Throwback Thursday Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage Series

Were back with another classic game but instead of talking about a game we're going to be talking about a series and that’s Streets of Rage.

Streets of Rage is a classic beat-em up game that was published and developed by Sega that was released for the Sega Genesis in 1991. It was a response to Capcom’s beat-em Final Fight.

Streets of Rage focus on heroes Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and many other friends saving their city from the evil Mr. X and his crime syndicate.

There were three Streets of Rage that Sega Developed and were going to talk about each one.

Streets of Rage 1 was released on August 2 1991. The story focus on three young cops Axel Stone the Well-Rounded Fighter, Blaze Fielding the fast fighter and Adam the heavy hitter risk their lives to save the city from the evil Mr. X.

Just like any other beat-em up players can either choose to play alone or play with a friend where they scroll through levels beating up enemies until they reach towards the end of the level and fight a boss. Players can also pick up weapons such as pipes and knives to attack enemies. A unique feature that Streets of Rage has is that players can call help the police to help them out. The police drive by using a rocket launcher blasting and killing enemies and giving bosses huge damage. Another unique feature are the different endings. When the player is about to fight Mr. X the player is giving a choice whether to join his syndicate or not. Of course there is a good ending where peace is restored to the city but there is also a bad ending when the player becomes head of the crime syndicate.

The famous Streets of Rage 2 was released on December 20 1992. The story continues where the first one ended. Peace is restored to city but is short lived when Mr. X comes back but not only is he back but he has captured Adam. Axel and Blaze go out on a rescue mission and alongside are two new characters Skate who is Adam's younger brother. He’s a fast character but has low power. Plus Skate is the only character that can run. Another new character is Max. He is a professional wrestler and Axel's friend. He's a very strong character but among the slowest of the cast. The gameplay is follows its predecessor with longer levels  but the ability the call cops has been removed and has been replaced by special attacks that the cast can use but drains a bit of their health so players will have to use it wisely.

Now Streets of Rage 3 probably has to be the hardest of the series. It was released March 17 1994. The story is a bit more depth. Mr. X has been defeated once again by the young cops but he has returned again and started company called RoboCy Corporation. He gets Dr. Dahm to design robots to replace the original city officials and start a robot army. New character to the series Dr. Zan a robot part of the Corporation has seen the evil ways and decides to contact Blaze to tell her what the syndicate is doing. Blaze contacts Axel and Adam. Axel joins but Adam couldn’t because he’s on another assignment but he sends Skate to help them out. The gameplay is just like it’s predecessor but a couple of new changes. Streets of Rage 3 is more fast paced. Players can now run and can do running attacks. Also new is the power meter. Players still have the ability to use their special but with the meter players now have the option to either use their special move before the meter is filled and the health is drained but if they use their special attacks with a full bar of meter it won’t drain their health. Players can still use weapons but each character has a special unique attacks for certain weapons but new character Dr. Zan uses an energy ball instead of a weapon.

Streets of Rage 3 features multiple endings that depends on the players completing tasks in a certain amount of time and I want to give players a heads up. If you plan to beat this game do it on Normal or higher because if you play it on easy at the end of level 5 the game will tell you to beat it on a higher level.

The Streets of Rage series continues to be one of Sega's greatest games and is still played to this day. The music for each of these games is amazing and they have their own soundtrack. It reminds me of the good old days. I recommend this game for all gamers. Players can download these games on the Virtual console, Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network or can play it by purchasing Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection on the PS3 and Xbox 360.