Retro Corner time and this week I’m looking at Streets of Rage 2, one of my favourite games from the 16-bit era. Just ask anyone what their favourite MegaDrive/Genesis game is and more often than not one of the Sonic The Hedgehog games is usually mentioned first. Keep pushing them a little more and very quickly the Streets of Rage name pops up, normally the second game in the series and rightfully so as it’s in my opinion the best of the three games.
You may have heard of Capcom’s Final Fight series, it was one of the most popular 2D side scrolling fighters at the time and Streets of Rage basically represents Sega version of those games. Sega at the time had already tried it’s hand at the genre with titles like Altered Beast and Golden Axe though those titles were watered down by the time it saw a console release. Streets of Rage was a title designed for the MegaDrive/Genesis and whilst I really enjoyed the first and third titles it’s Street of Rage 2 that we’ll focus on.
Streets of Rage 2 was released in 1992/1993 and is generally considered one of the best sequels around, it took the original Streets of Rage and refined the formula. Players this time round get a choice between four characters, Axel the all around main character, Blaze the female ex cop, Skate the teenager skater and some other guy no one ever picks. All four characters were graded by the number of stars they had in each of the following.
- Power
- Technique
- Speed
- Jump
- Stamina
I can honestly tell you no one in the world ever paid any attention to these statistics, you just pick the character that looks the coolest and go kick ass in the street. To this day I still don’t exactly know what they all mean but I guess power and speed is what matters to most player. The four characters play slightly different and have their own set of moves but again, you just pick one based on looks and go with it. Skate tends to be a favourite amongst my group of friends but I’ve always been an Axel guy myself.
The game is a 2D side scrolling brawler that feels like an arcade game meaning you can pretty much blow through it in 30 minutes if you really wanted to. The game is designed to be very re-playable, it’s the type of game you put in once in a while and play all the way through with a buddy. Ah yes the game does feature 2 player co-op though it does allow you to attack each other so you need to work together but also be careful with one another. If you find that you can’t get along then you can also fight each other in duel mode though it’s more of a bonus mode than anything worth investing time into.
If you’ve ever played a 2D side scrolling fighter then you already know that it’s a very simple genre, Streets of Rage 3 did a couple of extra bits with the six button controller but Streets of Rage 2 kept it basic only using three. One button for used to attack, one to jump and the last one is what I call a desperation attack. If you ever find yourself on the receiving end of an enemy attack then this attack will cancel you right out of the beat down though at the cost of a bit of your health, I always use it to finish off a boss.
As far as the game goes you pretty much beat the crap out of everyone in the way until you finish the game, seriously the game won’t scroll to the right until you’ve cleared the screen of all the enemies. Even if you bring a friend along prepare to be out numbered as enemy count usually exceeds player count and the boss battles tend to be a bit on the cheap side. I’m looking at you Jet, yeah the stupid flying boss who is a pain in the ass to attack.
There’s one thing that always stuck with me, the overall atmosphere and mood of the game as it presented you with a city that was really run down by gang members. You could pick up knifes on the floor and use them on enemies, metal pipes often laying around on the streets. The graphics also contributed to this featuring a very gritty look, it had it’s bright moments but overall you certainly wouldn’t mistake these graphics for Sonic.
The soundtrack to Streets of Rage 2 might actually be better than the game itself, just listen to this, it gets you in the mood every time.
Yuzo Koshiro composed the soundtrack and boy did he nail it, he took the MegaDrive/Genesis which isn’t known for having an amazing sound chip and made that thing sing. Yuzo Koshiro knew exactly what the limitations were and designed his music accordingly, the final result is one of the best soundtracks in all of gaming. For 1992/1993 this was extremely ahead of it’s time, some of the tracks wouldn’t be out of a place in a trance nightclub. There’s not much more to say about the soundtrack, it speaks for itself.
Amongst the best titles within the MegaDrive/Genesis library Streets of Rage 2 remains one of the highlights of that era. The simple concept of beating everyone up using only the most basic of attacks combined with a killer soundtrack is all you needed back then. I don’t know a single person who passes up the chance to have a session on Streets of Rage 2, an absolute classic.
Streets of Rage In 2012
What was awesome back in the day sometimes does not age well, this isn’t the case with Streets of Rage 2. The game is just as fun today as it was in 1992/1993 and the soundtrack holds up just as well too. There were three entries in the series, usually the third one is the one everyone likes to bash but it’s actually really good. In fact much of the game was butchered by regional differences so unless you’re playing Bare Knuckle III (Japanese name for Streets of Rage 3) then you have every right to bash it, even so Streets of Rage 2 is still the best one.
The bad news about Streets of Rage is that the series never returned after the third game, for one reason or another it’s just something that Sega never really went back to which is a shame although it almost did, twice. Okay stay with me guys because this is about to get weird.
Sometime in 1996 Core Design were working on a game called Judgement Force which was basically a Streets of Rage style game in 3D so Sega stepped in and asked they turn it into Streets of Rage 3D. Somewhere along the way Sega changed their mind and the final game ended up as Fighting Force which was a HORRIBLE game. I have no idea what Sega were thinking giving them the Streets of Rage name but thank god they didn’t go down that route. You can actually see what Streets of Rage 3D would of been like thanks to this BETA.
Okay so I’ve got some more bad news, eventually a Streets of Rage 4 was on the cards and Sega themselves were developing it but this too never came to be. It was intended to be released on the Dreamcast but it never happened because the executives at Sega of America were not familiar with the series plus the genre itself wasn’t as popular as it used to be. How’s that for a stab directly in the heart, you’re an executive at Sega of America and you’ve never heard of STREETS OF RAGE? WTF!!!
Anyway much like “Streets of Rage 3D” some footage of the prototype Sega built to show off to the idiots in America managed to find it’s way online. Looks a bit rubbish but it’s a prototype after all.
The only good news that I can bring you is that you can easily play the classic Streets of Rage games on most consoles or handheld devices these days. There’s actually a bunch of ports across many systems but rather than list them all I suggest you get SVC: Streets of Rage on XBLA, for some reason it isn’t on PSN yet. Sega Vintage Collection Streets of Rage is the perfect game for fans of the series, it includes all three games in one package. The menus are sleek, there’s tons of options to mess around with, it’s online enabled and you can even pick what version of Streets of Rage you want to play so you can finally enjoy the non suck version of Streets of Rage 3.
That’s it for another Retro Corner, this is generally what I would consider a happy ending. Streets of Rage 2 was great then and it’s still great now, the game is also everywhere so you shouldn’t have any problem finding a way to play it. The slight downer is obviously the lack of a Streets of Rage 4, it’s something that I feel many people would love to see even after all these years. The only real problem would be, who could be up to the task of doing a Streets of Rage 4 justice?
