Overall 9.2 Graphics 8 Sound 9.2 Addictive 8.2 Story 6.8 Depth 7 Difficulty 6.8
7.3
Streets of Rage Review Zircron Swift
Ah the Sega Genesis....or is it the Sega Mega Drive? It is it the second model.....third? What ever the console this game was on, the Sega....er....thing-ah-ma-jig x32 Genesis Drive was loved, but the console didn't seem to have a lot of revolutionary games. Sure, it had Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Gunstar Heroes which are all really good games, but it didn't live up to what Nintendo were doing. Sorry Sega pal =( And it can be easy to see why. Most of the games for this console....seemed cheap. One of those games is Streets of Rage. Now, I know what most of you are thinking. "but this was a good game, one of the finest and would be in my top ten for this console". Not that I'm saying it's bad, just cheap....and possibly bad. Just imagine that Urban Champion took the leap into 16-bit and got the ability to grab bad guys and get a special move. That is what I think when playing this game....only with a lot less green haired guys trying to knock you into a man hole. And I don't see a man hole you could drop into as well. But why leave it there? Lets get our fighting gloves on and get raging in the streets, as we look at Streets of Rage.
So the story is that an evil organization known as.....[insert awesome name here]....they didn't come up with a name? Does this mean i can call them anything? I want to call the the Black Cobras or something like that. Although I could take this opportunity to call them the Rainbow Ponies *smiles manically* Na, that would be just plain stupid. But I digress. The evil organization take over the city start creating organized crime. The police are either corrupted or too scared to take them down....apart from three brave souls. These guys want to put an end to this evil abomination and restore peace to the city. These are Adam, Axel and Blaze. They have a certain skill they are bad at, but very good in the other two skills. Adam is slow, but has great power and is a good jumper. Axel is very powerful and is fast, but jumps like a girl (really, he does), Blaze, on the other hand, is a very agile lady with great jumping skills and is very fast, however, power is the cost of this speed.
So you have to battle through eight different rounds to get to the boss and defeat him to bring your lovely and peaceful city back from the darkness. So you start off outside a chain of bars. Ok, the controls, A for the special attack, witch gets a police car to fire some bazooka to deal a lot of damage, B to attack, which results in a lot of punching, and C to Jump. Although the controls seem odd, you can just change them in the options section. You must defeat all enemies in your way in order to proceed. So now your walking around, punching bad guys till their dead. That's about it. You just punch them and if you can, rank up a combo and defeat them quicker. Not a lot of strategy going on here. You can mix things up by attacking them and then press the jump button which, sometimes, makes you grab them. You can continue to punch them, or you can press the jump button again to vault over them, then press the attack button to throw them to the ground, resulting in a lot of damage to the enemy. You can also smash items for goodies such as apples (heals some health, nom) pork (heals all your health nom nom) 1-ups (nommy) and gaining another special attack.
After some boring yet entertaining fights, you'll come across to the boss fights, which, to be very honest, look like Street Fighter rejects. You get guys that look like Freddy, a construction builder that breaths fire and....two athletic girls....ok, maybe
that one doesn't look like a Street Fighter reject. They are tough, I won't argue. I normally die once or twice before I can beat them. If you can land a good combo of jits on them, you should be very proud of yourself. For a long time, the game seems to be repeating itself, apart from the fact each stage has more enemies. After round five, I lost all hope that there would be a niece for a stage. On stage six, i got just that. Conveyer belts and smashy things that would smash you. These add a lot to the game after what seems like forever of the same stage, but with increasing difficulty. I noticed you can walk passes the smashy things even though they are on the floor.
One thing I have to hand to this game, thought, is it's difficulty. It's hard. But not hard as in ultra hard. I mean hard as in "swarm of enemy" hard. You get swarmed by so many enemies it gets silly. And what are these anyway? Ladies in black with a whip and suspenders....? Juggling fire makers that throw flaming sticks? Ninjas that jump dramatically from the water....oh wait, most ninjas do that =P This "leader" of this gang has a lot of power to get these guys in particular to over-run his city....and succeed no less! This guy has a odd sense of warriors and wannabes. But what really annoyed me is this one feature in the game. Normally, you can pick up items and use them,
but when you get hit, and I mean hit just once, you drop your item. Why have that in the game? Who thought that would be a good idea?
How could it be a good idea? How would you like it if you were playing a masterpiece like Ocarina of Time, but you drop your weapon every time you got hit by an enemy? Will that make the game better? No, it would ruin half of the game. you gotta then pick it up again, only to drop it again, then it fades away. Why game? Why do that?
Overall I give this game a 7.3/10, and that's being kind. You can't argue that the core game is pretty nice, but it gets old after a while and probably won't play it a third time. True, this was once an arcade game, and if it were such, I would give it a better score. But it's not, it's a on a 16-bit console, and I kinda expected more. Good to play the first time or so, but after a while, your better off getting some to play with you. That might spice things up.
Graphics 7 Sound 9 Addictive 5 Story 6 Depth 4 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 4.4/5
Submitted: 09-19-11
Review Replies: 6
7.8
Streets full of rage (Streets of Rage Review) tornadocam
Here we go, time to deal with some street rage joking. I'm going to be critiquing Streets of Rage the very first game in the Streets of Rage also known as Bare Knuckle series. Story: 8The story takes place in an unnamed city. The city was once a nice place to live until a mysterious criminal organization lead by a more mysterious Mister X takes over. The criminal organization is so powerful and wealthy that they have brought the city's leaders. Even some of the police force is brought and paid for. They are a few cops who are not corrupted, but they do not dare go against the organization. Things are so bad that nobody goes out of their homes because the streets are not safe. However, 3 cops Axle , Adam, and Blaze decide they will fight the criminal organization. They set out to rid the city of the organization and restore the peaceful streets. It is up to the three cops to clean up the city and to find out who the mysterious Mister X is. Okay I really liked the plot in this game. I thought the plot was nicely done for a fighting game. I felt like the plot introduced the characters very well. Unlike other fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat that the plot was centered around a tournament. Streets of Rage deals with a city in turmoil with corruption and crime. I really thought that was creative. So I give the plot of this game a good solid 8/10. Graphics & Controls 6The graphics in this game were good but they did have some flaws in them, more on that soon. The neon signs in the background of the city stages really looked nice. How the makers of this game had them glow and light up was nice they look like actual signs. I also liked how on the beach stage how the waves move like real waves that was nicely done as well. Now, the graphics in this came did have some issues. The sprites were out of whack sometimes. I felt like the enemies and fighters looked blurry at times. It also is hard to tell people are holding weapons in this game. In addition, some of the backgrounds as I mentioned were good, but in other stages in this game the backgrounds were blurry as well as fuzzy. It kind of makes me wonder if this game was not rushed. The controls were good but not as good as this games sequel. The second streets of rage game had awesome controls. This one they were good but not perfect. Sometimes it seems like the characters are a little sluggish at times. There are times were Blaze, Axle and Adam appear to be sluggish. The game at times can also feel like it lags in certain sports. The graphics and controls were decent but they did have some faults in them. I give them a decent rating of 6/10. I will be honest I wrestled with the rating. The graphics & controls were not really horrible despite their flaws. On the other hand they were not sharp either. Sound: 7 The sound in this game was good but again it did have some issues. Thu music in this game was alright. The first stage's tune was really nice and there were two other tunes that I liked. However I found some of the stages had tingles in this game. Also a lot of tunes just did not stand out to me. I guess after the second game's awesome music I was expecting good music from the first game. Some of the enemies do make good sounds as they are being knocked out it sounds like they moan and groan. However, compared to the second game that is the only sound they make. Even when you have a weapon it does not make a sound when it is hitting an enemy. The sound in this game was good but it could have been better. I do not like lags in games so that brings the rating down. I give the sound a good score of 7/10Addictiveness & Depth: 7 Despite this game's flaws it is a fun game to play. Now with that being said it is not like the second game however. I find myself playing this one less. However when I do play this game I do have fun with it. That adds replay value. You get to chose between three fighters Adam Axle or Blaze. I find it fun to play through this game with a different fighter and see how far I can go. To me that adds depth to this game and replay value. Now the depth in this game is not up there like other games for a few reasons. The first being this is a short game and the stages are not too long at all. Another thing is there really are not any power ups to collect. Sure they are life ups to collect and a few weapons but that is about it. At the end of the day I give the replay and depth value a decent 7/10Difficulty: 8 Streets of rage can be difficult. Bad guys just love to get your surrounded, hit you from behind or overwhelm you. It is so easy to get a lot of bad guys on the screen. To make the game more difficult you only have a few seconds to knock them out to advanced. So yeah that can be difficult. Enemies will also appear out of nowhere too so that can be challenging. The bosses in this game are difficult they often have bad guys helping them. Not to mention they also have several attacks, move real fast and lots of health. The game does try to help you out somewhat. You can pick up a call police icon this allows the good cops not corrupted to shoot flames around you to wipe out the bad guys. The bad news is these icons can be hard to get. Second they do give you some weapons to deal with such as pipes, knives and baseball bats. These weapons especially the pipes and bats do a lot of damage to the bad guys. But the problem is you often have to knock out a bad guy to get the weapons. The reason I do not give the difficulty rating higher than an 8 is for this very reason. This game is a short game compared to the second game. The stages are short so that brings the difficulty down a little bit. Still this is a hard game to beat so I think 8/10 sounds about right. Overall 7.8 Okay I will be honest I played the second game before I played this game. That is because I got to play the second game before I got a chance to play the first. After playing and really liking the second game I was hoping the first game would be similar. I did not expect it to be as sharp as the second game because well this is the first game. I was surprised at how much the differences were in this game. I mentioned earlier in my review how I wonder if this game was rushed a little bit. This game I found out was released in late 1991 or early 1992. Sega produced a lot of popular games around that time. Sonic the Hedgehog was a major hit so I wonder if the makers of this game rushed this to get this game out on the Sega system. I think the more likely reason this game could have been rushed is because Street Fighter made by Capcom was about to be released. Street Fighter II would prove to be a huge hit for Capcom. Some argue the Street Fighter II games rank up there with Capcom's popular Mega Man games. The makers of Streets of Rage probably wanted to get this game out before Street Fighter II would come out for the SNES and Sega systems. The game's graphics, controls and sound seem rushed. Do not get me wrong despite this game's flaws it is still a fun and good game to play. If you can put the flaws aside you will find this is a great game. This game really introduced the Streets of Rage series pretty well. As far as recommending this game, I would recommend this game for people who are new to the Streets of Rage series. The only thing is I would add is after playing this game. Play the second game and compare the games. At the end of the day I give the first Streets of Rage rating overall a 7.8
Graphics 6 Sound 7 Addictive 7 Story 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 4/5
Submitted: 06-23-14
Review Replies: 0
7
It All Starts With This... PhantasyStarWren
The first Streets of Rage is a classic brawler that may look dated, but is actually quite enjoyable. Being the first in the series, it certainly has flaws, but not enough to ruin the overall experience. Moving forward and hitting bad guys is not all you can do in this game. There are plenty of things to make the game more interesting. One of these things is the famous soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro, who wanted to use the style of 90s house music. You may even find similarities to actual 90s music. Also, this game has some environmental hazards such as pits and crusher machines. There is also more than one ending, but I don't want to spoil too much.
The story of this game is very simple, but most people who play brawlers do not care about their stories. A powerful criminal syndicate takes over a once peaceful city and turns it into a crime-ridden nightmare. Because the police force is under this malicious control, three vigilantes quit and took matters into their own hands. Who are these three vigilantes you might ask?
You play as three characters: Axel Stone, Adam Hunter, and Blaze Fielding. They share the same move set, but not exactly the same moves and fighting styles. They also differ in power and speed, as Adam is the slowest and Blaze is the fastest. There are other differences like how our heroes use certain weapons and how some of them use certain attacks differently. For example, Axel's jumping attack has a shorter range than Blaze's and Adam's. Another example would be that Blaze throws enemies at a farther distance than Adam and Axel. You'll just have to explore these differences by playing the game as each character. Like most brawlers, you have your standard combo, aerial attack, and grab attacks. However, this game threw interesting moves to the table, such as vaulting, suplexes, back-attacks, landings from throws, team attacks (done by throwing or vaulting over your partner), and reversal throws (for when enemies grab you from behind). Hand-to-hand combat is not all you will be using to fight crime, however.
The
selection of weapons include baseball bats, lead pipes, knives (which you can throw), glass bottles, and pepper shakers. There is also a special attack in the game where a cop drives onscreen (unless you're in the final stage) and guns down every enemy on the screen where you are (different weapon depending on which player calls for the cop), which helps in overly crowded areas and boss fights. The special attack can only be used once per life, but you can pick up the police car item to use it again. Just try not to die, or else you will have one special attack again. Beware the fact that certain enemies can use also use weapons. Some enemies may even have weapons that you cannot use (although it would be nice to use them yourself). I should tell you about the mooks themselves, as well.
The enemy roster in this game is the smallest, but this is the first game, after all. Along with your typical street thugs, you are also up against enemies such as dominatrices, martial artists, slashers, fire-breathers, and more. And, of course, there's the mysterious crime boss, Mr. X. You will find that every enemy is very different from one another, which adds to the variety of this game. For example, you'll find that one of the enemies can use multiple weapons and grab you from behind (perfect time to use that reversal throw I talked about earlier). Another enemy might have an anti-air attack ready for when you decide to jump near them. You will also find that the same type of enemy can differ in terms of not only palette swaps, but also aggressiveness, health, weapons, and other aspects that are specific to each goon. Here's something you should know: the newer the color of an enemy, the more hits it will take to defeat them. One problem with the enemy roster I noticed is that you will find that one of the bosses has been recycled and brought his own clone in a later stage, which I thought was a cop-out. Speaking of clones, you will have to fight two of every mid-boss and boss when playing in 2-Player Co-Op Mode. For the smallest roster in the series, I thought this was actually handled quite well due to how much variation there is, even if you're fighting the same type of enemy.
There are 8 stages in the first Streets of Rage. The first few stages are pretty standard and straightforward, but the game's level design starts to get more interesting after you finish them. One level takes place on a bridge in construction full of pits to help you dispose of enemies, although you should avoid falling in them yourself. Another level takes place in a factory where there are conveyor belts and crusher machines that can also either help or hinder you. And then there's the popular elevator level where you can throw the enemies off (but you should avoid falling off yourself, naturally). I would talk about the final level, but I don't want to spoil it. All I will say about is that the police cannot help you there. Overall, this is a pretty good level
selection.
This game is fun, but it's clearly not perfect. There's quite an amount of glitches, big or small. For example,there is a way to get to the top of the screen during one of the boss fights. The graphics are not that great in this game, but the sequels greatly improve on that aspect. Most of the bosses can be killed using an easy-to-pull-off tactic, but I'd rather not give that away.
This game is SEGA's first try, but they surely did a good enough job for me to recommend it.
Streets of Rage gets a 7/10 from me.
Graphics 7 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 3 Depth 7 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 3.7/5
Submitted: 05-28-14
Updated: 06-15-14
Review Replies: 2
9.9
The Start of a Beautiful Franchise classgame
It's the most wonderful time of the year, that's right The Tour de Vizzed (even if I can't seem to add any screen shots on games that already have some but to coincide with the Youtube Thumbnail
update project I'm doing I decided to kill two birds with one stone) so I have decided to reserve the console game reviews for weekends only(to coincide with the anniversary of me finding the Sega Genesis in my basement), Weekdays I will continue the PC gaming reviews because someone has to give them some love. Also I don't return to work until the 10th so I'll have time to do some reviews and hopefully some more time to do a little gaming because I have a random picker wheel that's full of stuff I still want to film (I'll do Streets of Rage by levels only because I don't have good patience).
Gameplay and Story: So the title screen gives a description of of the 5 W's (though we don't learn the name of the city until Streets of Rage 4 which I have no way of playing) a crime syndicate has taken over the city and has taken control of everything including the police force and they can't really do anything except fire flame throwers (bullets if you are in 2 player mode) however three ex-cops have had enough, so they've decided to do something about it themselves, and their only weapons; their fists (or Bare Knuckles as they prefer to call it in Japan).
Graphics: well the thing is, I didn't notice how awesome the graphic were until I played this on a computer rather than on tv because I could take a good look at them especially in Full Screen mode.
Soundtrack: Man I adore the soundtrack to this game the soundtracks in the sequels don't really live up to it I could listen to the Round 3 soundtrack forever.
Addictive: This game has kept me coming back many times and even as an adult in my early 30's I still do, but it still begs the questions, why didn't they get onto the Genesis Mini? if they can put a certain Mega Man game onto the mini that actually has 3 Mega Man games then they should have included the 6-Pak which btw had Sonic 1, Golden Axe and Columns, and that would leave room for 3 extra games (I would have added this, Sonic 3 and Hang on OG, Wildcards would be Moonwalker and Revenge of Shinobi).
Depth: This game offers 8 rounds plus the final boss, don't agree to be the Big Bad's Right-Hand Man he'll just sent you back down to the factory in Round 6 (if they really wanted to test us they should have put us back on the boat with the Blaze Clones).
Difficulty: It's not that hard I've beaten the game as every character, and I would say the hardest level would be the Blaze clones (we learn their names are Mona and Lisa in game three). Gee considering how easy it is to beat this game and game 2 no wonder SoR 3 is frustratingly hard.
Post review Follow up: why hasn't this become a movie? I would have paid to see a big screen version of this, I don't care how badly the Super Mario Bros movie bombed (hopefully the upcoming Illuminations film will change that, but then again Detective Pikachu is a thing) and yeah if this feels short, it's been 6 months since the last review I did, of course I'm going to be a little rusty, plus my eyes are killing me and they've gotten worse since the summer. Seriously I'm not the avid movie goer I used to be if they can make a 4th installment of this game then I want a movie dammit!
This concludes my review, join me tomorrow when I will review the sequel Streets of Rage 2
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 01-01-22
Review Replies: 1
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