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By Lennie
Streets of Rage 2 : A Classic Game Review (15/12/05)
It's the Christmas season, and yet there's nothing Christmassy about this article other than the fact that Lennie received the game in question at Christmas. But it's a good article, so read it now. Lennie Pepper reviews Mega Drive classic Streets of Rage 2. |
Christmas 1992, I was a wee nipper aged 6 years old and I'd had my Mega Drive for exactly a year that day. I had previously kept myself busy with games such as Sonic (obviously) and Bart vs. the space mutants (bit obscure but top notch game nonetheless).
But soon enough I would be given my first taste of the classic side-scrolling beat-‘em-up series that is Streets of Rage II. Having read rave reviews and witnessing its clean, detailed graphics in Gamesmaster or something, I nearly shat myself once I’d realised the said game would be played by myself in less than 30 seconds. Fart.
I was now planning to go through what happened the first time I played it, but for god’s sake, I was 6 and can barely remember conversations that happened a week ago. Anyway, now is the time to start talking about the game and not my uninteresting childhood.
Characters
SOR II had 4 characters, one more than its predecessor. They were ‘Max’ - a huge back-breaking, pole driving, German suplex-ing mother fucker who made light work of the toughest bosses, but not the quicker ninja-like fighters, ‘Axel’ – who was everyone’s favourite. I’m not sure if it was his cool trainers and jeans, his “where’s the power” uppercut, or the fact that he’s the best all rounder; quick enough to kick the shite out of lightning fast ninjas and strong enough to cope with the likes of ‘Big Ben’ or ‘Jet’ the flying prick. ‘Blaze’ is the one that could fight in the shortest skirt EVER. Fairly similar to Axel – an all rounder but slightly weaker and slightly faster - but no-one really wanted to be her for some reason. When I first started playing, Blaze was my favourite character, she had a kick arse roundhouse kick and a throw to die for. Last but not least is the roller-blade wearing ‘Skate’. Obviously this fella was the complete opposite to Max – weak as piss but quick enough to steal your voicebox before you can say ‘wooooooorrr!’ – so those two made the perfect team if you were doing a two player mode.
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Weapons
Yeeeeah you heard, weapons. SOR II had some superb, satisfying tools of pain that made you feel good once you’d twatted it round someone’s head, thrown it at them or lunged it into their gut. This time it had improved the ‘feeling’ of bashing someone with a weapon, it sounded better and seemed more realistic. On the original game when you hit someone with a weapon they just… sort of… fell over. This time they fly like they should and they know they’ve been battered.
However… I wasn’t sure why they cut down on the classy weapons from the original game, like the baseball bat, pepper pot (throw it at a ‘punk’ and watch him sneeze his bollocks off) and bottle – by far the best weapon in any game ever, rivalled only by the more recent bottle in ‘The Warriors’ on PS2. This time around they got rid of the cooler weapons and replaced them with a ninja-like sword and knife. These are good enough to inflict damage with, but they’re a bit similar to the pipe and knife.
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Special Attacks
A big improvement from the original game where pressing ‘A’ would call out a cop car and they’d fire a rocket launcher which explodes and creates a ring of fire, consequently burning all the enemies on screen. Now to me that is slightly unrealistic and breaks up the fighting a bit too much for my liking, so the decision to get rid of that and replace it with more hands-on moves like Axel’s ‘Dragon punch’ (see below) and Max’s unstoppable Shoulder charge was a good one to make.
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Music
SOR II has, and I quote, the BEST soundtrack on any game, anywhere, ever. Don’t you try and tell me different because it’d be plain lying. I’d love to go into detail about each song but it’s harder than you think. They are all perfectly suited to each level, build you up to the bosses and really encourage you to kick some evil arse!
Now I’ve done my research and the soundtrack was made by a chap called ‘Yuzo Koshiro’ in case anyone fancied buying the music for the game. I’m sure you could find it on some obscure Eastern website. Or just download it. Shhhh.
Download some SoR2 music
Graphics
At the time it was on a par with watching a video, in 1992 this was the most detailed and colourful game in existence, a completely different league to SOR I which looks drab in comparison. Little touches such as lanterns flickering and waves crashing onto a beach make this game a more enjoyable experience. I particularly like level 2, where you fight on the bridge with the city skyscrapers in the background while some yellow shits try to run you over on their motorbikes – while chucking bombs at you. I’d be content with graphics like this today if only the games were as playable as this baby. |
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Anyway I feel I’ve said enough to stir some memories. If you have played it and would like to again but you sold your Mega Drive to buy a Playstation, then firstly shame on you, secondly, get your arses over to www.romnation.net to pick yourself up a Genesis Emulator and a Streets of Rage II ROM. I am not liable for any jail time you might serve – make sure you own the game already and that.
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Rating (Out of 5 Health Boost Roast Chickens) : 4.5
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