This is a true gem from Sega. A brawler through and through, you and a friend, its two player, pick a character and beat up rows and rows of thugs. Other games in this genre like Knights of the Round, Final Fight, Combat Tribes, Vendetta - falter to make their games as delicious as this game is. Its very addictive and fun. My friend Tubby bought all the Sega systems, I bought all the Nintendo, and I was over at his house for a week straight playing this. Your fighter gets some strategic moves not seen in all the other games, and the stages sometimes border on crazy, but it all works.

Graphics: 9
Bright, flashy colors pop from the moment you start moving in the game. While there are some dark parts to some levels for ambiance, its uncommon. The neon, the detail on the characters, subtle movements. The animations when Axel does his combo special! The hilarious animation as Skate (the kid player) jumps on a baddie's back and starts wailing on their head with punches! One of the best looking fighting games I've seen. The locations change wildly, from an street to a bar, and amusement park with a flying pirate ship, to a baseball diamond with a secret underground fighting arena! Streets of Rage 2 knows no limits. It gives you kids fighting, giant wrestlers, its insanity! But it looks good! So many characters (bad and good) stand out.

Despite this, a few technical things hold it back. Such as at the end of the first stage, you are clearly shown going in a door, then into a smoky bar, then you walk through a wide open area and now you're outside? The giant truck on the second stage is also at issue here (You get in and fight, then leave right out the front grill!).


Sound: 9
Glorious. Sega really brought it, and the heavy techno beats and scratchy synth work well in the gritty urban open level is probably the best in the whole game. The boss music is killer and one of my favorites. The strange music inside the alien cave (don't ask!) is appropriately mysterious. All the way up to the big boss, Mr. X, and his tense final battle music. Some of the middle tracks I didn't like so much (your mileage may vary), but it picked it back up towards the end for me.

The death sounds are quite funny and satisfying (see my meta game below), and most character voices are pretty good. The item sounds are a little weird, like picking up food, but its just a blip then you're past it, not worth dropping it for sound effects.


Addictiveness: 9
Holy cow did we play this game to death. Two player is a blast, although I can see how it could be a bother since you can hurt each other. One player up top and Second always at the bottom was our motto. All the 4 characters are pretty fun to play. I wish they had one extra you could play after beating it though (Adam?) just to add something more.  Me and my friend who owned the game, our whole Rage 2 game changed  when we acquired the code to play as the same character.  Hilarity ensued as we came up with a little meta gaming -a game within the game. 

We would both play as Max. The slowest, but most powerful, he is the only one who cannot change position after grabbing an enemy. Me and my friend had a contest to see who could grab the most enemies from behind to do his atomic drop (we referred to it as the "dreaded rear admiral"  from a  Simpsons schoolyard joke). Being so slow, its difficult for Max to get the drop on them, but if you could get the bosses, especially the last two, it was even more points. Hilarious fun.


Story: 6
I don't know, I just can't rate this as high as some people. Its a beat em up game! The story is very typical, a good guy has been captured, you go rescue them, beating up all opposition. The only variety here is 1) its revenge oriented as the boss lost to this person last game and 2) the two new characters are related/friends with the missing person.

If they had cut scenes about the missing hero, maybe a few bonus rounds where you try to prevent them from being killed - I don't know they could have done more. The missing character is only ever seen in the ending, which is a shame because I can think of several brawlers that put the missing person WITH the last boss, so you could see you were at the end and the evil leader had nowhere left to hide.


Depth: 6
You actually have a lot of moves, the highlights including a back-attack which felt pretty novel as it was a regular attack. It also had the obligatory "hurt bad guys but hurt yourself a bit to use" move - and these varied on effectiveness, but were for the most part pretty good. You also had the ability to change your grabbed enemy and attack them from behind, doing more damage (just not Max cuz he's too big to flip).

There is no bonus rounds, no hidden characters. Everything just plays out, and you pick up the items dropped from the barrels and crates. Nothing changes here.


Difficulty: 7
Ah this game could be pretty difficult. But its a lot of fun, you won't mind. Even if you fight a cheap wrestler that blocks nearly every grapple, or a boxer who might sock you out in a couple hits. Playing as two players increases the fun and the number of foes you two must fight, so use caution. The difficulty thankfully, is variable, and this would be for the medium setting in my book.


Overall: 9.2
This is a great game, with has player variety, a rocking sound track, and some of the best beat-em-up action in retro. Do not be afraid of these streets!  Play on them!