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Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
V7LebS6.jpg



After two decades' worth of false starts and declined pitches, it's still amazing that this game finally gets to exist. Perhaps it's even for the best that it took this long, as the developers it landed with seem to understand and care about what makes a success in the now-niche field of beat-'em-ups.

Case in point: today Streets of Rage 4's first significant update goes out to all platforms in the form of a balancing patch. The individual gameplay changes are numerous, but they generally fall under buffs for player characters and nerfs for enemies. Can't say I'm mad at that. The netcode is supposed to be improved as well.

The developers have also stated they plan on adding content to the game. While they haven't gotten more specific than that, I can think of three bosses off the top of my head that are just begging to be made playable, so hopes are high.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Cherry is on the short list for being my favourite Beat em Up character ever.

And that list includes Mike Haggar!
 

Kazin

did i do all of that?
(he/him)
I need to pick this up soon. Been a while since I've played a beat-em-up.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
Streets of Rage 4 is genuinely great. It's sold really well too, so the franchise is in a good place now after years of neglect.
 

narcodis

the titular game boy
(he/him)
I pre-ordered the special Limited Run edition of this game, which FINALLY arrived about a week ago, and it came with a soundtrack CD! It's such a cool looking box that I have trouble bringing myself to open it. This is the game I'm going to crack open next once I finish my current helping of games.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Ooh, I'm excited. They generally made Axel pretty meh, especially compared to Blaze or Adam. Looking forward to seeing what buffs he might have gotten.

The game itself turned out fantastic. Other than the soundtrack being a bit uneven, it might (sacrilege incoming) actually challenge for best of the series.

Also, I want playable Estel.
 

BEAT

LOUDSKULL
(DUDE/BRO)
Streets of Rage 4 is the Game about beating the shit out of every single cop you see 2020 needed.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
After he's proven himself to be fully capable of beating the every loving garbage out of their entire collective asses single-handedly if they even look at anyone funny
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
Cherry is on the short list for being my favourite Beat em Up character ever.

And that list includes Mike Haggar!

Strangest funfact about Cherry: She's only the SECOND playable black woman in a beat-em-up ever. (That was specifically made for said beat-em-up. Don't play the STORM FROM THE X-MEN card)
 
FUCK Adam.
Even if Adam hadn't rejoined, the five protagonists are still vigilantes who agree with the means and ends of policing and beat up thugs and crooks because they feel the police don't do it enough.

As is the case with the protagonists of most brawlers.
 

Phantoon

I cuss you bad
Beat 'em ups are going to have dodgy politics, unfortunately it's baked into the premise. Beat 'em ups where you beat up "innocent" people wouldn't go over very well, neither would one where you didn't beat people up but sorted out the root of social inequality. I'd like to see a teach 'em up though!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Best example I can think of is Treachery in Beatdown City, where each fight is preceded with some dialogue that shows that, yes, the random people you’re about to beat down have it coming.
 

nataeryn

Discovered Construction
(he/him)
I played a bunch of SoR4 this weekend. I have to agree that Cherry is an amazing character
 

Beta Metroid

At peace
(he/him)
The wife and I have now worked through Normal and Hard. Cherry's definitely my favorite of this lineup, while my wife gravitated to Floyd, and that seemed to make a pretty versatile pairing.

I'm still a bit bummed out that there's no playable Roo, but maybe that upcoming DLC will change things! However, one of my earlier mild disappointments was addressed! Do we care about spoilers for Streets of Rage? Oh well, just to be safe (talk about characters ahead):

I'm still a bit surprised they created a new Max Thunder sprite with a whole ton of moves for a boss fight, but don't make him playable. But Streets of Rage 2 Max is here, so I can't be that upset! As my favorite character from 2, I had to give him a spin, so we went with a bigger lineup (Floyd/Max) in the latter half of Hard mode, and it wasn't always pretty, but we made it through without a Game Over, so that was nice.

After playing with the Streets of Rage 1 characters and seeing that they had no health-risking defensive or offensive special, only their star-consuming carpet bombing move, I assumed the characters from 2 would also be accurate to the source (so only health-risking specials, no star moves). Maybe modify the specials so they work with 4's rules (you can get the health back by landing hits before taking any). But I was shocked to find that Max has a new star special that I think is a brand-new move? I'm just a casual SoR player, so maybe this was always in 2, but can someone confirm that they gave the 2 characters new specials in 4? That's really cool if so, and makes them feel more like they can keep up with the modern cast, but it also makes the characters from 1 feel a bit more shafted. I get not giving them specials for the sake of fidelity, but if they're gonna give the versions from 2 (and presumably 3) new moves, why not 1?

Also, is the order you unlock the characters from each game pre-determined or random? Once it was apparent who the unlockables were, I was pleased to see Max was the first of the characters from 2, not just because he's my favorite, but because I already have two versions of Axel and Blaze. So I figured they'd lead with the characters who debuted in 2, and fully expected to unlock Skate next. But the second (and last, so far) character we unlocked from 2 was Axel. This is no big deal; I wouldn't even call it a quibble. I'm just curious.

Since Hard mode went quite well, I'm looking forward to tackling Harder and unlocking more characters. Game's still great!
 

Riot.EXE

Fighting Game Enthusiast
(He/Him)
The wife and I have now worked through Normal and Hard. Cherry's definitely my favorite of this lineup, while my wife gravitated to Floyd, and that seemed to make a pretty versatile pairing.

I'm still a bit bummed out that there's no playable Roo, but maybe that upcoming DLC will change things! However, one of my earlier mild disappointments was addressed! Do we care about spoilers for Streets of Rage? Oh well, just to be safe (talk about characters ahead):

I'm still a bit surprised they created a new Max Thunder sprite with a whole ton of moves for a boss fight, but don't make him playable. But Streets of Rage 2 Max is here, so I can't be that upset! As my favorite character from 2, I had to give him a spin, so we went with a bigger lineup (Floyd/Max) in the latter half of Hard mode, and it wasn't always pretty, but we made it through without a Game Over, so that was nice.

After playing with the Streets of Rage 1 characters and seeing that they had no health-risking defensive or offensive special, only their star-consuming carpet bombing move, I assumed the characters from 2 would also be accurate to the source (so only health-risking specials, no star moves). Maybe modify the specials so they work with 4's rules (you can get the health back by landing hits before taking any). But I was shocked to find that Max has a new star special that I think is a brand-new move? I'm just a casual SoR player, so maybe this was always in 2, but can someone confirm that they gave the 2 characters new specials in 4? That's really cool if so, and makes them feel more like they can keep up with the modern cast, but it also makes the characters from 1 feel a bit more shafted. I get not giving them specials for the sake of fidelity, but if they're gonna give the versions from 2 (and presumably 3) new moves, why not 1?

Also, is the order you unlock the characters from each game pre-determined or random? Once it was apparent who the unlockables were, I was pleased to see Max was the first of the characters from 2, not just because he's my favorite, but because I already have two versions of Axel and Blaze. So I figured they'd lead with the characters who debuted in 2, and fully expected to unlock Skate next. But the second (and last, so far) character we unlocked from 2 was Axel. This is no big deal; I wouldn't even call it a quibble. I'm just curious.

Since Hard mode went quite well, I'm looking forward to tackling Harder and unlocking more characters. Game's still great!

The 2 and 3 characters (except Axel 3) have a new super for this game. The unlocking order might have changed to being random after the recent patch, because it wasn't random before. Axel 3's super is the "Super Axel" special from 3.
 

Regulus

Sir Knightbot
The other two appear to be Max and Shiva. This is not terribly surprising... I had a feeling both would eventually be made playable (alongside Estel) back when the game came out.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
The other two appear to be Max and Shiva. This is not terribly surprising... I had a feeling both would eventually be made playable (alongside Estel) back when the game came out.
I honestly thought I just hadn’t unlocked them
 
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