HomeReviewsStreets Of Rage 4
Wot I Think: Streets Of Rage 4Binner binner, chicken dinner
Binner binner, chicken dinner
Release:April 30thOn:WindowsFrom:SteamPrice:£22.50/€25/$25
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There are also big superduper moves you can do if you find a star. These are attention-grabbing, slow-mo megamoves. Cherry slides along the ground slamming her guitar and knees into goons, amid a spray of stage smoke to cover up all the shin-snapping. Big man Floyd fires a laser beam that takes up half the screen. Ah, that’s therapeutic.
And here is where my tastes don’t align. I find the appeal and action limited, there’s nothing revolutionary or irreverent. No mix-up. In an era when you can roll and dash and savage enemies to pieces in the courageous rhythmic combat ofDead Cells, the denim-clad and boob-tubed fisticuffers of Streets Of Rage will always be throwbacks. In this way, it joins all the other nostalgia fuel continuously poured over our Steam accounts, like so much Sunny D. I can’t be too harsh because of that, as someone who just spent stupid money to play theResident Evil 3 remakeandFinal Fantasy VII remakeback-to-back. But the difference is that Resi and FFVII, in their recalling of 90s blockbusters, kept the vibe but changed the form. Streets Of Rage 4 keeps both vibe and form, only significantly changing the art style (to the admittedly cool thick strokes of comic books, and a flashy smorgasbord of hot orange punches, hot pink exhibition spaces, and glazed electricity from glinting metal arms - ah, this is martial art).
There are other little things to enjoy. They let you change the health-granting food that appears in levels, for example, meaning you can pick up a leafy salad or fried tofu from the wet alleyways, in case your veganism extends like an alien tendril into the screen of your violent videogames, or if you are sincerely worried about the health implications of devouring bin chicken. I’m sure trash salad is much healthier.
Ultimately, co-op is what you’ll want to play. You can have four players using Steam’s remote play, or two players using the vanilla online co-op. With four punchpals, it is total chaos, especially if you don’t turn off friendly fire, as we forgot to do (Nate sure does love to wollop his buddies). Two players is the sweet spot though. Dave and I chokeslammed our way through the latter half of the game together, occasionally juggling enemies in humiliating combos, but more often doing quick healthbar glances to see who more readily deserves the roast beef (it was me, I always needed the roast beef). It was in that two-player run that I really warmed to it.
Make no mistake, as a returning biff ‘em up Streets Of Rage 4 has some real Talking Heads energy. Ie. same as it ever was. For me, that makes it a one-and-done, rinse-and-never-repeat type of affair. After 26 years, I would have expected more radical changes than a refundable health bar and some superduper attacks. But even I can sense the solace a slick rehash like this will bring to old-school rage artists, given these are the perfect weeks (months (years?)) to mindlessly totter through a city of angry pedestrians with a friend or three, chatting nonsense and eating postbox tofu.
For anyone hoping it would bring a little modern fluidity to a long-stagnant genre, you might have to moonwalk upwards from this one. But for Ragers, it’s a sturdy score-attacking blowout to while away some hours, perfecting your flying knees and enflamed uppercuts, arguing over who deserves the trash salad.
