Fight Like Never Before - Streets of Rage 4 Review

Streets of Rage 4 is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game with fantastic 90's feel, but modern graphics. Coop playthrough, a lot of enemies and fun, satisfying gameplay and a bit of nostalgia.

Gameplay

Streets of Rage 4 gameplay is pretty straightforward: Select one of 4 characters (7 with expansion) and go kick bad guys in the face!

Each of the character have unique moveset and playstyle. Although all characters are very powerful.

Combat in Streets of Rage 4 is pretty fun, you use fists and some items dropped by the enemies to fight.

You have 3 attack types: normal attack, special attack that borrows some of your health. Borrowed health can be recovered by damaging enemies with normal attack. And finally an ultimate attack that can be activated just a few times.

There is also an option to do some grapling (aka throwing the enemies), but mostly you will use fists.

My main complaint with the fighting is that enemies are good at exploiting sidescroller mechanics and they go either up or down and avoid your attacks or try to surround you.

Each enemy in Streets of Rage 4 is unique. There are several enemy types per level with their custom abilities and fight style. Even the same type of enemy can have different appearance though, like different hair or clothes color.

In the end of the level there is a boss, who is tough as hell and have special and powerful moves. Its better to learn how to avoid them, otherwise you will surely be defeated.

Controls are good, you cant get any better. There is an option to connect controller and use it, which makes things even easier, but phone controls are good as well. As long as you will get used to controls you will be way more efficient at taking enemies down without major health loss.

As for the progression, Streets of Rage 4 doesnt have that much of it. You have campaign with multiple levels, different game modes and as you move from one area of the campaign to another you dont recover health. So yeah, no character progression and upgrades, just consumables.

Gameplay Score: 7/10

Difficulty

Streets of Rage 4 features 6 difficulties, so you can tune it to your skill. I was playing normal one and it felt pretty balanced. With my mediocre skill at fighting games I managed to get through several stages without losing any lives.

So yeah, overall difficulty is balanced well.

Difficulty Score:6/10

Graphics

Streets of Rage 4 graphics looks both old and new, its fantastic. Style and looks are all the way back from 90's, while it all looks high quality, very well animated and stylish.

And it goes for everything, starting with main characters and enemies and all the way to background and animation.

Overall I am very pleased with Streets of Rage 4 graphics.

Graphics Score: 9/10

Sounds and Music

Streets of Rage 4 features really well made soundtrack with a bit retroish vibe, that fits the game perfectly.

Sounds are great as well, from smacking the enemies with fists to grunts and small background sounds that perfectly matches the action and game style.

Sounds and Music Score: 9/10

F2P or P2W

Game is paid and costs around 8 USD. And this is a good value for what you get.

There is also an extension that costs around 5 USD and adds 3 playable characters, some additional game features and such.

F2P Score: Game costs 8 USD.

Overall scores and Conclusion

Gameplay 7/10

Difficulty 6/10

Graphics 9/10

Sounds and BGM 9/10

F2P - paid game

Streets of Rage 4 is a great fighting beat 'em up game, tribute to the genre popular in the past and it plays and feels great. Getting this on the mobile is a fantastic opportunity, since you can play it anywhere you want, instead of sitting next to your PC. Defo recommend it.

Overall score: 8/10