Streets of Rage 4

So, I've beaten the Story Mode and here are my thoughts about the game: I really liked it!

STORY
The story is nothing to write home about. It's also less serious in tone when compared to the old games, in my opinion.
But the cutscenes after the stages are really nice. I'm glad they brought those back from SOR3.

GAMEPLAY
In terms of gameplay, I've got zero complaints. I immediately got hooked when I picked Blaze. The gameplay is deeper than previous games
because you can now juggle the enemies a couple of times, allowing you to create some combos.

The Star power moves can really help you when in a bad situation. But you gotta use them at the right time, as they are limited.
You also have a 'back attack', but I never used it (because I forgot about that move)

The game also runs very smooth. It never lagged or stuttered during my playthrough.

In terms of difficulty, I've only played the game on Normal and died maybe 3 or 4 times in total during my playthrough. Seems about right, if you ask me.

MUSIC
Unfortunately, none of the music didn't really stick with me (granted, it was my first time playing this game, maybe it'll grow on me over time). There was one song, however, that did. And that is the Stage 3 song.

Most songs from SOR3 don't stick with me either, and I still enjoy that game. So yeah, it doesn't really bother me that much.

GRAPHICS
No complaints here. The game looks really nice with the hand-drawn sprite work. The effects during some stages look great as well and really set the mood for that stage. I enjoyed the nice little details that they put in there.

VERDICT
Overall, I really enjoyed it and I'll be coming back to this game for years to come... Just don't make us wait another 20+ years for a new SOR game :P

My rating: 8/10
 
I finally tried the game.
It is Extremely beautiful and with great music.
And the story telling is nearly perfect! 8)

The juggle feature is really well done!

But something is obvious  and I was already sure about it before to try.
THE MOVESETS ARE VERY LIMITED (not so many animations and moves)

The real variation is in the weapons and cancels+juggle.
But it's very obvious that making these kind of sprites is very long...

I also felt like the game is very slow! beside of Cherry, even Blaze walk like an elephant... And she don't have a run.
The enemies are VERY fast, and strike you the first frame they can. It's really frustrating.

I don't have the SOR feeling by playing it.
This is a very good game, but definitely not a good SOR.  :-\

I would say it's a "good looking modern SOR game".
 
I share your advice nedflandeurse, this SOR4 needs a run animation and maybye a dodge up/down move.
This is one thing that frustrates me, when the playable character is moving too slowly and/or doesn't respond well to the commands (it's not the case here for the command).

Testing a new SOR brings me joy nevertheless, I think it's a good game to make the new generation discover the serie.
I try the run with Axel and I like the fury moves they put in the game. The back arrow + attack for back attack is great and instinctive.
Good efforts with the graphics too.
 
So just completed it, really disappointing, all the characters felt slow and sluggish, blaze felt like a tank, players are overly animated, enemies aren't animated enough and enemies are way faster because of that fact, not enough variation in player combat and enemy types, I don't like enemies bouncing off the edge of the screen, looks silly as there's nothing there to bounce off of, really cartoon like, story is wack, boss battles felt weak and cheap, no real substance to level design, worst of all it has zero replay ability, no level branching, no alternate endings (maybe it does but not playing it again)  I was interested in seeing what's coming next while playing it but that's what ultimately led to feeling disappointed, music isn't great. What I did like was being able to remove certain things like the combo meter change buttons to legacy mode (attack jump special) I thought you'd be able to play 4 players online but that's only for local play not online, it's just not streets of rage in any way not even in an advanced way, requested a refund, my original review was "it's ok" but now it just feels like "meh" Streets of Rage 2X by Kratus is much more enjoyable
 
danno said:
So just completed it, really disappointing, all the characters felt slow and sluggish, blaze felt like a tank, players are overly animated, enemies aren't animated enough and enemies are way faster because of that fact, not enough variation in player combat and enemy types, I don't like enemies bouncing off the edge of the screen, looks silly as there's nothing there to bounce off of, really cartoon like, story is wack, boss battles felt weak and cheap, no real substance to level design, worst of all it has zero replay ability, no level branching, no alternate endings (maybe it does but not playing it again)  I was interested in seeing what's coming next while playing it but that's what ultimately led to feeling disappointed, music isn't great. What I did like was being able to remove certain things like the combo meter change buttons to legacy mode (attack jump special) I thought you'd be able to play 4 players online but that's only for local play not online, it's just not streets of rage in any way not even in an advanced way, requested a refund, my original review was "it's ok" but now it just feels like "meh" Streets of Rage 2X by Kratus is much more enjoyable
Click to expand...

Thanks !
Everywhere I talk about what's wrong with this game. PPl just ignore ans say "come on! It's SOR4, I'm so nostalgic! It's epic" (even if some of them are born after 2000)
Or some ppl says the game is so complete and there are tons of moves...
For the first time I play a SOR game and felt bored about the moveset after few levels. And eventually start playing mechanically without thinking.

But just like in fighting games. The trend is into puting less effort in creating stuff (because it's too expensive to take any risk)
And hide this lack of effort with flashy effects, automatised features (juggle system WOW! wall bounce WOW! So many weapons WOW!...)

I would have loved to see more diversity in gameplay.
To me since Punisher and Cadilliac and dinosaurs have been released, every Beat em up (classic style or not) should feature enough moves and variations so you can play a full level of enemies and STILL have possibilities/moves to discover and try.

Again, if this game was not an SOR game, I would not mind, but this SOR is just a beautiful flashy game.

Actually I REALLY HOPE material and assets from this game will be ripped so we can create true real SOR4 experience in Openbor! :)
Even if I'm not sure everything from this game can be exactly done with the engine.

Also, I hope this chinese project we all know will "make fun of" this french SOR4 with a better gameplay.
I say this as a French guy.
 
danno

Too bad you don't like it :( I can only imagine how disappointed you must feel after waiting so long for a new SOR game.

While I agree with you about the story and the music, I'm not really sure about the 'zero replayability' part, as I've just finished the game for the second time today and already started a third playthrough.
And I felt the bosses were an improvement over the bosses from the original trilogy. The bosses in the original trilogy are easy to me, so these new bosses were a nice change of pace for me.

And about Blaze, yes, she did feel kinda slow at first. But I very quickly adjusted to her speed and by the end of stage 2, it just felt familiair. She's kinda the same as she is in SOR2, to me.

I'm not sure about an alternate ending being there. I haven't come across it, but I don't think there is one.

If you are getting the refund, I suggest you give 'River City Girls' a try. Perhaps you'll like that game better than this one ;)
 
I finished playing it earlier today and I thought it was pretty good. The stages were very detailed and the characters also very well drawn and animated pretty well.

The soundtrack is decent but nothing more you hear from modern games like dubstep and electronica but it has some good arrangements with hip-hop, jazz and techno.

The gameplay at its core is tried and true 2D beat-em up mechanics from the original Streets of Rage since its more akin to the second one. The moveset is kinda limited of what you can do and the juggling system is a cool addition to rack up high damaging combos and cancels. I play with Axel on my first run on Normal and I died like two or three times but it was fair and the right amount of challenge.

Overall I like it and will keep playing it to try out the other characters on my next playthroughs. 8/10

 
MadGear
Believe me man I really wanted to like this game and to be fair it had massive shoes to fill, I was looking forward to the retro side of things but even that isn't done right, I cracked open some of the files and found New Shiva player data so at some point there might be some dlc with his side story, that might be interesting, If I'm being honest I think streets of rage remake and X2 by Kratus spoiled me and I was expecting much more out of Sor 4, both streets or rage remake and X2 felt like progression and lots of work went into them and I do think in years to come if Kratus got hold of the Sor4 sprites he'd do a much better job. I would of preferred if the Sor4 team just made a HD version of the first 3 games ( I have suspicion that's how the project started out as a remake) because Sor4 doesn't feel like the next chapter, even if they just did something like make Adam the bad guy boss I dunno, It all just felt cheap to me like lack of character, enemy variations and the combat system has took several steps back, you can still show progression in all these systems and remain true to the classic system and if you are gonna try something new it has to better than what was previously done. Overall 5/10 from me.
 
danno said:
MadGear
Believe me man I really wanted to like this game and to be fair it had massive shoes to fill, I was looking forward to the retro side of things but even that isn't done right, I cracked open some of the files and found New Shiva player data so at some point there might be some dlc with his side story, that might be interesting, If I'm being honest I think streets of rage remake and X2 by Kratus spoiled me and I was expecting much more out of Sor 4, both streets or rage remake and X2 felt like progression and lots of work went into them and I do think in years to come if Kratus got hold of the Sor4 sprites he'd do a much better job. I would of preferred if the Sor4 team just made a HD version of the first 3 games ( I have suspicion that's how the project started out as a remake) because Sor4 doesn't feel like the next chapter, even if they just did something like make Adam the bad guy boss I dunno, It all just felt cheap to me like lack of character, enemy variations and the combat system has took several steps back, you can still show progression in all these systems and remain true to the classic system and if you are gonna try something new it has to better than what was previously done. Overall 5/10 from me.
Click to expand...

Thanks danno, I'm glad to hear that! But I need to respect the developers of the SOR4 and I don't want to use your sprites for now. Maybe if someone draws SOR4 content in SOR2/3 sprite versions, it will be a honor to add them in SOR2X.

I'm playing SOR4 and it's too early for me to give a final verdict. For now I will say that the game is visually fantastic but have a bad fighting mechanic. This was exactly what motivated me to make SOR2X after playing SOR Remake a lot of times.

The worst part for me is that the game has no run or dodge. I understand that the developers don't want to add new features and it's okay, but remove features present in previous games is a downgrade for me. I know that SOR1/SOR2 don't have it by default (except for SOR2 Sammy) but the entire game have a compatible atmosphere and you can play well with no run or dodge moves. For example, in SOR4 some enemies cross the entire screen with one simple move, like Raven, Bongo and Bikers but players can't perform at least one quick dash or evade move (except for Adam, that has a dash move). I had painful moments with Garnets jump attacks too.

The second worst part is that every enemy has Super Armor! I understand if it is used by some bosses and bigger characters in fighting games (like Hulk, Zangief) but not in a Donovan or Biker. I never imagined one day fearing Donovan  ;D ;D

I see a high rate in the Steam and positive feedbacks from some youtubers. I believe this is due to no rivals at the beat'n up scene actually, a very high hype since SOR3 and the fantastic graphics, really impressive. I confess that really enjoyed SOR4 a lot at the start and had some nostalgic moments. But gradually the difficult will increase and the lack of features will starts to bother
 
Kratus:
The worst part for me is that the game has no run
Click to expand...
Cherry can run and has some moves that make me think that she is the new SOR4 Skate/Eddie. I assume that the devs have mostly played to SOR2, because next SOR3 corrected this sluggish problem (Roo's appearing is misplaced too).
For the other characters, I must do some small jumps to move artificially faster which is very bad :/.

The positive point is the very intuitive back attack ( backward + attack) and the possibility to make a atchain combo. I'm wondering if you can put this mechanic to SOR2X?

I noticed that Mr.Din is quoted in the credits as SOR fan consultant. Can you tell me what was your role in the development? :)
 
kimono said:
Kratus:
The worst part for me is that the game has no run
Click to expand...
Cherry can run and has some moves that make me think that she is the new SOR4 Skate/Eddie. I assume that the devs have mostly played to SOR2, because next SOR3 corrected this sluggish problem (Roo's appearing is misplaced too).
For the other characters, I must do some small jumps to move artificially faster which is very bad :/.

The positive point is the very intuitive back attack ( backward + attack) and the possibility to make a atchain combo. I'm wondering if you can put this mechanic to SOR2X?

I noticed that Mr.Din is quoted in the credits as SOR fan consultant. Can you tell me what was your role in the develpment? :)
Click to expand...

kimono
Sorry man. I haven't played with Cherry yet but is good to know that she can run. Thanks!

About Mr. Din I saw his name in the credits, and Anthopants too. As far as I know, Anthopants don't like SOR3 mechanics and it includes run and dodge features. In some Youtube videos he says that SOR2 is more strategic, like a chess game, and this is why he don't like the run animation because he want's to use some strategy to approach the enemy. I'm not sure, but maybe that was his idea to remove these features from SOR4.

About my role in the development, maybe your question is because you saw some similarities in both SOR2X and SOR4, right?
At the first time the game was announced, I sent a message to Guard Crush Games. We talked a little and I showed some SOR2X videos. They liked somethings, others not, and I said that they can use anything of my game that they want. If you see in Extra>Gallery>Other there is a screenshot with a rage bar, but they don't used it.

About back attack maybe I can add it with some scripts. I'm analyzing the entire game to see some features that can be good in future SOR2X updates.
 
danno said:
I think streets of rage remake and X2 by Kratus spoiled me and I was expecting much more out of Sor 4, both streets or rage remake and X2 felt like progression and lots of work went into them and I do think in years to come if Kratus got hold of the Sor4 sprites he'd do a much better job. I would of preferred if the Sor4 team just made a HD version of the first 3 games ( I have suspicion that's how the project started out as a remake) because Sor4 doesn't feel like the next chapter, even if they just did something like make Adam the bad guy boss I dunno, It all just felt cheap to me like lack of character, enemy variations and the combat system has took several steps back, you can still show progression in all these systems and remain true to the classic system and if you are gonna try something new it has to better than what was previously done. Overall 5/10 from me.
Click to expand...

I mostly feel like you.
A very beautiful game with so many limitations.
We have been used to several fan games FULL of features and moves...
Getting back to something with limited actions (beside of juggle and cancels) feels like a "stop in progress" (I cannot find the word in english)
But it's 2020. You cannot invest too much TIME and MONEY into a niche project like this.

The run lack and absence of Z axis roll is really a bad thing to me.
I immediatlely saw it when, I saw the first gameplays of Blaze "jumping non-stop" during the whole stage because her walk is slow as f*ck!!!

Also, in five minutes of gameplay, you already saw all the availiable moves with a character.
OK, you can go crazy with juggles... But I feel like it's an "artificial" way to give the feeling the game have more "content"

Again, I love the game overall, but I would feel sad to know this game is the official last SOR game forever... :-[
 
Kratus  Hello, I have read your reply. I am very happy to see your reply. I was a little worried before.

In addition, I also played SOR4. I feel that it is similar to SOR2X in many places. For example, insurance / special skills can be used to attack the enemy to recover, etc., but I think sor4 is not as good as my ideal, and there are many defects. In addition, I prefer your sor2x, I think SOR2X is better than SOR4.
 
nedflandeurse said:
We have been used to several fan games FULL of features and moves...
Click to expand...
And this is the exact reason why I went with a completely different mindset when I played SOR4 for the first time.
I said to myself that I should compare SOR4 to ONLY the original trilogy and not the fan games or any other game in the genre.

This is also exactly what I did when I developed BDD. My only goal was to make a game that's as good or (wishful thinking) better than the original BDD from 1993.
I had no intention to make it the best Battletoads game or the best Double Dragon game. Just as good (or better) than the original BDD.

I think having this mindset really helped me to enjoy SOR4 as much as I do because the game does have some things that the original trilogy doesn't have.
 
Did you know? Street of Rage 4 was made with GuardCrush engine (Guard Crush Games team):
https://streetsoffury.wixsite.com/guardcrushgames
Another game made with this engine is Street of Fury Ex:
This may interest nsw25  ;).
 
Pros about that game are that framecount is 100%, probably 60fps so a lot of frames per animation, nothing is skipped, which makes it look like camcorder video, not really my thing, id prefere 24fps look imitation , im not sure about that perspective and enemies getting smaller too fast when in background.
Lighting is total fail, they just didnt care.But gameplay is quite good with combos, they should of hire some actual martial artists , they barely hold their legs high.
I would not drown my own money to make game that looks like this, especially the lighting and weak fighters without real martial art skills and better costumes.
Looks like it was made in home before greenscreen, even first mortal kombat game had very good lighting, from top and backlight, they sure knew what they were doing, thats why mk games hold up quite well compared to other digitized fighter games.
 
It took about 8 playthroughs, but the music of this game is finally starting to grow on me. I can actually play some of the songs in my head now. I don't think the ost of this game is on the same level of the first two games, but I think it's miles better than the ost of the third game.
 
bWWd: I'm agree with you the light is very bad here, I think they just wanted to have some fun with famous french youtubers and no other goals.
This video shows us how to do infinite combos:
 
Some nice easter eggs levels: you must use the taser in the arcade cabinet (only SOR2 stages):
 
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