Overall 8.8 Graphics 7 Sound 5 Addictive 4 Story 9 Depth 9 Difficulty 10
6.6
AND THIS TIME STAY DEAD!!! classgame
No actually I couldn’t get the hang of the English version that Sega destroyed by making it too damn hard, not to mention practically deterring us from playing it on easy mode, it’s also another game I never owned in my holiday console gaming youth, so yeah I’m going to go into a bit of spoiler territory here
Gameplay and Story: So the gang is all here again, but this time they are joined by Doctor Zan. Where’s Adam you ask? Too busy to help (but he does show up in the game), and I don’t know where Max is because god forbid, we really could have used him when facing off against those flipping and life eating, ever so annoying Blaze clones (they have names now, Mona and Lisa). Apparently now there is a new plot involving bombs going off all over the city, of course most of this is all a ruse as we find out the chief of police has been abducted, and replaced with a robot clone, and yet somehow Mr.X keeps taking many steps ahead of the crew including his brain being put into a computer so he can keep running the city...and that’s why my review is titled AND THIS TIME STAY DEAD!
Graphics: They’re about the same, of course this was the only game in the franchise (before the fourth one was released) to get a Genesis exclusive release (yeah it looks like they were moving way away from the Master System by this point) however this is the first time we see the characters have actual dialogue in the game, we didn’t get that in previous entries that a bunch of cuts scenes in the intro and at the end of the game, they changed Blaze’s outfit (she wears a grey outfit now)
Soundtrack: I don’t know why but I feel like I should be on a dance floor rather than playing a game, though the boss music is relatively the same just remixed
Addictive: The first few times I came back to try again but this was just a tough game for me to master
Depth: There are multiple endings to this game and it depends on your gameplay level, if you do it on easy the game is over after you fight off the Axel clone (oh come on even on Easy mode in Castle of Illusion you can still save Minnie, and yet somehow it has a nicer ending where it shows Mizrabel is beautiful) and the robot insults you. There’s the endings where the chief of police dies but you have to fight some dude that turns out to be Shiva in disguise (yeah different last level I’ve let the Chief die a couple of times but I’ve never been able to defeat Doctor Shiva, and of course there’s the bad ending and the canon ending that goes with game 4, one of these days I will get to see the good ending in English
Difficulty: well at least we can unlock two characters in this game (one of them useful) Roo is kind of useful but even I would rather be Shiva (I wish they didn’t downgrade him in the power department). I just wish we could unlock him at the beginning of the game instead of after we lose all our lives the first time around, but man this was frustratingly hard to play, I especially hate that the Continues hack only works on the OG cut which is this one
Post review follow up: So why did I choose to review this game? Because there’s a rule that says I have to finish it before I post a review of anything (and yeah it was a rule I broke when I started posting reviews here) and I finished this version, the one that Sega America didn’t “fix” by breaking it because they made the hacks not work in the US version. This was the last Streets of Rage game that would be made for a very long time like we didn’t see another installment until 2020, and I guess it must have sold really well otherwise a movie wouldn’t have been greenlit (and at least we know it’s progressing) granted I can do this on easy mode in the higher levels (if I do a certain hack) but I have yet to unlock the good ending mostly because...wait a minute...there is something I can try in the future (oh wait no I can’t it has to be done EXACTLY AFTER I defeat Shiva). I wish more than anything I could play the fourth and final entry in the series, but the developers didn’t release any physical copies, and it would have definitely been worth shelling out a lot of money for a Switch (but I’ve made it clear that the next time I have to spend money on a console it should be on a Super Nintendo Mini) ...hey how old is Adam’s daughter supposed to be anyway? The game takes place 10 years after the first one and unless she’s been living with her mom this whole time. Well at least the OG version hadn't been tampered with and I had an easier time with the game
This concludes my review, join me on the 26th when I review Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the movie for Sega Genesis
Graphics 7 Sound 5 Addictive 4 Story 9 Depth 9 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-06-23
Review Replies: 1