raised 2 more than fencer itself and concluded it to be the side-scrolling street fighter to beat game fans gave the game a score of 97 describing it as the best fighting game and the best side-scrolling fighter they ever played praising the gameplay graphics sound effect and music concluding it to be the best fighting sequel of 1992 sega force reviewers gave it a score of 95 stating it is definitely the best beat-em-up on any console and the best things have happened to mega drive owners since the rise of a certain blue hedgehog mini machines sega gave it a 90 score with one reviewer describing it as a truly arcade quality beat em up that beats the spot off any neo geo beat'em up and also mentioned that if you don't like beat em ups buy it anyway because this game will convert you further from the game's quality itself being praised the reception for the soundtrack was so high that the game's music composer yuzo koshiro was even invited to nightclubs to dj the tracks bearing everything in mind we have gone through and looked at in this video it is very easy to see why so many people considered this title to be the greatest seg game of all time many believe that streets of rage 2 offered the mega drive's finest hour and where games such as sonic 3 were great fun and something that offered players a different experience there were still platforming games out there which were very hard to argue with being better such as super mario well or super mario brothers 3. streets of rage 2 on the other hand is different though as it is difficult to argue a case for any beat-em-up on the super nintendo to even being close to the level of greatness that streets of rage 2 could offer on release the game had no rivals in the home and can still stand its ground today when compared side by side with any kind of arcade beat'em up the game really is that good everything about the game offers close to a perfect gameplay experience from the game's stunning visuals that were painstakingly refined before being given approval to the impressive combat mechanics that were heavily influenced by street fighter 2. this game was next level stuff and was made even more memorable thanks to the god tier music in the game that was mostly composed by yuzo koshiro what a game streets of rage 2 is as expected the second streets of rage game was yet another huge commercial success for sega so the creation of a third entry in the series would be a no-brainer for the corporate entity the only problem you could argue that sega had here is that how do you top a game that is already near perfect so let's begin looking at streets of rage 3 and see exactly what sega did to try and tackle this tall challenge streets of rage 3 known as bare knuckle 3 in japan would once again be a title with an ambitiously short development cycle for such an important game the game would release in japan in march of 1994 just 15 months after the release of the second game in the series just like with the development of the first two games a lot of heart and passion was put into the game sadly so much so that not even all of the ideas could even be used as demonstrated by this early pre-release screenshot illustrating the section of the game where the players got to ride motorcycles the game was published by sega was once again developed in yet another collaborative effort with ancient once again a development house with the uzo kashiro at for helm who we shall speak about more later in the video as mentioned earlier there was a huge jump in quality between the first two streets of rage games due to most areas of the second entry being more refined than that of the first when it came to streets of rage 3 sega and ancient would set out to achieve a similar feat in order to try and make this reality streets of rage 3 would be programmed to include a more complex plot character dialogue even more multiple endings longer stages increased difficulty options more in-depth scenarios and even faster gameplay so let's talk about some of these elements and how they impacted on the game's overall quality the plot of the game once again revolves around the series antagonist mr x the leader of a dangerous crime syndicate this time around mr x has started a questionable research company known as robocy corporation as part of his evil scheme he has brought dr darm on board the world's best roboticist together they look to replace every important official in the city with realistic looking robots this is hoped to be achieved by placing bombs around the city as a distraction for the police to deal with this brings us to the game's character lineup axel stone blaze fielding and eddie skate hunter all return to action this is a result of being contacted by the game's new playable character dr xan who discovers what mr x's research corporation was really for so dr xan along with three of the older cast members set out to save the city from villainy once again in terms of the title's gameplay like the two previous streets of rage games the entry is yet another arcade-style side-scrolling beat-em-up in which up to two players must fight their way through waves upon waves of enemies the three returning playable characters handle similarly to the previous installment but the new character dr xan brings something a bit different to the table zan is a robot who automatically converts every weapon pickup into a ball of energy which he can utilize against his foes speaking of the game's characters another way in this game differed from previous installments was that this game was the first in the series to feature additional playable unlockable characters all of which we shall discuss shortly but for now let's check out this title level design and narrative progression after the game star wars-esque opening text cruel and then choosing a playable fighter character dialog boxes show the characters having a conversation about whether dr xan is telling the truth whilst they are disposing of the city's first bomb this then brings the player or players into the opening stage which takes place in a warehouse instantly players will notice that graphically the game looks very similar to streets of rage 2. it also features many of the exact same enemy sprites and appears to be running in the same engine in some ways we could look at this as a lazy effort but then again why try and fix something when it is clearly not broken to begin with later in the stage you must take on suited and booted gun wooden enemies as you progress further through this area until you arrive outside fighting on a dock the stage continues to throw up an assortment of enemies from the first game including those that can ride motorbikes during this section of the stage many enemies also arrive via a speedboat which makes good use of the watery backdrop effects as the stage progresses so does the passage of time and we go from daylight to sunset as we near the stage boss what makes the first bus interesting is that shiva is also one of the game's playable characters who can be unlocked by holding down the b button after defeating him a first for a streets of rage game after beating the south pier warehouse stage the player progresses to the downtown stage which starts out with featuring a backdrop that looks very reminiscent of the ones from the opening stages from the first two streets of race titles there are neon lights a plenty and the whole thing just feels very well streets of ragi during this part of the stage a mid-boss fight occurs against an evil clown and a kangaroo upon defeating these odd opponents the kangaroo is freed offering the player another unlockable character to play as nice the next part of the stage takes place in what appears to be a nightclub with lasers and lighting effects of plenty with a crowd in the background to add to the stage's overall look the lights even flicker on and off offering a strobe-like effect to add to the overall experience very innovative level design in my opinion a boss fight takes place on this stage in the bar area against athletic twin female opponents lisa and mona intricate details are added to the backdrop of this scene including aquarium walls behind the bar and glass bottles falling from the top of the bar as the battle commences after finding a note in the bar about the whereabouts of the syndicate stage three takes place on the district k construction site combat starts out in this stage whilst the player dodges barrels falling from above a construction site in a location based on new york city featuring falling barrels is this a not so subtle knot to donkey kong apart from dodging the barrels players must be careful not to fall down pits this is the first stage in the game where there are more than just enemies to worry about the latter part of the stage puts further pressure on the player as they must punch their way through concrete barriers chuck norris style to avoid being hit by the auto-scrolling bulldozer that is hurtling towards the player again some really fresh level design for a streets of rage title next in the stage we return to more familiar ground red beams are plenty whilst traversing an enemy field moving lift classic beat em up action and typical scenery atop the construction site is the next boss encounter which takes place against your character's robotic doppelganger proving once and for all that everything dr zan said was true progress into the next stage the cast find a concealed door that leads to an underground stage featuring a railway track with fast moving cars that must be avoided by players as they plow through waves of enemies this area that functions as the syndicate's trade route begins to look more mind-like as you progress the boss fight takes place against a red armored samurai named yamoto who has the power of creating clones of himself from the fight whilst we will touch more on the music later this part of the game is particularly interesting as it features remixed music from the opening stage of revenge of shinobi after defeating yamoto it appears he was guarding the syndicate's hideout which is where the next stage takes place surprisingly the syndicates hideout has a very eastern feel to it that feels more like valero save the yakuza than it would a new york city crime syndicate tanyan's aside i think the level looks fine it just doesn't really fit the theme of the game very well soon the player finds themselves within the mr x's skyscraper first ruling their way through an elegant hallway then through an elevator section for further classic beat-em-up trope action at the top of the tower mr x can be found sitting in his gold-plated trump tower-like throne room mr x watches you defeat waves of enemies and bearing in mind that this is not the final stage i assume you can guess what happens next the mr x for player faces is yet just another robotic doppelganger the following stage starts with the player fighting their way through more lavish hallways defeating terminator-like robots before going down in a lift to defeat gangsters dominatrixes and other recurring enemies during this stage the team saved the head of the city's police force before progressing to the outside of the building to face off against classic style jetpack wielding adversaries like in the previous game the onslaught continues until adam from the first streets of rage game makes a surprise appearance gunning down the enemies in a helicopter reuniting the old friends on the next level we are brought behind enemy lines to a woodland-like area as the players progress closer to the end of the game finally the characters arrive inside the roboside corporation's factory where they must traverse moving conveyor belts and dodge lasers whilst facing off against both robotic and human opponents alike as you have probably noticed by this point it seems that the game has taken a great deal of influence from the likes of terminator and robocop which is a change of pace from the martial arts focused theme of the previous game even the boss fight in this stage takes place against tech the stage does not quite end here though as next you meet the real mr x who is now just a brain in a tube reminiscent of mother brain from the metroid series the final fight takes place against a powerful robot who must be defeated in three minutes before mr x uses his bombs to blow up the whole city upon finishing this game the ending of the game varies depending on which difficulty setting the player completes the game on giving the game an extra edge of replayability and giving gamers an incentive to play through the game again or more challenging difficulty settings endings are also triggered by events that happen through a playthrough for example if the player is unable to save the police chief in one of the latter stages then an alternative final stage takes place in a location that is supposedly the white house where you take on shiva once again defeating him triggers the bad ending where he reveals mr x will finish you who happens to be watching the whole thing through a monitor looking at all of the stages throughout this game it's clear that many elements were recycled from streets of rage 2 but at the same time the game offers enough to stand its own two feet speaking of the changes it is also of note that although combat remains largely similar there were still tweaks to it all here and there for example only skate could run in the previous game though now all of the characters have that ability on top of this enemy ai was also expanded so more enemies can pick up weapons block attacks employ cooperative attacks and even steal exposed food items to regain health also blitz attacks which are a staple of the previous game can be upgraded through successive play and a rechargeable meter allows players to perform a special attack without losing any health when full the overall level design paired with the accompany dialogue make the story in the game more important than ever before thus giving the player even further incentive to fight to continue to see how the game's story progresses another element that needs talking about when making a streets of rage 3 video is of course the game's music as mentioned earlier the game features music from the very same composers as the previous game the majority of consumers preferred the music found in streets of rage 2 over this new entry however the composers of the music in both games cite that the music for the title is very much in line with the game's overall theme motohero kawashima states with bare knuckle 3 we got rid of even more of the human element we were really trying to crank up the meter with what we were making for that game i think that's what kushiro san had in mind he wanted us to give 3 a more decadent feel i think yoshiro himself adds it's the kind of soundtrack that leaves you wondering where the melody is it took a bad beating from listeners at the time i remember hearing people say that it wasn't even music it was really experimental and i made it believing that kind of era was on the horizon in terms of the music found in streets of rage 3 it was not the only aspect of the game that was controversial with the title's release as there was other big changes too the largest of these being that the western version of this game had been censored and altered so drastically that you could almost argue that they ended up being two completely different games streets of rage 3 was released at a point in time where sega of america had surpassed their prime and heavy-handed localization policies were now running rampant throughout the branch of the company it was almost as if we were now in a time where sega did what nintendo which would help explain how sony managed to begin to dominate the video game industry just one year later the localization of bare knuckle 3 to become in streets of rage 3 did not just sense in a game it involved often completely removing features this included vastly changing the story making it riddled with plot holes and often missing out key scenes bizarrely sega of america would even up the difficulty for the international release which can be speculated was put in place to prevent consumers from completing it when renting it from blockbuster video so that they behind the game outright for themselves at a later date sprites were often changed colours which led to inconsistencies with boxstart and in a very nintendo-esque move sega of america would order the adage of more clothes to more scantily clad female characters you would think the game was final fight on the super nintendo eh in regards to the localization they would also remove a mini boss and secret playable character from the game known as ash simply due to perceiving the character as being a homosexual what was perceived to be politically correct in the 90s in america was vastly different to that of today and simply was not a nation of people who were as progressive as the japanese were at the time all of these aggressive changes to the title would result in some of the game's reviews even being hurt and becoming more critical as a result some review sources were urging gamers not to bother with the american version of the game and to instead just import the japanese game so that players could get the real experience many reviewers also thought the game was too similar to streets of rage 2 with game pro commenting that the game is a little different from previous entries in the series not all reviews of a title though were negative with egm praising the game for its new moves and large levels though they did criticize that the soundtrack was well below yuzo kashiro's usual standard as a result they scored the title an average 7.25 out of 10. across the board many publications responded in a similar fashion fast forward into 2020 many years after these controversies took place as a whole trilogy the three games are viewed as simply one of the greatest series of all time in internet land the third installment doesn't seem to get the same level of praise as streets of raid 2 but neither do people have often many bad things to say about the game either from my perspective i personally think the jumping quality between the first game and the second game was an impressive one and a leap that was so great that it could simply not be replicated with the third title i guess a good comparison for this would be comparing the streets of rage games to the original star wars trilogy if streets of rage 2 as the empire strikes back then the third entry is their return of the jedi streets of rage 3 offered much of the same quality as the second installment but keshiro's bold controversial choice in music arguably holds the game back from reaching the same level of acclaim atmosphere is everything and the music in two helped bring the game to the next level use those musical arrangements in streets of rage 2 was like adding the right seasoning to a medium rare steak it brought out the best in the flavouring streets of rage 3 was unable to pull off this same feat but kashiro still looks at the game's soundtrack and some of his personal best work ever even if other people neither like it or understand it saying all of this i can perfectly understand why many left comments on my previous videos proclaiming the third entry is their favorite game as the title is very similar to streets of rage 2 except it offers a wider array of characters to players and better constructed stories to follow so in spite of all of the localization outrage and controversies i think that streets of rage 3 is a fine ending to the streets of race trilogy the world of video games has always been an environment where only the fittest survive the speed of evolution in the entertainment medium between the popularization of pong in the 1970s up until the games today has been quite frankly ridiculous we have come a long way in a very short time to go from this in just a few decades almost feels like a work of science fiction you could argue that five or early 90s 2d games looked pretty beautiful and gameplay had been refined enough to deliver quality experiences many of us would continuously go back to for a lifetime in just two or three years later by the mid-90s many fans journalists and industry insiders considered this style of gaming to be old hat in fact they looked at gaming's future to be specifically 3d polygon focused between the mid-90s and mid-2000s 2d gaming would practically die out and as a result by the time consumers win the early ps2 gamecube and xbox era 2d gaming experiences were pretty much restricted to handhelds and the release of the nintendo ds would even threaten that stronghold this 10-year period in history was all about the refinement of polygon gaming and the further we traveled through time the less likely it felt that we would continue to get more quality to the experiences in my opinion this dull period in mainstream gaming was what led to the retro gaming boom many people got sick and tired with playing the same triple h tripe and instead were beginning to decide to imitate a playstyle of the past by digging out their old super nintendos and mega drives in order to get a high quality gaming experience that the industry simply were not capable of giving to them whilst many of you at home may have been playing ugly grey first person shooters yuck i was going from boots out to boot sale building a huge classic gaming library picking up unwanted nintendo and sega games for 50p a pop enthusiasm for older games though did not simply end with simply collecting and playing the games of the past though the progression in technology have begun to allow fans of these old games at home to be able to create rom hacks and fan games based on 2d properties fans knew and loved over time the release of a new streets of rage game was looking increasingly less likely sega fans love for the streets of rage series would never diminish and there would be various fan projects that would pop up over time that would further pronounce this one example of this came with a game in 2003 known as beats of rage a game that was initially released by senile team beats of rage is a fan tribute to streets of rage that supplants the original graphics and characters with resources taken from the king of fighters series the game that was just made for fun took the developers by surprise as over 1 million people would download and play the game a huge number considering that the game was not even advertised and people just discovered it via word of mouth online this interesting game has a unique history of its own which i may cover with you in more detail down below but today it's all about the streets of rage remake a game that will begin development the exact same year beats of rage hit the internet speaking of 2003 we were still in a period in history where the world of gaming was very much a 3d polygon hell so it is no surprise that beats of rage proved so popular as this was around the time i began to massively go out hunting for old games in order to fill my gaming needs taking all of this into account it's no surprise at all that bomber games would begin work on their streets of rage remake fan project at this time too the streets of rage remake in question today was created by a spanish developer who goes by the internet handle of bomber link unlike most fan projects that involve hacking roms or taking assets from other titles the streets of rage remake on the other hand was made completely from scratch to quote bomber link it does not use reverse engineering nor a single line of code from the original games it's all based on visual interpretation to put the scale of this undertaking into perspective although work would begin on this game in 2003 it would take an entire eight years to complete pretty mental stuff really considering each entry in the original trilogy was developed by huge teams all in under a year these streets of rage remake would be a title that would be painstakingly created to include graphical improvements over the originals completely new features not included in the original saga the inclusion of fresh new scenarios characters remix music game modes along with even a store where players can unlock extras these new features are just the tip of the iceberg with this title and we are going to look at the game in depth more shortly but first it is worth touching on one of the title's biggest controversies it is no secret that large corporate entities usually hate it when fans infringe on their intellectual property this is whether they are profiting off of it or not nintendo for example are infamous in getting fan projects pulled and many fan games are cancelled via simple cease and desist notices years before they even get off of the ground throughout history though sega has generally took a less conservative approach which cannot be more evident than with their sonic franchise in fact they were so impressed with sonic fan projects that they would actually employ fan project leaders such as christian whitehead to direct sonic mania a title that many would consider to be the greatest sonic game released by sega in years sadly though with the streets of rage remake they took a very different approach after the game had been in development for eight years obama link would finally allow the game to be downloaded on pc during 2011. just days after the release of this game though on various download and torrent sites sega would attempt to get the game pulled their first stop would be on link's own downloads on the game's official forum link would state sega have contacted me regarding the download hosted on this site while this issue is being resolved please do not upload the game for others to download any links posted on this site will be removed wired dot co dot uk would contact sega for a scoop with regards to this situation and sega would respond saying sega is committed to supporting any fans that take an interest in our games and where possible we do so by involving them in beta tests and other development marketing or research opportunities however we need to protect our intellectual property rights and this may result in us requesting that our fans remove online imagery videos or games in some instances whilst companies are perfectly in their right to do this this scenario still came as a shock to bomber games as development of the title had been no secret and heavily publicised online for eight years prior and never before had sega asked them to cease in the creation of the project in fact the game's development involved more than 20 collaborators and apart from the herculean undertaking being well documented online according to the game's faq link's crew notified sega of the game's development many years before its release and did absolutely nothing to prevent the game's development prior it is thought that sega's southern change of heart and protectionist behavior around their ip was simply driven by the release of streets of rage 2 on ios that same year although conspiracist theorists believe the mobile release of such a game was in response to the remake despite sega's best efforts though when a fan project is out in the wild it is out in the wild and trying to stop it would be as futile as mankind thinking that they can stop coronavirus from spreading once it is out there it is out there and there is little anybody can do about it now we have got the long history out the way of how this game came to be let's chat more about what the gameplay story characters and blah blah blah has in this title in this title mr x maintains his role as the title's main antagonist which is illustrated through the game's opening animations and text crawl establishing the game's basic story the first thing players will notice is the wonderful player select screen which initially offers a choice of six different playable fighters essentially all six characters who starred within the original titles appear once again even freaking adam is back at long last the character roster though is even larger than this with a variety of unlockable characters included who we shall get to shortly away from a larger player selection than that of the originals the story in this game is not linear allowing players to choose one of four routes which dictates which levels the player gets to play through to eventually reach a showdown with mr x himself this concept was briefly dabbled with in streets of rage 3 where in the final portion of the game the player plays through different levels depending on what they achieve in the last few stages it is amazing to see this concept massively expanded upon here each route draws a various inspiration from the game's original trilogy however it has all been remixed and rebuilt into something fresh and new in terms of other new features the game included bright and bold colors just like all of the previous official installments in the series but in terms of graphical violence it's now displayed slightly differently unlike the official games this installment has the inclusion of blood within the combat however for those who like things more traditional there is an option to turn this feature off the ability to turn blood on or off in this game is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game's customizability players of this game also have the option of switching between bare knuckle and streets of rage themes and can even tinker with the game further by applying filters such as scan lines or adjusting the transparency the game includes all sorts of little bells and whistles that let you experience the game in a way that is as bespoke to your tastes as possible speaking of customization even the titles gameplay itself is completely customizable allowing players to tune their playthrough to that of which is most in line with their play style think of this as similar to the groove system in the capcom vs snk games but with even more options players can choose the difficulty setting how many lives they start out with whether players can damage each other in combat and more even the combat itself offers a range of possibilities offering a choice of different jump types meter types combo types weapon types and even combos themselves luckily the game does have default options though meaning it is easy to just jump into this game without becoming overwhelmed with options an argument could also be made that all of this customization can greatly upset the balance of the game but let's be honest this whole experience is more about fan service and celebrating the franchise's history rather than prioritizing anything else the game can be set however way you like i suppose as one would hope the game still features a lot of gameplay elements that hearken back to the game's predecessors the game contains various enemies who appeared in previous installments but it mixes it up with a few new ones to deliver a fresh yet familiar experience like in all streets of rage games practice makes perfect and these villains can be disposed of through memorizing patterns and footwork techniques the enemies in this game are obviously located across the game's many branching paths the game offers absurd replayability as apart from providing challenge the game's branching paths lead to eight completely different endings for the player to discover whether a player survives a playthrough or not points are rewarded that can be spent in the game shop where a variety of unlockable content is made available this feature arguably makes the streets of rage remake even more playable than any of the official entries with some fantastic unlockables available to find some of these unlockables are absolutely insane so let's quickly run through a few that are available amongst this extra content is an entire new set of play modes such as a boss rush mode and a survival mode just as some examples there are also silly golden eye style cheeks that can be unlocked here which come in an abundance for example you have the ability to give characters the ability to fight with freaking lightsabers of all things the best of these unlockables come in the form of even more characters to control this includes the hidden characters available in streets of rage 3 such as ruber kangaroo shiva one of the game's villains and even the infamous ash the character who was banned from the international version of streets of rage 3 due to sage of america not being happy that the character had homosexual connotations unlockable characters do not stop here though and streets of rage remake has a few characters who have never been playable in the franchise before this includes the game's main villain himself mr x who wields a freaking machine gun a dominatrix named ellie who is based on the electra sprite from the previous games and rudra a completely new character for the game who was created completely from scratch for this title all in all the game includes a whopping 12 playable characters a crazy amount for any beat em up obviously each of these are selectable to either player during cooperative play but in another first for the streets of rage series the game even includes cooperative play where the cpu controls the second player like everything else in the game the cpu player playstyle is customizable offering the player even further choices which is what this game seems to be all about really there really is an abundance of things to do in this game and tinker with to give you an idea of the sheer size and scale of this game there are a whopping 103 different phases to play through but as we know streets of rage is about more than the level design itself and a streets of rage video would not be a streets of rage video without talking about the music composer yuzo kashiro's music within the streets of race trilogy is considered some of the best music ever found within any video games the soundtrack of this remake features an abundance of fantastic sounding remixes and rearrangements of some of kushiro's best work as illustrated by this video this reworking of the game's music was the work of gekko yamauri calif and co who did a fantastic job here going back to the game's aesthetics themselves the graphics in this game are probably a slight step up from what the 16-bit mega drive would have been capable of but it still feels in line with the look and feel of the classic series which in fact makes me wish someone would find a way to pull this game to the bloody sega saturn the save goes for sonic mania too actually in regards to this one more unlockable feature of this game is that the title even includes a streets of rage maker feature this mode allows the users to create edit and design their own levels with a maximum allowed of 8 levels and 16 scenes in each one for the design of scenes fans recommend the use of the fpg edit program from the company codemasters from the project community you can download mods made by fans thus increasing the gameplay of the game the maker feature of this game has resulted in a few great fan projects in its own right too there were also many other features that were included in this game such as 64 artificial intelligent modules for cpu controlled characters improved collision and system damage data improved animation and improved cartwheel grip system auto save functionality extended action for six button controls the addition of weapon specials and the return of the police call originally seen in the first streets of rage game but dropped for later installments this game is deeply extensive in what it offers players and is perhaps the most impressive fan project that has ever been undertaken in fact calling the gamer streets of rage remake is slightly misleading and does not give this project the credit it deserves remakes of games like those found in the mario all-stars pack feature the same gameplay with completely remade graphics making those games remakes of older ones the streets of rage remake on the other hand is more of a full-on reboot or reimagining of an older game rather than something that has simply been remade you cannot refer to this title as a remake because no title like this has existed previously the upcoming final fantasy 7 remake seems to suffer from falling into the same logic hull as from everything i've seen on that title it delivers a totally different experience from the original final fantasy 7 game so it really does leave me wondering why developers would choose to undersell their achievements in such a way when in both of these games cases they are clearly full-on reboots rather than old games that have just been remade to re-emphasize the point once again you cannot remake what has never been made in the first place simple logic to follow really but whether the game is a true remake or not there is no denying how fantastic the title is 29 years ago streets of rage would see a release on the sega mega drive the game was instantly special and a crowd pleaser due to the fact that the game was a system exclusive that played like the popular final fight but actually offered two-player cooperative play something that the home version of final fight on the super nintendo failed to offer consumers this all unfolded in 1991. but the best was yet to come as 1992 would see the release of streets of rage 2 a huge technically impressive game worked on by multiple development teams that arguably topped the action that could be found in the first streets of rage game in every category in fact the title is so good that many people look at it as the greatest sega game ever made the classic trilogy was rounded off in 1994 with the release of streets of rage 3 whilst not as popular a game as that as which came before it the title still brought a lot to the table including more playable characters than ever before and multiple unlockables sadly though this would be the last streets of rage game ever released or at least so we thought over the years streets of race programmer and composer yuzo koshiro claims he has rallied sega for a full streets of rage game each time never getting the green light others have attempted to get the streets of rage licence for their own games in the past two for example core designs titled fighting force it was a 3d beat-em-up that was created in 1997 with the hope that they would be able to call their game streets of rage 4. ruffian gay was the developer behind crackdown 2 also tried its hand at a reboot on the xbox 360 and ps3 but all of these efforts ultimately failed in the end fans had come to the conclusion that it was in their best interest to look at the ambitious fan project known as streets of rage remake as the closest thing they were ever going to get to a full streets of rage entry this was until a series of fortunate events that would unfold that would eventually lead to a streets of rage 4 becoming a reality to understand why streets of rage 4 was published we first have to briefly look at a game that was developed prior we have to start with the development house known as lizardcube programmer omar cornut an artist ben figuer reverse engineered the master system code which would lead them to work with wonder by three the dragon traps original game designer rayucci in producing a remake of the original game fukei single-handedly and painstakingly reproduced all of the game's original art and animation depicted it in a modern art style the whole feat was extremely impressive leaving gamers to wonder what lizard cube would be up to next whilst the wonderboy title was developed by lizard cube the game was actually published by a fellow french company known as dotamu according to their website their mission statement is as follows dotamu is a french video game company specialising in modern releases of beloved retro games our mission is simple give every gamer access to yesteryear's classic video games on today's platforms including pc mobile console and more working alongside the world's most cherished and recognized publishers the dottomo team has published a number of global top sellers across both pc and console including wonderboy the dragon's trap windjammers several games in the yeast series and more founded in 2007 dotimo leverages its considerable technological know-how to maintain the original spirit of classic games while giving them a second life as rediscovered gems for a new generation of gamers the critical response to wonder boy 3 the dragon's trap and what lizzie cube and dotamu managed to impressively do with such an old license was finally enough to earn sega's trust to be allowed to develop a streets of rage 4. the collaborative effort between liza cube and dotemu would also be aided by a company known as guard crush games who would oversee the gameplay elements of a brand new beat-em-up they were chosen to partake in the project due to their passion for classic beat-em-ups and side-scrolling titles the team is best known for its xbox 360 release streaks of fury and follow-up on the pc streets of fury extended edition in 2015 which reveal in over-the-top action and capture the studio's love for fun side-scrolling brawlers so was all of this the perfect recipe to make streets of rage 4 the special game fans desired let's look at the development history and look at exactly what was put into this yeah the game's artists had a tall challenge to take on and that was to come up with artwork which they felt would best represent the streets of rage series in 2020 this job was overseen by lizard's cube's art director benficae and lead background artist julian yugonyu benficae states that after wonderboy the dragons trap which we did in association with dotamu we wanted to bring back some games that we really liked and for me streets of rage which was a sega license and which i particularly liked came to mind right away artistically speaking in streets of rage there are lots of things which are ingrained like the urban field the neon the bricks and the ground those have really stayed strong in our memories and i think it has always been an underlying inspiration as soon as you think of characters fighting in the streets very quickly we have had the idea of showing the story and the characters at a later time the story takes place 10 years after streets of rage 3 because the fans who have been waiting for this sequel for a long time have gotten older have grown up and the whole thing with these young fiery kids in the streets wasn't working any longer with the way the fans are now for a lot of people the first level ties in with that streets of rage feeling you used to have because i think that's the level where you spent the most time julian you get you as in relation to this stage that is where players spend the most time also that's where they tried things they added a corner which was very difficult to do at the time we tried to pay homage to that in the structure of the first level in level one of streets of rage four benficae adds the way we thought of it was really as a tribute in particular to streets of rage 2 with that street corner with the car that crashes into the wall which was something they wanted to do and was in the game design documents of the original games and that they weren't actually able to do because of technical limitations so here we wanted to pay homage to all that in regards to character designs ben mentions that if you look at the original blueprints of character designs from the 90s that the developers were forced to use pixel art due to limitations of the period well now they could represent the characters in the game in the original manga art style developers would have originally opted for if the technology wasn't there the use of heavy black lines around the characters also paid homage to the originals on paper character designs ben also comments on working on a game with such high expectations stating this is a game which holds a special place in a lot of fans hearts and there's a fine line between pleasing people and creating something new the thing that i'm very happy about is that the fans thank us a lot and there was a huge number of fans who are delighted to have a new streets of rage and a new game which seems to them to be very high quality at least at this stage so i hope we won't disappoint them the game's main designer is a gentleman known as judy ascencio juldee was an early active member in the fighting game community who as a result was also drawn to beat em ups with a particular special love for guardian heroes speaking on streets of rage 4 he mentions that making a sequel is one of the hardest things to do you must first figure out what was so good about the original games geordi views streets of rage 2 as the ultimate entry in the streets of rage series so chose to design the gameplay featured in streets of rage 4 around the second entry in fact he even states that i try to control both of them simultaneously to make sure i can match them in terms of rhythm and feeling nowadays we have a really mechanical idea of what game design must be it has to be really precise but this is just one part of the job another point is that game design is a way of consuming the content of the game he states that the game's feel and level of ease it was to work on was hugely helped by guard cross games fantastic engine he was provided with to work on head of programming cyril lagarriga mentions the engine was based off of one previously used when they released streets of fury ex on the xbox 360 they would improve it a lot though for streets of rage 4. jordy claims that we discussed every possible question about beat em ups we also analysed fighting games frame by frame to understand which tools we needed exactly we tried to rebuild it all we tried to think like the game makers from that time and with the modern technology that we have nowadays we tried to create a tool which allowed us to develop this type of game on a top level when you create a sequel of a game you shouldn't be over excited the common mistake is trying to add today's trends you don't need to implement rpg mechanics you don't want to over modernize the game you need to understand the frustrations of that time and to figure out if these frustrations were due to technical limitations or idea limitations in regards to working on such a huge project geordi rounds off with at the beginning you don't realize the pressure because you're working on the game of your dreams so you are very motivated and then after the first announcement when you start showing things the fans begin to react in every sense of the word on one hand it motivates you because some find it really cool but on the other hand people criticize you quite harshly but you must accept that because there are always reasons behind criticism it's very important to look at what people do and say even if sometimes it hurts and to analyze where this feeling comes from meanwhile the pressure gets harder but since the game is good it's fine so we have now looked at both the creation of a game's art direction and gameplay but what of the music one of the most standout features of previous streets of rage games in regards to this olivier de riviere was brought on board by cyril inbert as the game's main composer he states that the idea was we needed an artist who could do most of the music but in a very special and modern way but in the same spirit as was in the previous series and that when we started to think about olivier de riviere looking at his work looking at everything he did in his different works in the past so he can create something that gets the perfect fusion of gameplay and music streets of rage is all about the fusion of gameplay music playing streets of rage is like listening to an album but an interactive album olivier de riviere in his new role straight away decided he did not want to replicate the works of yuzo kushiro because he felt he could not do a good job of replicating someone else's unique music on the basis that it would feel wrong to everybody so it was not to be disrespectful but also to let him have his own take as he too was part of this project yuzo could inject his own flavour into streets of rage 4. speaking of the return of streets of rage during the game's development yuzo kashiro commented that streets of rage came out on the mega drive however it wasn't that popular in japan it performed better in the united states and europe to be honest i had pitched a sequel to the series a few times however sega wasn't interested at the time it was about 20 years ago i find it interesting that a french team is working on it today it is exciting to see a new modern day streets of rage game not coming from japan but from overseas moto hero kawashima and i used to work on the streets of rage series by ourselves i'm interested to see the musical universe resulting from a collaboration between multiple artists all of them are obviously very talented musicians and composers so i expect the result to be a truly enjoyable sound amongst the many musicians working on the game these included shimomura a former capcom employee in regards to her uzo states that i find it funny because shimomura used to work on street fighter 2. originally sega president at the time ordered that we do better than street fighter 2 with streets of rage it is funny because this was our starting point when working on the game i felt it is a strange turn of events that i end up working with shimomura who was working on that game at the time motohero karashima another man who worked on the original trilogy's legendary soundtrack adds i already completed two tracks back in the day we were aiming at creating new sounds using the built-in systems of the 90s working now on streets of rage 4 i wondered whether pursuing new sounds was the right answer originally we made what we wanted to make which gave streets of rage however i realized that making what i want to make now wouldn't give the same result which is why i felt a bit troubled at the start i listened back to the original streets of rage wondering what made the essence of the game i then came up with an answer i felt that streets of rage wasn't based on melodies it was phrases woven with each other like parts knitted together i wondered how to express that streaks of rage sound then worked on recreating that universe with today's tools yuzo kashiro continues the conversation by adding originally the streets of rage music is heavily inspired by club music from the late 80s to early 90s working on the project today i wondered on the approach to take whether it should be modern using edm for example i thought about it then came to the conclusion that i should be creating things that i wasn't able to make at the time also looking at the fans opinions on the internet i saw many of them were expecting a sound close to the original i thought that using the same original tools could be a good approach as well i reused the simps and drum machines of the time i reused them recorded for sound then made the song in a serious way while working on streets of rage 4 i listened to the music that influenced me on spotify and youtube i wanted to feel again what drove me at that time according to olivier riviere the head composer himself he states that each boss fight in the game consists of a different track composed by different musicians to make each fight feel more special he also mentions that he and the other composers spent a lot of time working alongside the game's designers to work out their intentions throughout each intricate part of the game this helped make the music more consistent with players experiences music was designed so that it would increase players adrenaline as they progressed through the stages olivier summarises in regards to working on the music that working on streets of rage 4 was the scariest thing he has ever done in his life and it was frightening in every aspect he said it was a huge honor he did the best he could and hopes players enjoy it but it is very difficult to come after such legendary composers and as a result is very grateful to have been part of the whole project so now we have looked in depth at how the game come to be along with its development cycle i guess it's time to start discussing what players will find once in possession of this game for the first time in an official streets of rage entry streets of rage 4 offers up to 4 player cooperative play which can be experienced locally in fact the game also allows for online play with two-player cooperative another brand new element for the franchise like in streets of rage games of the past the objective is simple players fight their way through stages taking out waves after wave of enemies a lot of the usual features are back too such as disposable weapons and items to pick up which can be used to gain points or restore health in addition to this there are also stars that players can pick up which relate to being able to execute a technique known as star moves which we'll show get to in a moment players have the ability to perform standard attacks throws blitz moves and more powerful special attacks at the cost of a small portion of the user's health in a new feature it is possible to restore spent health on these special attacks by performing successive follow-up attacks without getting hit the game features a nice counting system that records how many successful attacks you can land in a row which gives you a little extra added motivation for not being hurt by your opponents this new combo system also allows players to satisfyingly juggle opponents against walls and other players in regards to the star moves which can be performed by collecting the stars in each level these are powerful attacks a bit like the summoning of the police car in the series original entry the game's main gameplay mode is known as story mode where players make their way through the story fighting their way through 12 beautiful stages each with their own unique boss encounter at the end of each gauntlet how challenging this experience is depends on which difficulty setting players choose there are five options in total ranging from easy to mania which dictate the experience players are going to be delivered with if you want to beat the game with little in the way of a competition then easy mode is for you but if you are a complete sadist mania is there for all players if they want to attempt it an interesting feature that this game is introduced is the title's lifetime score players are awarded points based on how much they challenge themselves and after reaching each point milestone in the game's lifetime scoring system new unlockables become available giving the game not just an edge of replayability but an extra incentive for players to challenge themselves more too this game is as much about the carrot as it is of a stick unlike the traditional streets of rage games of old in story mode which is a new feature in general anyway when a game over screen is reached players can save the game and try the stage they are stuck on as many times as they like difficulty is determined not just by how tough the enemies are or how many items are available but also the amount of lives players start with at the beginning of each stage to give players even more incentive to keep plugging away at this game is the fact that upon clearing each stage ranks are given to the player based on how many points they could score leading to the desire of playing the same stages over and over again away from the story mode there is also an arcade mode which plays more like the streets of rage games of old where players must make their way through the entire game with a limited amount of lives there is also a level select so that players can practice whatever stage they like a battle mode which basically acts as a mini fighting game feature where players fight against each other and a boss rush mode to fight against the game's bosses there are a lot of options here and even an extras section which acts like a gallery for players to look at concept art and sprites designs nice now there is so much to undress here it is tough to do a video on a game that has been 26 years in the making we have a lot to get through today this obviously includes the characters themselves initially at the beginning of a playthrough gamers have the choice of four different fighters each of which have their own unique moves abilities and advantages control wise so let's cover who's featured in this game first we have axel stone from the original entry in the series due to the 10-year storyline time gap between this game and streets of rage 3 he is depicted as older and more grizzled this time featuring a massive beard classic character blaze also makes a return to this game not looking wildly different than before but perhaps having much thicker legs and hips child bearing the other two instantly selectable characters are brand new to the franchise first we have the heavyweight of the game floyd arrear a softly spoken cybernetically enhanced apprentice of dr zan who was one of the playable fighters from the third entry in the series we also have a young woman known as cherry hunter who as you can guess by her surname is a relative of adam hunter who was only previously playable in the first game in the series 29 years ago the story soon reveals that cherry is adam's daughter and speaking of adam he quickly becomes a selectable fighter too who becomes available as the game's first unlockable playable fighters don't end here though and pixel up versions from previous games can also be unlocked as players build up their lifetime score both embracing and celebrating the franchise's storied history whilst most of the previous games characters are selectable in pixel form i was disappointed that neither roo or ashrae included as selectable fighters instead they were reduced to cameos with rue featuring behind a bar in one stage and ash appearing in a picture in the background whilst one of the boss fights takes place here's hoping then i guess that they become accessible via the use of future dlc updates so now we have discussed the many of this game's features let's address an elephant in the room the game's artistic direction and the main element that gamers criticized about streets of rage 4 prior to the game's release many felt that the art style represented in wonder boy 3 was fine but it's not really the same art style many streets of rage fans ever really fantasized about with their franchise listening to the artists talk about this game it becomes more clear as to why they chose the direction they did especially when you take into account how the original trilogy's concept art looked before it was pixelized looking at the artwork in this game i can fully appreciate how it is not for everyone but at the same time i can also sympathize with the fact that the original streets of rage games only featured a pixel art style due to the extreme limitations technology provided artists with in the early 90s so when you consider that the original streets of rage trilogy were japanese games the manga store sort of aesthetic that was given to this game makes a lot more sense the only argument i would place against at this personally is that streets of rage was never that popular in japan and design-wise was always more appealing to westerners than it ever was eastern so holds in this sport in mind if i oversaw the production of this game i would have certainly ordered it to be produced with a more western-oriented art style but i am nitpicking at this point and can see that it was a case of trying to reproduce the original artist designs with a more modern flair the stage design itself is both beautiful and varied with a level of detail we obviously just did not get back in the day the hand-drawn artwork is simply stunning especially when paired with the multi-layered scrolling effects the game presents in its backgrounds there is just so much to see and take in that i feel is going to take dozens upon dozens of playthroughs to truly appreciate in terms of the game's enemy sprites many of them appear to be redrawn versions of enemies of old which helps give the game an additional layer of nostalgia for those who have been long-time fans but at the same time enough polish to please those who have never played a game like this before like streets of rage of old each of these levels have their own boss fights each of which have their own unique attack patterns which must be learned by players in order to be more easily defeated many of these boss fights take place against completely new opponents whereas others take place against classic opponents of old in fact one of these opponents is even max a beloved playable character from streets of rage 2 who must be defeated here i have to say the fact that a new fully drawn version of max appears in this game yet is not a selectable character in this form is kind of baffling the same goes for shiva as well actually which means that i would bet my money that both of these become paid dlc selectable characters in our future something we have not touched on really is this game's story which revolves around another criminal organization this time known as the y syndicate who even seem to have the police wrapped around their fingers to some degree speaking of this element this brings another feature along with it the game seems to contain two different types of enemy sprites those who are members of the y syndicate and those who are in the police these two types of sprites although both hostile to the player are also hostile and attack one another an element i have not seen in a beat-em-up since cadillacs and dinosaurs an element i have never seen included in any streets of rage games previously it unfolds in the story that the leaders of the wire syndicate are a twin brother and sister who are actually son and daughter of mr x himself which is why they are so hell-bent on getting revenge against the city again just a personal gripe with regards to these two they are not at all imposing like their father but instead look anime as hell and simply look like selectable characters from a persona game or something rather than a title with a bit of early 90s attitude like streets of rage once again i am nitpicking here but i feel they seem completely out of place in this environment speaking of mr x he along with several other vintage bosses from the streets of rage series are accessible to fight against in pixel form these fights are accessible via entering secret areas and feature in the game as fantastic hidden easter eggs giving an even further nod to the franchises awesome past now we touched on the game's controls earlier and how they connected back to streets of rage 2 but what i have not mentioned is how they feel the controls paired with the game's sound effects and combo systems make streets of rage 4 feel like one of the most satisfying beat em up experiences i've ever had it feels so good to pummel opponents watching that hit count quickly mount up truly wonderful a question i posed a few months ago was that i was doubtful that streets of rage 4 could live up to the fantastic fan game known as streets of rage remake and from my findings thus far from my personal perspective at least i can 100 confirm it absolutely does i am addicted to this game and cannot wait to play it more once i finished work on this upload the game is just that fun but that's enough about me for now let's have a quick look at what the major game publications have made of this game after all they are meant to be the true experts in the field who are supposed to be most trusted with their judgement ign would state streets of rage 4 is a faithful revival of the classic arcade beat'em ups move from left to right punch enemies destroy objects for points health and weapon pickups punch a few more enemies and repeat it's simple and unadventurous and while it expands modestly on combat with a few new skills to master streets of rage 4 definitely prioritizes nostalgia over any kind of big modern reinvention streets of rage 4 delivers the greatest hits of the classic series and is at its best when played with at least one friend if the primary focus was delivering a traditional streets of rage experience with a modern coat of paint it absolutely succeeds but while it layers on a few new and interesting mechanics it's still a very conservative update to the quarter century old format that feels like a slave to the past so as you can see ign would give this game a very average response awarding the game a 7 out of 10 heavily criticizing the game due to a lack of reinvention and too much nostalgia alliance i on the other hand could not feel that their statement is further from the truth i am a man who has been looking at golden age era beat em ups weekly for months on this channel and i can certainly confirm that this game does not present players with just a nostalgia trip in fact as i have mentioned earlier that could not be further from the truth as the game very much feels like something new and very little like what was available in the 90s in my opinion streets of rage 4 builds on the old formula and modernizes it for new players the fact that the game features save states so that players are not expected to finish the game in one sit-in contains a boatload of achievements for repeat play and features an easy mode so that players can beat the game in just over 1 hour if they choose is enough alone to suggest that the game is certainly not a nostalgia trip but instead looking to cater to modern gaming habits an arcade mode is present for those who do want an old-school arcade experience but the game certainly seems designed for everyone rather than just us old boys the game perfectly marries up some of the tropes of the classic beat-em-up genre with a modern art style new play mechanics and a plethora of reasons to play through the same stages over and over beat-em-ups were simply about relentless challenge and pattern memorization there are a lot more layers than that present here so i am not quite sure what ign was smoking when reviewing this high quality game anyway let's look at how destructoid summarized their findings over 25 years since its last official entry streets of rage is finally ready to make its long-awaited highly anticipated return the 16-bit era was an entire lifetime ago and action games have advanced far beyond the traditional arcade brawler of yore is there even a place for blaze and crew in the modern gaming age you bet there is jack it's almost impossible to imagine a streets of rage devotee not being delighted with this sequel it has the depth of combat and variance of character for dedicated fans to sink their teeth into while at its chaotic quick fix action and co-op multiplayer offers even the most casual enthusiast a solid experience streets of rage 4's gratifying gameplay and fair price tag make this a purchase worth anyone's cash streets of rage 4 is an absolute triumph it looks stunning it sounds sublime and it plays like a dream streets of rage 4 delivers fistfuls of knock-down drag-out action for fans old and new all at a modest price it's been a long wait for the streets of rage faithful but comebacks rarely get much better than this grand upper so the journalists over at destructoid seem to be equally as impressed with this game as myself and did not write the game off as a nostalgia trip like ign made the decision to do for some reason bizarre it's funny how contrasting these opinions seem to be considering they are all meant to be fairly non-biased reviews looking at the review scores across the board the games seem to have received mostly critical love with most big gaming publications falling into the same boat as myself and destructoid it only seems to be ign and game informer who have extra layers of criticism for the game with them stating it doesn't have the hooks to keep you coming back this beat em up feels like a homage to the 90s but is also stuck in that era again sentiments i completely disagree with due to all the extra features i mentioned that were not part of the genre back then so from me streets of rage 4 gets a massive thumbs up and i now fully trust dotamu lizardcube and guard crush games with the development of the streets of rage 5 if they can make a sound success with this one the game was one of those rare cases of living up to the hype something that came as a surprise to me considering how infrequently that seems to happen these days so i could not recommend streets of rage 4 to you enough now if you are still here i would like to thank you all for listening to me talk about this game for so long there was just so much to get through due to this title being 26 years in the making part of my motivation to go into such depth when it comes to these videos is partially down to my extremely supportive patreon following who through thanks to them means that this channel is mostly funded by patreon so that i can make videos for the world to see full-time now i am offering a huge amount of incentives to those who go the extra mile to support this channel which apart from exclusive videos and more this also includes end credits closing off these videos so massive shout outs go out to sebastian velez carl johnson heyo paolo lopez joseph rasmuck doug perkins aego alephia swanson angel light 85 asobi kwang dx azrael warakai brian barry cambo rambo 82 carlos domingos computer man daniel daly ecu professor gary pinkett gianni v santisi glenny glenn hamid moser household for ted jocquen varela jordan durant heyo vinagre keith ferguson lars sonderfin matthew robertson michael collix phillip manth prince knight princess zana sponge map b tog driver since space is a murder of crows adam castin adrian harrington anders reinsberg andrew bezansky andrew pearson antonio 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Channel: Top Hat Gaming Man

Views: 212,948

Keywords: streets of rage, streets of rage history, streets of rage documentary, streets of rage retrospective, streets of rage 4, streets of rage 4 history, streets of rage 2, streets of rage 3, streets of rage remake, streets of rage remake review, streets of rage 4 review, streets of rage 4 documentary, streets of rage story, streets of rage games, streets of rage saga, beat em ups, sega, sega history, streets of rage sega, best streets of rage, streets of rage movie

Id: 3xtSbjHtxvA

Length: 112min 29sec (6749 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021