A Classic Beat-Em-Up! (Streets of Rage)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Streets of Rage
Date:	11/07/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great gameplay, nice graphics, varied enemies, great animation

Disadvantages: Not quite as good as Streets of Rage 2!

Streets of Rage is a cracking sice-scrolling beat-em-up that sees you taking on an American crime empire, fighting with hoodlums through the city streets. You can choose to play as one of three cops, Axel, a good all-rounder who moves at a medium speed and is of medium strength, black character Adam, who is very slow but packs a real punch, or Blaze, an acrobatic female who is lacking in the strenght department but makes up for this by being light and swift. All characters are well animated with their own unique sets of moves, although I always found it rather frustrating playing as Adam as me moves so damn slowly!

Your enemies come in the form of punks, thugs, oriental martial artists and bizarre unicycle-riding jugglers who throw lighted torches at you, and there are some interesting bosses, including a huge guy with a giant metal boomerang, fire-breathing fat men who collapse on top of you due to their excessive weight if you try to throw them around, Freddy-Kruger style opponents with huge metallic claws and finally the generic, suited crime boss Mr Big himself who sprays bullets at you as you fight him in his office, wounding you and his hired good alike.

The leves are quite varied, ranging from city streets with bright neon lights and smashed up cars, run-down slums, a beach, Mr Big's corporate headquarters and even an elevator level in which you can hurl your opponents off the side of the lift to their death each time they charge in from the door to each floor. Each character has some great animation and moves, including headlocks, wrestling throws and karate moves, and you can also attack enemies using knives and drainpipes, as well as glass bottles with can be smashed satisfyingly over opponent's heads before being used as a stabbing weapon. You also have special attacks akin to the magic attacks in Golden Axe, except here instead of calling down lightning strikes and the like you radio for backup, at which point a futuristic cop car rolls up a few hundred metres behind you and an officer appears from the sunroof and fires a bazooka at your foes, wiping them out instantly.

The gameplay hasn't dated at all and its still great fun fighting your way through the various levels, whilst the graphics still look good considering their age. Streets of Rage is a true classic that would spawn hundreds of imitators, not least of which a sequel which managed to be even better both graphically and gameplay-wise. The original is still hugely fun though, and well worth playing.

Summary: An all-time classic.