Streets of
Rage 2 was released in North America in 20 December 1992 Sega. At least
that's what all-knowing wiki told me. Therefore i celebrate the anniversary of
that Sega's perfect Beat Em Up game by playing some hack version of it. It's late celebration, i know!
Streets of Rage 2: Sonic Wars (made by: Yoni Arousement)
What's more appropriate Streets of Rage 2 hack to show off other than the one that starring the famous Sega mascot and his friends? Sonic is in Axel slot and he pretty much play like the average fighter with the add of rolling move, of course. Yoni Arousement make change on not only playable character but also the enemies. I'm not great fans of Sonic, so i have no idea about these robots (who replace the bikers) but i'm sure they exists on some Sonic game.
The boss with jetpack is replaced by this dragon. I'm not sure where he's from but i doubt from Sonic game. Maybe from other mascot platformer game.
I'm pretty sure i know that the ladybug robot (that replaces Galsia) is the second enemy in first Sonic game. I see sleeping robot there thus it proves that robot also need sleep besides human. The more i know.
The Bear's name become Bald Bull because he's pretty much similar to that boxer in Punch Out. Apparently Tails has spin attack like Taz the Tasmanian devil. Demoman_positivevocalization03.wav
The egg robots have their own bike. Good for them. Because Tails is in Skate's slot, he has the same moveset which is perfect to deal with these bikers.
Knuckle is in Max's slot. He's bit better than the wrestler because he's smaller and walk bit faster. They also replace Shiva and Mr. X with Shadow the hedgehog and Dr. Eggman respectively. They really hard work for this hack.
Obviously, Dr Eggman strafing with machine gun. Thus it begs question: Why he doesn't use gun ever in any Sonic game. Is gun only privilege to Shadow the hedgehog? I reckon Dr. Eggman also need machine gun to deal with the blue hedgehog because it's effective in this boss fight. Even so Dr. Eggman is not so hard to defeat.
The last character that i will show you is: Amy which is in Blaze's slot. Goodness. She's really like whacking enemies with hammer! She reminds me of Rio Hibino from Nekketsu Oyako.
Overall this hack is mainly graphic changes. But there's lots of them and i appreciate it. The playable characters now have better blitz attack (forward moving attack). This hack is pretty good.
Streets of Rage 2: River City Girls (made by: savok)
This is obviously based on River City Girls which is spin-off of River City Ransom the famous beat em up series made by Data East besides Double Dragon. I pick Kunio because he's the main protagonist of the series although in River City Girls he and Riki are kidnapped leaving their girlfriends to take the role of main protag. You know back attack executed by pressing both attack and jump button? But when i input the command, Rick swipe his towel in front of him instead. I don't mind about this enigma because i can use this move to wipe out biker from his bike.
As i expect from the legendary delinquent, he's perfect character for this kind of game. He hits hard. He's fast on his beating. And he's violent! He's very good choice to pick.
Maybe because Riki is on Max's slot, he moves bit slower than Kunio but stronger. When i press both jump and attack button, he does this diagonal punch that more befitting for anti air move. It looks familiar but i can't tell exactly.
What i can think of is Hong Meiling's spellcard: Flower Sign "Mountain Breaking Canon" in Touhou Project 7.5 Immaterial and Missing Power. If you know what's more similar to that Riki's diagonal punch, let me know!
Riki can also perform jumping powerbomb. I think he will be my main. The money bag item become cup of tea. I'm getting sold for this hack. If you pick it up, not only your score is boosted but also that counter above the score number goes up. It also increase as you defeat enemies and it will be spent if you execute the offensive special (forward + Special) by 10 points instead of using small portion of health. I really like that mechanism.
Kyoko's dabbing is force to be reckoned with. Mr. X's gang are weak against it, apparently. Demoman_sf12_goodmagic04.wav
Kyoko is in Axel's slot which means she's average character and pretty easy to play as.
"Guess who i am!" as the biker cover Misako's eyes from behind. He's quite prankster
Misako is in Blaze's slot and her moveset is kind of akin to Gen's and Fei Long's from Street Fighter Alpha because of her rolling attack and dashing combo punch. I think she's ground-based fighter and -to be honest- she's not as agile or fun as Kyoko. Even so, i'm quite impressed with her attack moves that utilize her backpack. Whatever inside of that bag, it must be very hard that it can make enemies flying high.
Somehow, Misako can perform stunner! That girl saw too many pro wrestling show, apparently.
I'm very impressed with how well savok able to implement those character into Streets of Rage 2. The characters are satisfying to play as and there's juggling mechanism if you're really into bouncing enemies in mid-air over and over again. All of them can running as opposed to original version in which only Skate can do that. The drawback that i can think of is: they refuse to use any weapon. But even so they're still powerful. This hack is pretty great.
PS: I think i know what game that i will buy on steam next month.
Streets of Rage 2 Final Fight (made by: Dha_Lau_Hoo)
We know that Galsia is the lowest thug in Mr. X's gang but when he get his hand on knife, he become significantly more dangerous. However, he's about to engage knife fight with the martial artists who loves to stab any thug into bloody pulp. I'm talking about none other than Cody from Final Fight! This fateful encounter ends up not good for Galsia, i tell you.
In this game (hack), Cody has ability to do grand upper! To be fair, that's tornado uppercut like what Cody can unleash since Street Fight Alpha 3. Adding tornado around your uppercut looks better than just a spark of fire, in my opinion. Sorry, Axel.
The Bushin-style ninja Guy is also here. When i do back attack input (pressing both jump and attack button), he doesn't do any back attack. Instead he whip Nunchaku in front of him. It seems he joins club of Nunchaku aficionado in which Fei Long is the elder member of it.
For some reason the 4th slot is filled with Chun Li from Street Fighter 2! The author of this hack, Dha_Lau_Hoo says that the reason they put Chun Li because she's on the audience in Saturday Night Slammaster and she's seen eating noodles on Final Fight 2. I prefer Lucia from Final Fight 3 but Chun Li is okay because she can perform Kikoken by pressing both attack and jump button while holding forward direction. It's useful move. I mean any projectile shooting move is appreciated in any Beat em Up game.
Chun Li can perform Tenshokyaku as her offensive special. I don't know whether this is intended or not, the offensive special doesn't cost either health or special counter. So i can freely spam this anti air move but i think it has limited use because most enemy in Streets of Rage 2 are content with staying on the ground.
The wait is over! Here's the mayor of justice: Mike Haggar. Like Guy, Haggar here is from Final Fight 3. I recognize that pony tail. For some reason, he can unleashes energy sickle within limited range. It's not Sonic Boom, mind you. It belongs to Charlie Nash and Guile.
Suzaku the kung fu master never witnesses jumping powerbomb. He's lucky that Mike Haggar is here and more than happy to perform that.
"Extra! Extra! Metro City's Mayor Mike Haggar (50 y.o) breaking monstrous animatronics inside of haunted house after breaking several "Bare Knuckle" cabinets. It all happens in amusement park owned by Mr. X. Dozens criminals knocked out in process"
This hack is super fun especially when i play as the mayor of justice himself. Like in River City Girls hack, everyone can run with double tap of direction. Well, in Cody's case he does rolling instead so he has extra evasion property on his dashing, i assume. I'm amazed with Chun Li's running because as far as i remember there's no running in Street Fighter 2. So the author has to make her running animation and it's really well done. My only complaint is Haggar's grapple move from behind not deals more damage than the front grapple move. But i'm sure the author have their own reason.
Reimu in Streets of Rage 2 (made by: Mystery Hacks)
Reimu is in Max's slot. She can do sliding attack but she does it lazily, judging by those lazy eyes of her. The sprite probably from Touhou Project 7.5 Immaterial and Missing Power which is the fighting game spin-off.
Surprisingly, Reimu has ability to perform backbreaker. Maybe she inherits the lethal wrestler's move from Max himself. If i were Reimu Hakurei, i'll be this exact Reimu and not in official Touhou Project games or Touhou Genso Wanderer -Reloaded-. Instead of solving magical accident in Gensokyo and dealing with fairies in magical way, i beat thugs on streets with physical violent way in the name of justice!
Of course i have spellcard. It's Concussion Sign "Metal Pipe Bash"! It's bestowed upon me directly by Mayor Mike Haggar himself with his blessing and seal of approval.
It's pretty good novel hack. Reimu's defensive special is most likely Spirit Sign "Fantasy Orb" from the look of her casting pose but there's no sparkling orbs or anything like that. They're probably difficult to add into this game so i give the author a break.
King of The Rage Streets 2 (made by: Candra Software)
This hack is based on SNK's monster (kaiju) wrestling game: The King of Monsters 2. You can only choose 3 Character: Cyber Woo, Super Geon, and Atomic Guy. It feels weird that the usual giant-sized monster is shrunk to human size in this game.
Cyber Woo has unusually long range jab which is kick. But he follows it up with short range heavy slap which quite often doesn't connect to enemies.
How can you say no to robotic gorilla that able to turn into cannon? I'm pretty sure i can't. Nice offensive special out there, Cyber Woo. Soldier_cheers05.wav
Lastly, there's Super Geon. I know someone out there is excited with fierce lizard monster but Super Geon sucks badly. As opposed to Cyber Woo, he has terrible jab. See how short his chop there? On top of that, his jab has miniscule duration so i have very hard time to land a hit on enemies. But i get to say that his offensive where he grows his horn on his head, then he uses it as fencing sword and proceed to stab rapidly before him, is pretty amusing and it has decently long range.
It's nice concept to utilize these monster that like to wrestle. But i hate to say this, the implementation is done rather poorly. Most of the monster's attack is hard to connect. Sadly, some of their grapple move in original game is absent. I miss Cyber Woo's grapple where he grab his opponent and then unleashes rocket barrage from his back to his opponent. It's inadvisable to play this hack in difficulty higher than normal. Even so, i respect the ability of author to implement those monsters into Streets of Rage 2. Not only they put the monsters but also they change some of sound effect from King of The Monsters 2 and it's done perfectly.
The Shadow in Streets of Rage 2 (made by: Metal64)
First time i know The Shadow is not from the comic strip or the movie but from the SNES game. On that day, my feeling begins to grow strong to him. He's so cool and awesome! The SNES game is also beat em up game albeit less intuitive to play. Luckily, Metal64 made this hack that allow me to play The Shadow in Streets of Rage 2 format. He's pretty easy to play as. The thing that i feel strange is The Shadow has 2 combo finisher: 2 rapid kick and uppercut. I don't know how i can pull them off manually. It seems they works randomly.
For some reason he attacks enemies with torch when he picked up knife but i'm not complaining. It's better than knife stab like what Axel and Co can do. It has small delay between attack which results in devastating attack rate. I wonder who's the guy with fedora hat on those posters and i can assume he's The Shadow. Heavy_positivevocalization02.wav
His offensive special is simple: he pulls out his handguns and firing them. The effect is astounding. See those enemies getting hit by the bullets? That's what i'm talking about. Mr. X thinks he's tough guy with his Tommy machine gun, wait until The Shadow comes after him!
It's fun and playable hack. Aside of inconsistency of combo finisher, i can't think something else bad in this hack. Probably not all his ability is presence such as turn invisible or dark blast. But i can live without them.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of Rage (made by: eskayelle)
Of course, i can't leave this hack behind, unspoken. I think this is the most famous Streets of Rage 2 hack. It's also the one responsible to make me get into Streets of Rage 2's hack business. The concept of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of Rage is simple. Put those lovable ninja turtles from Konami's TMNT Hyperstone Heist (or in other version is: Shredder's revenge) to Streets of Rage 2. But with some tweaks. The Ninja Turtles have different moveset but only a bit. Their jumping kicks are similar to each other.
I'm glad that the author put good effort on ripping the electrocuted sprite from the original game. Beano the knife guy also happy but that's because he like seeing Leo suffered from electric whip.
Turtles' jumping kick is overpowered. It can deal up to 3 hits and each take a good chunk of enemy's health. Donovan rarely able to counter it, probably because he can't take account on Turtle's jump that pretty high.
Shredder is here too, replacing Shiva. It must be very embarrassing for the infamous head of foot clan, to get kick on his crotch. Mr. X seems regret to forge allegiance with the fearsome Shredder as he keep humbled by simple jumping kick.
Raphael is in Skate's slot thus he can throw enemies in the middle of vaulting. The throwing animation is not great.
The same thing goes to Michelangelo. I reckon that's taken from celebratory jump. Even so i appreciate the author's hard work.
They also put special ending in this hack. Michelangelo makes witty comment about Streets of Rage 2's apple and money bag. Cowabunga, indeed!
The problem with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat 'em up game: there's not much difference between the turtles besides their weapons. This hack slightly solves that problem. Everyone has different running attack and stats. Michelangelo's attack power is small but he moves fast and for some reason his grapple move deal big damage. Leonardo has balanced stats and powerful spinning slash as running attack. Donatello has the longest attack range, useful to deal with annoying enemies. Raphael has the highest attack power and longest running attack. In this version, there's no continue so you can't switch character in mid stage. So i advise you to ramp those live counter to maximum if you want to play this game.
Streets of Rage 2 Looney Tone version (made by: Metal64)
Unfortunately there's no Looney Tunes theme in this hack so here's the youtube link. The roster is: 1) Tasmanian Devil on Max's slot 2) Bugs Bunny on Axel's slot 3) Daffy Duck on Blaze's slot 4) Wile E. Coyote on Skate's slot 5) Sylvester on (secret) Adam's slot. They all have loony moveset. Especially when they get their hand on sword which their standard jab become brutal ranged hitscan attack. Like here Sylvester summons a pirate that shoot his dual pistol. The pirate probably ripped from non Looney Tunes game.
This Sylvester is truly badblood. He can defeat multiple Granny (which is reskin of the Muay Thai kickboxer). If you're still unimpressed with this...
...he also beat lots of Hector (who replaced Yellow/Green/Blue/Red Signal). As you know from cartoon that cat should be weak against dog especially bulldog. This Sylvester is goddamn heroic! Demoman_positivevocalization03.wav
Next, i pick Wile E. Coyote because i played Desert Demolition long time ago. Picking a knife will make your Looney Tunes character has attack with minimum recovery time will results in very fast attack rate that can stunlock most enemies. Heavy_positivevocalization04.wav
Here's the coyote's combo in motion. For some reason he had this Hector working for him as combo finisher. Demoman_sf12_goodmagic04.wav
Then Mr. X is killed by jackhammer to his heart. This is what you get when threatening Warner Bros. industry. You don't want to end up like Mr. X there. This is not all, folks! Not yet.
Bugs Bunny's jab is shoving pie to enemies. Decent range and power but looks weird. Maybe Bugs use cement powder instead of flour when making this pie.
Bugs's attack changes from mild funny to violent funny as he begin to throws rock. This happens when he picks pipe. Pipe attack deals heft damage within quite distance. I really like this weapon modification. It's functional in visual and gameplay.
The electric whip-wielding lady, Electra is replaced with Witch Hazel. She's having his great time there before Taz beat the hell out of her.
Tasmanian Devil's offensive special is he ride a mine cart and proceed to ram anyone in its path. Look how happy he looks. He's also having great time.
The biker is replaced by this green bird alien. They have space scooter with them. How nice...until Taz kicks them out of it, that is.
Daffy has deadly offensive special: portable cannon that as powerful as The Shadow's handguns. I bet they don't see this coming!
So Daffy Duck has the longest jab among the Looney Tunes characters. Look how long his slap! I used to like Daffy Duck but i think i like Wile E. Coyote the most in this hack because he's easier to play as.
Do you still think Looney Tunes only for kids? Watch as they brutally defeat Mr. X and his gang. My only problem with this hack is Taz's jab is the worse, short in range and duration. Overall, they're quite strong and even stronger if they get weapon, which is great thing because the original use of the weapon is rather boring or dull. The enemy's change is interesting and entertaining. It happens that there's various Looney Tunes games in Sega Genesis so the author can conveniently rip their sprites and put them in Streets of Rage 2 that also in Sega Genesis. Such as: Wile E. Coyote from Desert Demolition, Tasmanian Devil from Taz-mania and Sylvester from Sylvester & Tweety in Cagey Capers. Those 3 Looney Tunes games are my favorite. That's all, folks!
Streets of Rage 2 Warriors of Fate (made by: Dha_Lau_Hoo)
Final Fight's character get into Streets of Rage 2 is quite believable. But The Warriors of Fate into realm of Streets of Rage 2? Time travel most likely involved. Naturally Zhang Fei is on Max's slot. Max's head hold is no more and replaced with Zhang Fei's ear biting. Gross.
Oh, look! My main, Guan Yu is here. Heavy_battlecry06.wav
By pressing both attack and jump button, Guan Yu spins his spear which i'm sure it's his move when he's on horse. I wonder why i need to use the usual defensive special/desperation move when i have this move that deal larger damage, reach longer, and cost no health at all. The spinning lariat has some invincible frames but still less worthy compared to this move. I see Donovan tries to fight Guan Yu even though his iron pipe is clearly no match for that mighty spear. Classic Donovan.
Speaking of iron pipe. Wei Yan wield both pipe and sword. What a great ancient Chinese martial art! Medic_positivevocalization01.wav
The same thing happens in Streets of Rage 2 Final Fight where offensive special cost nothing, so feel free to spam it. Wei Yan's offensive special is the somersault kick which effective against the jetpack bosses.
Zhao Yun is fairly more interesting here than in the original game. His running attack is sword slash and jumping kick combo. Plus his offensive special is rapid stab which reminds me of Zhao Yun (which renamed to Zilong) in Mobile Legends. Coincidence? I think not.
It's wonderful hack. The Warriors of Fate are blend so well in this game that i sometime accidentally does input command from the original game. The warriors are strong (or overpowered even) and easy to play as. There's no real problem in this hack except all of the offensive special are free to use. This hack get my A-Grade recommendation.
Streets of Rage 2 The New Challengers (made by: Dha_Lau_Hoo)
The roster is new fighters on Streets Fighters 2 New Challengers. It consists of: 1) T. Hawk on Max's slot. 2) Fei Long on Axel's slot. 3) Cammy on Blaze's slot. Lastly 4) Dee Jay on Blaze's slot. I don't know much about Dee Jay, but is his scale right here? He looks too tall/big compared to enemies.
His blitz attack is Rolling Sobat, the single version of it. If you want to execute the usual Double Rolling Sobat, you have to replace attack button with special button during blitz attack input.
Fei Long's defensive special is he wipe Nunchaku Bruce Lee's style. It's reasonable that this move cost a bit of his health because: 1) It's actually his winning pose and not actual fighting move. Or 2) He get hit by the Nunchaku a bit while doing so. Nevertheless, he looks amazing doing so, as i expected from long term member of Nunchaku aficionado club.
Cammy's knuckle is filled with Psycho power. I'm afraid M. Bison's influence already grows within you, Cammy. 3:
At last, it's T. Hawk's turn. His offensive special is the famous Condor Dive. Due to no cost, i can spam this diving move over and over again. There's so much what Donovan can do probably because this attack's angle is too steep for his thuggish brain. The weakness of this move is T. Hawk have to (automatically) jump first and the dive target is too far in my opinion.
Naturally, Tomahawk Buster is excellent against Jet who like to be airborne. Engineer_goodjob02.wav
This hack or even any hack made by Dha_Lau_Hoo works perfectly. I have nothing bad to say about this hack. IF you're big fans of Street FIghter 2 you should check this hack or another one called Streets of Rage 2 The World Warrior also made by same author.
I highly recommend Streets of Rage 2 hack made by Dha_Lau_Hoo. Not because they're (maybe) Capcom big fans like me. It's because they made brilliant hack. The characters are easy to use or overpowered even. But the overpowered characters are okay as long as they're fun to use against scumbags that litter the stages. However any Streets of Rage 2 hack also worth to play because Streets of Rage 2 is one of the best sidescrolling brawler, afterall.
