Beat-em-ups were the bread and butter of the fourth generation of video games, particularly on the SNES and Genesis. The arcade would guzzle coins straight from the player with tough-as-nails bosses and, even though these games were short, the machines would get their money’s worth as players wanted to say they beat classics like Konami’s The Simpsons, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, and several others for bragging rights.

A memorable franchise from the early 90’s was Streets of Rage, helmed by Sega. While the series received ports from its hiatus in 1994 until now, the time for a proper new iteration has come in Streets of Rage 4, handled this time by Dotemu. Announced in 2018, Dotemu impressed Sega with a pitch and received licensing rights, with fans having palpable excitement and support for the new entry from the get-go.

As a bit of a newbie to the genre, I can’t say I’ve mastered the nuance of fighting waves and waves of enemies with just a few moves at my disposal. As such, I found myself at a disadvantage from the first level, not realizing that using a super move cost health. I found myself with one life left as I was just figuring out the engine/controls, but was able to pull myself through the first level once I had a a feel for how enemies would behave and attack.

After two levels, I decided to utilize the game’s online capabilities to play through the rest of the game in co-op. Unfortunately, it appears that the netcode of the game is abysmal, as I experienced major frame drops and lag when playing online. It wasn’t game-breaking, but took more getting used-to than I desired. Regardless, I trudged on with my random companion, and got even better at the game as I went.

It was at the halfway point of the game where I was impressed by the amount of content. Each level presented new enemies and previous enemies received new attack patterns and items. The soundtrack for each location was fitting and was a thrill to listen to. Streets of Rage 4 completely nails it in the presentation department, with incredible character designs and background art that jumps out at the screen.

Opting to play mostly as Floyd, the cybernetic Samoan, I enjoyed the ease of grappling opponents while still being agile enough to enjoy a wake-up jump with a well-time button press before impact with the ground. Sadly, as the game went on, I found the adversaries to be too formidable, even on Normal difficulty. I encountered several Game Over screens even with someone watching my back. With five difficulty levels, I can’t imagine playing on tougher terms.

That’s where my frustration with this game ensues. While I improved as time went on, facing invincible attacks, not having a way to block, and not having ample time to laterally move out of the way makes getting beat up feel inevitable at points. This formula made sense to gouge quarters at arcades, but for a $25 retail release, it doesn’t make sense. I’d imagine playing on the easiest difficulty remedies this, but the sense of accomplishment disappears in doing so. Nevertheless, if you seek to persist and have some previous expertise, the game has plenty of replayability and enjoyment to be had.

A PC Key was provided by of Dotemu for this review

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Streets of Rage 4

24.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Strong presentation
• Soundtrack is jammin'
• Variety in characters

Cons

• Artificial high difficulty
• Online connection hinders performance
• Very short