Estel Aguirre is a character who debuted in Streets of Rage 4. She is a boss in both Stage 4 and Stage 7 of the fourth game's main storyline, prior to be becoming playable via Mr. X Nightmare DLC.
Description[]
Estel represents the Amazonian archetype, being a tall, muscular, and athletic woman, with blonde hair shaved on the sides and a long braid, green eyes, and a slightly tanned complexion.
She also wears a Special Forces police uniform, albeit a black Kevlar vest with a white insignia over a navy blue tank top, navy blue cargo pants with a utility belt and black knee pads, black gloves with metallic knuckles, and black tactical boots.
Estel first appears as a boss, looking to the defeat the protagonists, until a particular twist at the end of 7th stage happens where she and the rest of the police forces were being deceived by the Mr. Y and Ms. Y’s Y Syndicate, eventually getting the evidence to clear the protagonists’ names.
Boss Fights[]
Stage 4[]
Estel has three phases during her first boss fight in Stage 4: her first very early phase consists of close melee combat. She employs the following attacks:
- Elbow Strike: Estel uses this move when she is at a medium distance from the player. She winds up, then lunges forward and attacks with her elbow, knocking anyone it hits upward.
- Quick Flip Kick: This is Estel's "get off me" move. She uses it when the player is very close to her, as an anti-air, or after getting up from a knockdown. It's too fast to react to and knocks the player back quite far.
- Flying Spin Kick: Estel uses this attack when she's far away from the player. It travels a very long distance, but it has a pretty high amount of lag.
- Flip Kick Combo: Estel uses this move often and it's first hit is quite quick. She jabs, elbows and then flip kicks you.
Estel will try to keep a good distance from the player and only attack when the player is within range. Approach Estel diagonally, bait out one of her attacks and then try to punish it. Her forward jump kick is particularly punishable due to its higher lag, and she'll use it a lot when at a safe distance from the player, which is telegraphed and can be dodged easily.
At around 85% health she requests back up fire from the police force much like when using a Star Move in the original Streets of Rage. These rockets will keep on firing for the remainder of the fight; a bright red circle appears on the ground before impact and the explosions can be easily avoided by moving away or jumping right before impact. This explosion only damages the player characters.
At around half health, she enters the second phase, where she now requests back up from other police officers, who'll join the fight. She also becomes more aggressive using a jump kick to knock the player back. When her health is around 30%, she enters the third phase as her backup now shoots three rockets at a time instead of one. She also starts moving significantly faster and fighting much more aggressive. Her jump kick also appears a bit longer and will throw away the player further away.
Stage 7[]
She appears once again in Stage 7 as a boss, changing very little in fight pattern, but she gains one new attack:
- Grenade Toss: Estel lobs a grenade a short distance. The grenade takes a few seconds to blow up, but it has a large explosion radius and inflicts high damage. The grenade can be tossed back at Estel to damage her instead.
This time, Estel calls the Commissioner himself for backup, or even two Commissioners on Hardest, Mania and Mania+ Difficulties. Estel fights more defensively this time, keeping a distance and throwing grenades while Commissioner tries to keep you at bay. They can both surround the player as well, and combo their attacks.
The same tactics from the Stage 4 fight applies: the player can still approach her diagonally while baiting her attacks. However, care should be taken with her grenades, as well the Commissioner. As a non-boss, the Commissioner has significantly less health and won't employ his most powerful moves. Trying to separate Estel from the Commissioner is key to prevent both from flanking the player. Defeating the Commissioner is optional, as the fight will end when Estel is defeated.
On Boss Rush mode, defeating the Commissioner first rewards the player with a bonus turkey.
Gameplay[]
As a playable character, Estel gameplay is more or less like her boss version. She is a bruiser-type, yet very technical character who specializes in juggles and in disrupting the battlefield with her Special attacks by throwing different kinds of grenades at her enemies.
Her normal combo is notable as the fourth hit will ground bounce opponents, and the last hit (her signature axe kick) can be chained with the Charge Attack (which is also the axe kick), allowing Estel to greatly extend her combos and keep enemies in the air. Her forward air attack is also useful for mobility, as she performs a diving punch which propels her forward.
Blitz Attacks[]
- Boot Mark: Estel launches a roundhouse flying kick, with her boot enveloped by red flames. It covers high range and launches enemies very far away, but has significant startup.
- Flying Scythe: the alternate Blitz Attack unlockable in the Survival Mode DLC. Estel leaps high in the air with a knee strike, and descends with an axe kick enveloped by red flames.
Defensive Special Attacks[]
- Flashbang: Estel pulls a flashbang and toss it at her feet, briefly stunning enemies in place in a small radius around her. If the move is used again against already stunned enemies, they'll be knocked down. Excellent for crowd control.
- Grenade: the alternate Defensive Special Attack unlockable in the Survival Mode DLC. Functions exactly like her default Flashbang, but instead will ignite enemies and knock them far away.
Offensive Special Attacks[]
- Police Tackle: Estel will leap forward, covering a very high distance. If connecting with an enemy, she'll grapple them and slam them on the ground. Nearby enemies caught in the leap after she grabs the first enemy will be knocked down. The player can repeatedly punch the grabbed enemy by pressing the attack button.
- Sucker Punch: the alternate Offensive Special Attack unlockable in the Survival Mode DLC. Estel will do a quick haymaker covered in red flames that knocks opponents away.
Air Special Attacks[]
- Air Grenade: Estel will do a backflip while in the air and drop a grenade, which will explode as soon hitting the ground, knocking enemies far away. Allies can pick up this grenade while it's still in the air.
- Air Flashbang: the alternate Air Special Attack unlockable in the Survival Mode DLC. Functions exactly like her default Air Grenade, but instead will stun enemies and knock them down. Allies can pick up this flashbang while it's still in the air.
Star Moves[]
- Tactical Support: much like when fought as a boss, Estel will call for backup fire from the police force, which will bomb the stage around seven times. In her playable form, the bombing circle appears as blue instead of red.
- Surgical Strike: the alternate Star Move unlockable in the Survival Mode DLC. Estel pulls a combat knife and lunges forward; if it connects with an enemy, she'll do seven quick slashes, dealing heavy damage. Estel will keep the knife after finishing the Star Move, which be used as a normal weapon.
Notable Moves[]
- Police Grapple: Estel's grab is different from other characters as she'll lock the opponent around their neck with her arms. She also doesn't vault, instead pulling the enemy to the other side; if the jump button is pressed twice while holding an enemy, Estel will launch the enemy forward.
Fighting Style[]
As noted in her character bio, Estel fights using Krav Maga, an Israeli martial art developed for the Israel Defense Forces in the 1940's. Krav Maga focuses on efficient moves to quickly disable opponents by striking their vulnerable spots, while combining aggressive and defensive maneuvers; Estel's moveset perfectly reflects this philosophy, with very straightforward attacks to deal quick rack up damage on enemies, while still being technical and defensive.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Estel and the Commissioner are the only police bosses in the entire series.
- Estel's appearance was based on a real-life police officer the illustrator Ben Fiquet met once.[1] During the summer of 2017, when Fiquet walked to his building, three police officers were trying to guess the door code. As Fiquet offered his help, he noticed their leader was a strong female officer (who would serve as the inspiration for Estel).[2]
- Despite being a Special Forces Officer, her backups are actually Feroccio's (regular policemen) rather than Murphy's (SWAT operatives).
- She says, "Backup Requested!" when calling in fire support and police backup. This term is incorrect since the correct phrase would be "Call in fire support!" and "Requesting Backup!" respectively. It's possible this phrasing is so she's easier for players to understand.
- Estel's Kevlar vest originally had the word "POLICE" written on it. However, this was changed to a police logo due to issues with sprite mirroring.
- Estel is the second playable boss to be part of base roster since Shiva. However, unlike Shiva was back in Streets of Rage 3 and not counting his third game counterpart in the fourth game, Estel is the first boss to be in the character select screen, as well as the first DLC character.
- Estel's bio states that she is the daughter of a "Swedish-Columbian" couple. Columbian is most likely a misspelling of Colombian as her surname Aguirre is of Spanish origin and Colombia is a Spanish-speaking country in South America.