Technical Information

Developer: Dotemu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games
Publisher: Dotemu
Release Date: April 30, 2020

Continuing the series after more than 20 years since the franchise’s last release, Streets of Rage 4 brings back Blaze, Axel, and two new protagonists (Cherry and Floyd) for a new adventure full of brawling, potholes, and food found right there in the middle of the street.
A beat ’em up game with fantastic art and a high nostalgia factor.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

I absolutely loved the game’s art! The style really reminded me of Comix Zone on the Genesis (was it just me who felt that? hahaha).
The animations are amazing. Honestly, based on the trailers, I was expecting cut-out animation (which I’m personally not a big fan of, and when not well executed, can make everything look really goofy), but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they didn’t use that technique.

The environments are packed with details and showcase extremely well-done lighting.
Between stages, there are cutscenes. They’re just illustrations with transition effects, but they fit very well, and even though they’re simple, they give the game a very polished, finished-product feel.

Overall, the game’s menu options are easy to understand. There’s a mini tutorial in the “Fighting Tips” option, teaching the player what each button does.
During gameplay, the HUD is clean, and with every hit, the enemy’s health bar is displayed.
The only thing I really missed was an HP bar for weapons.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

Great soundtrack, with a vibe that’s fully aligned with the previous games in the series.
The cherry on top is the sound effects for picking up weapons and food, which are the same as always (that’s nostalgia for you, right?).

Gameplay

I played on day one and was super excited to see how the game turned out. I was hyped as hell, and then I ran into an unacceptable bug: a freeze on the initial screen.
To work around it, you have to change the console’s language to English.
This is awful. It’s the kind of problem that should never happen with any game on its launch day.
I know this will be fixed soon, but a proper set of regression test cases would have easily prevented this (and I can speak on this with authority, since I’ve been working professionally with testing in the game industry for 4 years).
The game was localized into Portuguese, but I still can’t properly evaluate that.

Right from the start, you can already see that some game modes are locked (stage select, arcade, boss rush, and battle). Extra content is great for when you get tired of story mode and are looking for something more casual and fun.

I started playing in local co-op mode with my boyfriend, on normal difficulty. I chose Blaze and he picked Axel.
I found the difficulty pretty fair. With the exception of a few parts and some enemies, the game doesn’t present a very high challenge. There are 12 stages in total, and it took us around 3 hours to finish the game.
The physics and colliders are very well tuned.

When you get a game over, the game offers an assist option. This option gives extra lives to the player. Even though continues are infinite in Story mode, we chose to finish the game without using any assistance because we think “easy-mode” gaming is pretty boring.

One major negative point is that this game does not support two accounts in multiplayer. Because of that, after the first run, my boyfriend logged into his account so we could unlock the achievements. This time, however, we chose to play on hard mode (and at the time of this review, we were on the final stage).

I really loved the references to previous games! Seeing the police show up in a car to set the stage on fire, the kangaroo as a bartender, and classic enemies making a return was truly heartwarming! <3
As someone who played the earlier games (yes, I’m seasoned hahaha), I really enjoyed the final product. And I can confidently say that even those who have never played any game in the franchise will have a great experience.

Replayability and Game Retention

After finishing the game once, the previously locked game modes become available.
There are 13 unlockable characters in total, all obtained through in-game score, which means you’ll have to play the hell out of the game to unlock them all, and yes, this includes characters from previous titles.

Higher difficulties increase the score at the end of each stage, encouraging players to try them both to unlock characters and to experience the game in a new way.

Arcade mode is basically the same as Story mode, but with no continues! If you’re into a real challenge, this is the mode you should jump into.