Previously: Axel Stone and Co rage on streets again the new crime
syndicate: Y syndicate. There's information tells about a master of Dojo in
Chinatown that can provide them with more information about the Y syndicate. It's
revealed that the syndicate use mind-controlling sound wave to hypnotize people
as what the Dojo master said. The vigilantes go to the base of the Y syndicate
which is skyscraper with Y letter embedded on it.
Our heroes decide to board on top of the train instead get
inside of it, legal way. Naturally, polices who come after them go to the roof
too. But there's pole that can sweep anyone on the train's roof. That will
teach them to buy the ticket and board the train legally like sensible person.
Estel comes after me again even
on top of the train. She can't summons the bazooka support but she summons
commissioner Rugal Bernstein instead! Also she throws hand grenade a lot
like Rolento from Final Fight. Demoman_negativevocalization04.wav
After defeating Estel again, Mr. Y comes in with police's chopper and
shoot his bazooka at us along with the train car although Estel asks him not to
because there's civilians on the train. Thus we're thrown to an art gallery...
...where they display a bronze
fake roasted chicken and i need the real ones really bad as i'm low on health.
Knowing that it's fake and inedible, i throw it to nearest thug. By the way,
the security won't fight the thugs because they're not legit law enforcer.
This level introduces us with
these street artists that throw toxic flask at me. Don't worry, dear roasted
chicken! I shall protect you from those poison thrower and later i will eat
you, of course! :p
Nice painting there! A brass knuckle with "punch" word on
it. Next they will display painting of a handgun with "shoot" word on
it, surely. Not everyone on playfield is hostile. For example, that lady behind
the desk. She is terrified with our brawl. Not everyone is up for violence
action in this world. Poor lady.
Oh, great! The one thing that i want in the game: to fight the
uninspiring 1st boss battle and make it stereo. [Extreme Sarcasm]
At least one of the snake can
spit fire. That's quite interesting. Judging by how many box of these fake
roasted chicken in this place, these snake ladies are responsible for these
annoying "art" and i should take them down. Wait! Their name are Beyo
and Riha. Could they refer to Beyoncé and Rihanna?
We can get into the Y building by
breaking the wall of that gallery's storage room, so we're not off track
afterall. But we're end up in Sauna room of the Y building and it's not good
place to fight because it's filled with hot steams and sweats of half-naked men
that take sauna bath here. At least,
they don't mind me borrow this mop to beat enemies around here.
Wow! I recognize that inscription on the wall. It's based on
Streets of Rage 2 narration where Mr. X takes over the city and there's the
star pickup which is ammunition for the Star Move.
And here we are in the obligatory elevator section of this Beat em
Up game. It's filled with this gentlemen with the gun that i believe also
appear in Streets of Rage 3. But
there's no side roll like in that game. However, Cherry's agility can make up
with that. You can destroy glass wall on
either side to solve the problem of air circulation here. Also to throw your
enemies away from this lift.
Oh, no! I have to defeat Max the wrestler guy from Streets of Rage 2. He has some
uninterruptible move: shoulder charge and spinning knuckle. But you can dodge
them fairly easily. Once in a while, he attempt to grab me but i can break from
his grabbing by mashing button or maybe pressing attack + jump button. I
believe the one in the center background are Mr. and Ms Y. But how about that muscular
guy with hat on right corner? He looks like Crazy Jack from Street Fighter EX
series.
With Max defeated, the Y siblings resort to hypnotize us by using
the sound wave. Heavy_negativevocalization02.wav
Fortunately, Estel breaks the sound system before we become
hypnotized. The Y siblings retreats to a concert that will spread the
hypnotizing sound wave. Estel take care of this place so we can chase after
them. Hey! I didn't know that this city has name.
Who's the best at interrupting
concert other than young rocker with electric guitar? No one else! Thus Cherry
is up for the task. On the way to concert building, i find this wrecking ball
that i can use to hit enemies. Once it receives my jump kick, it will swing to
the sides and hurt anyone that happen to make contact with it. Engineer_specialcompleted08.wav
Here's the DJ K Washi himself and
he can fly around for some reason. He is the only boss that has regenerating
shield (its energy bar is above his health bar). Once you break it, the DJ will
be stunned momentarily thus open to your combo.
Once his health drops to 50%,
he's getting more intense on shooting projectiles. Moreover he has ability to
summon circle that move on the ground and can emits energy beam when stepped.
Again, Cherry's agility proves its worth here.
The concert stage descends like
diagonal elevator in SoR 2. Enemies
come from above and i can throw them away to the right side into their demise.
Speaking of it, the fall damage is different between players and enemies.
Enemies will suffer instant death if thrown to pit while players only suffer
some damage and they're relocated to safe spot.
I'm about to face combined force of anti-riot polices and rioters!
They're surprisingly formidable. The shield bearers act as tank while the
electric-flask throwers act as mage. Medic_positivevocalization01.wav
I'm just in time to board this
airplane before the cargo door falls apart. Anyone can get to the ground
earlier than me so i send them through the fallen cargo door. I still have
business here, though.
This time i have to fight these 3
dominatrix. One of them (i think it's the one with black cloth) has
interruptible state but the sub-boss fight isn't that difficult. Onward to the
cockpit!
The boss is Mr. Y, already? But
whatever. Mr. X favors Tommy gun while Mr. Y here favors Uzi. It's within their
blood to have strong obsession toward submachine gun, huh? When i fight Mr. X,
i instinctively move to the same plane as him to avoid his gun barrage but i
can't do that here. Instead i have to stay away from Mr. Y while he fires his
gun. Then i can stand safely between his strafing.
Once his health falls to 50% he
begins to throw grenades more than Estel and more resembling Rolento. Also He
start firing his bazooka. You think he's sensible enough to refrain using
explosive weapon in cockpit room to prevent damaged flight control for all of our
sake but no. He's evil madman, for sure.
But the flight control is fine during the fight until the bastard
himself destroy it while makes his escape. We're going to crash again, aren't
we? Great! [airbus-sized sarcasm]
We end up crash into Y island
almost like what happens in SoR 2 but
we travel used boat that time. I have to say that's the most majestic gate
fence that i have ever see. I hope you don't get bored of me play as Adam
Hunter because i last longer if i become him or his daughter. The live/continue
system in this game is different than the previous SoR. You get 2 lives on each level and you can gain 1up if your
score reach certain number. You can't accumulate live you get to next level but
you have unlimited retry also there's auto-save after finishing a stage and you
can continue where you left off without start from the level 1 again. There's
hit counter everytime you hit enemies without getting hit within a duration.
Higher hit count will yields extra score which is useful to gain 1up. Adam
seems able to juggle enemies pretty easy thanks to his uppercut while Cherry's
agile maneuver can hit enemies without
risk of getting trapped by the enemies thus minimizing she get hits. In other
word, they're the best at the job of boosting those hit counter in my opinion.
After some travelling and beating
mooks, i enter this castle which reminds me of Latverian castle of Dr. Doom in Spiderman arcade game. But all they can
offer here is the same thugs. No mutant or robots. Speaking of robots, we have
the stained glass of the robot enemies from previous SoR. And also Mr X's ones. I never seen stained glass in Beat em Up
game (probably because they're fragile to anyone's violent action) besides in
Legend.
Oh, sorry. I almost forget about
you cyber mutant. This one is improved version of the urban version where he
can pull out and control morning star (spiked mace) which looks meaner than
iron pipe for sure. Because nothing will makes you seeing stars after waking up
in the morning other than morning star application in your head.
There's also dark version of riot
cops with name 'shadow'. Fighting shadow warrior isn't supposed to be within Golden Axe domain? But they're not mere
shadow warrior as they throw shuriken at me. Maybe they're ninja cop.
Like father like daughter, eh?
Sitting on the throne nonchalantly while the hero enter her throne room. But
her resemblance with her daughter stops there as she fight with fencing sword
instead of Tommy gun. To be honest, she's easier than his brother. Hey! Where
are you going?
Oh, of course. I have to fight
them both at the same time for the final battle. I should know.
When both of their health bar
become 50%, Mr. Y jumps to the background and later ride on this mecha thing-y
while leaving his sister on foot. I think the battle becomes easier as there's
no one unleash bazooka round at me or throws grenade around in this phase. You
will get beaten more often from mecha's leg if you stand in center for too
long. So my suggestion is to stand in either corner while dealing with Ms. Y.
Also in that position you can beat the legs relatively safe.
With the strange robot destroyed,
the game ends with good ending along with credit roll. In SoR 1 and SoR 2, the game
ends with Mr. X lies on the floor. But in this case, we see Mr. Y and Ms. being
held in custody instead. I like the smug face of Adam there. Hey there's Yūzō
Koshiro name there! He's the music composer of the original SoR also i heard that he composed music
in ActRaiser and Beyond Oasis. I'm glad he's involved in this game. I recognize the
theme of Mr. Y and Ms. Y is remixed from Mr. X theme and it's official remix
from Yuzo Koshiro himself. Engineer_cheers05.wav
Wait, there's more! There's
all-time scoring that you can accumulate from each finished stage and by
completing whole stages in story mode in normal difficulty, i have enough
points to unlock Axel from first SoR!
This looks weird as his pixel sprite isn't blend well with the rest but it
works for some reason especially if he fights in front of this Pine Pot
restaurant because it's based on SoR 1.
He doesn't have the special moves but he can swings iron pipe better than newer
Axel. Funny that. Also he can call the bazooka police support!
I test SoR 1 Axel at hard mode and i finish the stage with better score. I
know i need more conditioning to do that, also i discover that i can stop the
uninterruptible Diva by grabbing her. Because the grabbing is automatic a la Final Fight, i don't think i can rely
that method or maybe i'm too pessimistic. Anyway, i accumulate enough score to
unlock SoR 1 Adam! I need to play
more so i can unlock Skate and Max. The game knows how to make me very content
with it!
Streets of
Rage 4 (2020) is superb game for me especially in this era where Beat
'em Up genre isn't popular anymore but it become trends for Indie game.
Although not developed directly by SEGA, the game is endorsed well by them,
hinted by lots of previous SoR touches
in this game such as: the enemy design (especially Big Ben's
"Huehehe!" laughter), some stage's elements, and Yūzō Koshiro's
involvement. I hate that uninterruptible nonsense but at least it's well
telegraphed. There's also case where enemies flash red which means they're
about to grab you. I'm annoyed with anyone in previous SoR that suddenly throws me so i really appreciate that new feature.
I also love the scoring system for unlocking character. It's brilliant way to
pad the gameplay. Speaking of the character, they're distinctive enough even the
trio original SoR and also fun to
play. Yeah, even Floyd thanks to his ability to grab 2 enemies at once and grab
from distance. The move star is welcome addition to the moveset. There's a way
to regain your health lost from using the special life-draining move: by
hitting enemies without getting hit yourself. By doing so you will regain
health lost that's marked by green color. This mechanism probably adapted from Bloodborne. The continue system is
friendly for new player yet acceptable to seasoned player. The music is good
whether Yūzō Koshiro made or not. The graphic is nice and suitable for Beat em
Up game. The game is generous with its content: 11 levels, various game mode
(including boss rush), dozens of artwork, and unlockable character.
Streets of
Rage 4 (2020) is certainly more than previous SoR and in my opinion it's far better than Double Dragon Neon where you must feel content with only same
character player. If you're Streets of
Rage/Bare Knuckle game lover, you
certainly must own this game. And if you're Beat em Up gamer (like me),
this game is very worthy to play. Anyway, you better play this game than raging
in the streets in real life.
Here's the last part of
character's stats analysis:
Cherry is your usual energetic
teen that favor rock music yet she has strong sense of justice like her father.
She has the highest movement speed among the five and she can jump really high
or long. Thus her primary stats is Agility (4/5). She shows some strength feats
like her grabbing technique where she slams her opponent along with her guitar.
So her secondary stats is Strength (3/5). For a beat em up game character,
she's pretty iconic and also great to play as.
Ah, yes. Floyd Iraia the
powerhouse character among the five and also the most cumbersome to play as in
my opinion. He's pretty much Major Jax Briggs of Streets of Rage. It takes
really serious muscle to carry those large robotic hand. So his primary stats
is Strength (4.5/5). Because he's the apprentice of Dr. Zan, he should have
some good quality on his brain but not exceed his teacher's, mind you. So his
secondary stats is intelligence (3.5/5). Although he can inflict big damage but
he moves really sluggish (almost like that P.O.W) thus it's pretty difficult to
make him hit his enemies. Maybe some experienced players can use him well but
they're certainly not me.
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