Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage

A long time ago, in the times when they call us bearded people, we collected cartridges at home. The unfortunate children did not have them, the common ones had collections of yellow ones, the special ones had black ones, 2 or 3 elite children had discs.

Streets of Rage lived on blacks, in particular, they were very much appreciated because in addition to them, the cartridge contained 3 more games, now called simple. No one in the year even suspected what the words beatemup meant, and that they were playing one of the most legendary games this genre.

What exactly distinguishes Streets of rage from all other games in the genre.

And suddenly (it’s hard to come to this in 2019) but these are graphics. For 1991, the game's graphics were extremely nice. I just came to the conclusion that without any patches it worked great and without any crashes. Fortunately, in those days such an abomination as opening access for technical reasons could not have happened.

We play as Adam, Axel and the girl Blaze. All of them are ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the future of their hometown. Axel is a black guy, 23 years old. Hobby boxing. Blaze girl hobby Lambada, 21 years old. Axel is 22 years old and has a hobby of video games. Over the course of 8 levels, all of them save the city from Mr. X. What is typical in the game, in addition to the standard walking forward, you can walk up and down.

At the end of each level a boss awaits us. Moreover, some are repeated. And some bosses are a split of the old ones. At the last level, a true classic of the genre awaits us. All Bosses.

Music. It’s still the starting theme in the player. And by the melody, more than twenty years later, I can determine what level it’s from. They all fit perfectly. The elevator lounge. The techno on the ship. The Bosfight theme is timeless. In my humble opinion, the OST of this game is one of the best I've ever seen.

Gameplay. Extremely enjoyable for each hero of different series lengths. Moreover, Adam, for example, waves the most forcefully with the means at hand, plus he has the best attack in a jump, but he pays for it with the speed of movement. Axel has extremely fast and powerful attacks and excellent speed, but he has problems with jumping and he waves his sticks in a small radius.

Blaze has speed and a good jump, but he pays for it with damage and a small radius of available means. It would seem such minor differences. But Adam, for example, has quite a lot of problems with the fat one at level 4 due to his low speed. While it’s easier for them to kill everyone Bodybuilder on the 3rd and the difference in the passage between the heroes is really felt.

After completing it, there is a feeling that you have completed a simple but very well-calibrated bitmap in which, in fact, there is not a single big mistake in the entire game. Yes, it is short, yes, the bosses are repeated, but the pleasure from each blow of the throw and victory is very great.

Even after 28 years, we find games like Muther Russia Bleeds that are completely built on the Streets of Rage system. And the recent announcement of the release of the 4th part, which many are waiting for 25 years after the release of the 3rd part, says a lot. The game has what is called the spirit of the times. It perfectly conveys the spirit of the late 80s and it is not for nothing that it is considered a cult. Because even after such a time it plays perfectly, and what is this if not an indicator of quality?

My rating: Cult classic