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| Streets of Rage 2 |
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Genesis - Sega - Fighting - T - 2 Players |
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In the early to mid-nineties, both arcades and consoles were flooded with the "beat-'em-up" genre, a consequence of the success of Capcom's Final Fight--the reactionary to 1988's Double Dragon 2. Although the side-scrolling brawler's origins reside in Double Dragon, Final Fight was responsible for perfecting the genre. Many other developers attempted to recreate the experience of Final Fight, which resulted in the downfall of the genre. |
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| Admittedly, your average beat-em-up was a tragedy, but to this day three developers still shine for squeezing everything they could out of the genre; Capcom, SNK, and Sega. Capcom had a long line of quality brawlers ranging from the archetype Final Fight in 1989 to the most current Battle Circuit in 1997 (which unfortunately never came to the states but was brilliant none-the-less). SNK was known for adding new twists to the genre such as the directed weapon combat found in Sengoku and its sequel, perhaps inspired by Golden Axe…This brings us to Sega… |
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| Arguably a clone of Final Fight (Axel is almost aesthetically identical to Cody), Streets f Rage entered the fray as a pleasant surprise to most. Although it was superior to Final Fight in some aspects, including movelists and size, it still didn't capture the experience that the Capcom brawlers portrayed so well. In 1992 Sega created the now legendary sequel, considered by many to be the pinnacle of the genre. |
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| Streets of Rage 2 represents the genre perfected in its time. Sega took hold of every aspect that made Final Fight the undisputed king, and multiplied it. What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in nearly every other direction. |
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| Each character now has an immense arsenal of moves, which helps drive away the genre's biggest flaw--repetitiveness. Attack variety and combo experimentation is encouraged more than ever as each character sports at least four different grappling moves, three air attacks, two desperation attacks, a charge move, a rushing attack, various chain combos, and a backwards attack. Gone is the strategy of constantly hammering one button while enemy after enemy runs into your fist. This is no button masher, far from it in fact. Gameplay is far more technical than its predecessor, resulting in a product that seems more like a side-scrolling Street Fighter than ever before, the way the genre was intended. Speaking of Street Fighter, similar chain attacks can now be performed in which you can connect with an enemy multiple times during a single strike (think of Ryu's close roundhouse). Teamwork is encouraged as in the original title, where you can actually hold an enemy while your partner beats the hell out of them, only now it is far more useful due to the variety of attacks you can perform. |
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| Resembling Final Fight's stage layout, you travel through several environments per level, only there are twice as many, running through a total of eight stages. The separate environments retain a certain atmosphere all their own. You begin on a dark city street not unlike the first level of the original game and proceed through varied settings such as bars, an arcade, a suspension bridge, the back of a loading truck, a baseball field, an amusement park complete with a giant, rotating boat ride and an H.R. Giger inspired haunted house. To match the environmental variety, there is also an increased number of various opponents that far exceeds the typical rehash of 'street thug.' |
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If you sill have a working Genesis, and have not played this game yet, buy all means, go get it. I'm sure you can find it for dirt-cheap. Now, if only Sega will get started on SOR4… |
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- + Well drawn sprites and great animation for it's time.
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9.3
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- ++ Yuzo Koshiro returns with some of the greatest 16-bit tunes you will ever hear.
- + The sound effects are hard hitting and effective.
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9.9
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- ++ Improved on everything it's predecessors laid before it.
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9.8
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- + Presentation is top notch.
- Unoriginal and unispired, almost trite characters. Leaves room for improvement.
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7.0
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- + Great cooperative 2-player battles.
- - Love and mastery of the game is all that will bring you back.
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7.9
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- ++ Sega's answer to Final Fight, and it's a brutal smack to the face.
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9.6
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All content © World Zero and may not be reproduced in any manner without expressed written consent.
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