Streets of Rage 2
Reviewed by Dyson Turner
Streets of Rage 2 many didn't believe it could surpass the
original and thought that it would be a flop boy, were they
wrong. Not only was this a way better game than the original
in almost every category it smashed it out of contingency.
New characters are in this one a much improved graphics, and
more moves. The original didn't have too many flaws but this
one just improved on the overall goodness that the old one
had. This game had everything good graphics good game play
smooth controls and more moves. My first impression on this
was whoa!!! This game rules. Even though it was a standard
beat them up type of a game, that were in abundance when
this was released it never ceased to amaze me. The look of
the game the much more detailed characters the much more
detailed backgrounds. The awesome sound track. This was
surely a game you wouldn't take for granted. This is truly
one of the Genesis classics that many will cherish as one of
the best ever. I really enjoyed this game even to this day
its fun to play through again and again even though it
didn't have much in the variety department it was high in
the fun department, and much gifted game.
Story 9.0/10
A story, which is sort of a continuation of the original,
This time, Mr. X returned and he decided to kidnap your good
buddy Adam. He has him locked up some where, and its your
mission to get him back. He is also started his crime ring
again and has all his thugs out to try and stop you. Axel
and Blaze needed big time reinforcements this time since the
police aren't on your side anymore. So they enlisted the
help of Max and Skate. Max is a life long friend of Max and
they worked out together. Skate is Adam's kid brother who
will do anything to get his buddy back. Together these 4
will go at it and tough the toughest streets to retain their
lost comrade. Basically its your usually kidnap your friend
type of story with no new twist really. It did seem to work
and I guess this was the only way they could have decided to
start the sequel. I still enjoyed the story, and if you
think about it the story is quite good.
Graphics 10/10
These graphics are leaps and bounds over the original. Each
character is a very large size and have a lot of detail. You
can see their faces pretty well, and their frame rate is
much larger in this one. You get more frames per move to
make them look a bit more realistic. So did the enemies they
all have more moves now. The game looks like a darker Final
Fight now. The backgrounds got a major over haul especially
like the beach stage before the beach stage on the original
was consider the best this one is even better. Instead of
the luminous backgrounds of old buildings and a New York
looking skyline, this one has improved on it, and gave the
things in the background more definition and more sharpness
to them. The enemies look great as well, the guys from the
previous version look better than ever now, they have a high
resolution of detail to them, instead of looking flat and
plain. You can actually tell the different between them and
if you looked close you would see their mouths open when
they got hit. The bosses looked pretty good as well, they
were still large but they to have more detail than the
previous version, Mr. X looks about the same as he did last
year which was pretty good then. The overall graphics in
this game were astonishing and I couldn't ask for better at
the time, the graphics here were the best of the series.
Sound 10/10
A wonderful soundtrack that matches the original perfectly,
it seamlessly blends in with the rest of the game. Some of
the music was just imports from the original while other
parts have improved tremendously. Some of the music was
remixes and some darker beats were added. The opening them
is similar to the original version since it is as well just
a remix but fits the theme of this game more. Some of the
music like the stage ending music sounds exactly he same to
give you an at home feel when you play this. The sound
effects were pretty good as well, they were all mostly bone
shattering and hard hitting, to make the game more appealing
and blend in with the rest of the games music. There was
some voices but mostly it was just your characters
distinctive karate yells, and so forth. The enemies you
wouldn't hear like the bosses say come on once in a while,
but other than that you didn't hear too much to make the
game voices stand out or noticeable. For the most part the
music in this game and the sound effects were pretty good,
and did well with the graphics to make it rounded on both
ends. Mostly Genesis music usually isn't this good, but this
game showed me the way and it was very good and lived up to
its original perfectly.
Game Play 10/10
This game is for one or two players. You have 4 characters
to chose from now and they all have unique abilities. This
time Blaze possess the even characteristics that Axel use to
have. Axel is a power and speed based character but he can't
jump, really and doesn't have much stamina. Max is all power
but he is slow, and lacks other skills. Blaze is even and
Skate is fast because he is the only character who can run,
well skate. You have more moves in this one, considering
before all you really had was pretty standard when this one
came out. Some of the more complexes moves, were harder to
pull off. Like the throws in stuff. The 2 player moves are
still around and just as effecting. You also now have
special moves, each character possesses one, like Blaze does
what is similar to a hadoken and Axel does a Shoryuken. You
also get some more assortment of weapons like a sword, and
some other some of the older weapons were removed to make
way for the newer cooler ones, baseball bats are still here
so that a good thing. The weapon still goes away after you
drop it a few times. Some things are missing in action like
the old call the cop routine that's gone, so you are now on
your own. You also now have a new mode, which is good it is
sort of a street fighter esqe versus mode. This is where you
and another member of your team duke it out, to see who is
the best. Its kind of like a standard fighting game but it
is still a lot of fun, and good to play, it adds to the
replay value a lot too. The difficulty was adjustable, but
even on the hardest mode the difficulty didn't' compare to
the original. There wasn't any save or password features.
Overall 10/10
This is and always will be a fabulous game and it brings joy
to the mind of all those who had a chance to experience it.
This is truly a Genesis classic, that many appreciated then
and now. Even though its probably considered dated since
many people lost all interest in playing beat them up games.
The replay value on this is pretty high considering that two
player versus mode its fun to do when you have a friend over
and It's a good test of skills and techniques you can use
when you play the real part of the game. My one and only
flaw with this game was the difficulty. It could have been
raised much higher than it was the game was too simple to
beat, and it really didn't take long if you were a master of
the original. The fun factor in this game was pretty high
even though easy to beat it was still fun to play through
again and was worth playing through a lot of times. This is
just one of those classic games any beat them up type game
fan would love to have in their collection. If you have a
Genesis this is a great game right here and one you will
enjoy a lot of times over.
OR
Cell Phone - Mobile Phones - Personal Loans - Credit Card - The eBay Song 