STREETS OF RAGE 4
Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Developer Dotemu, Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games Publisher Dotemu Origin France Release 2020
Walk down a city street you haven’t visited in a couple of decades and it’s unlikely that everything will be as you remember it. Businesses may have come and gone. The road might have fallen into disrepair. Regeneration may be attracting a new crowd these days. It’s not dissimilar to playing Streets Of Rage 4, a continuation of Sega’s 16bit beat-’em-up series, which sees its vigilante heroes and a couple of new allies return to deliver their particular brand of street justice more than a quarter of a century on from the previous game.
In the meantime, Wood Oak City has fallen back into urban decay. Buildings are boarded up, pavement tiles cracked or missing altogether, and even the neon signs don’t blaze the way they used to. But entering from the left side of the screen onto the same stage layout that kicked off Streets Of Rage 2, complete with a soundtrack callback to Yuzo Koshiro’s ‘Go Straight’ theme – composed by the man himself – we know which streets we’re back on.
