Estel Aguirre

Estel Aguirre
Gender	Female
Occupation	Special Forces Officer
Games	Streets of Rage 4

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 DLC Mr. X Nightmare.

Description

She is a tall muscular amazon woman with blond hair, shaved on the sides, with a long braid, and wears a special forces cop uniform. She 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. and Ms. Y’s syndicates, eventually getting the evidence to clear the protagonists’ names.

Boss Fights

Stage 4

She has three phases during her first boss fight in Stage 4: her first very early phase consists of close melee combat, There are 4 attacks you need to think about.

- 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.

At around 85% health she requests back up from the police force much like the characters from 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. At around half health, she enters the second phase, where she now requests back up from other police officers, and she also becomes more aggressive using a jump kick to knock you 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 hero further.

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 quite a while to explode and you can catch it and throw it back at Estel, but it has a big explosion and does fairly high damage.

This time, Estel calls the Commissioner himself for backup, or even 2 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 you as well, and combo their attacks.

Tips

Stage 4 Estel will try to keep a good distance from you and then hit you with one of her attacks which have far reach. Approach Estel diagonally, bait out one of her attacks and then try to punish it. Her forward jump kick is particularly punishable due to it's higher lag, and she'll use it a lot when at a distance from you, so you can let her get away and use this move, then punish it.

Stage 7 Estel is less aggressive, but you can still approach her diagonally and hit her. Just be careful to keep an eye on the grenades and the Commissioner. The Commissioner lacks armor on most of his attacks this time, so you can keep him down and pressure him. Use the grenades to your advantage if you can. Throw the Commissioner at Estel or vise versa and keep in mind that throws give you invincibility. Only Estel must be defeated to win the battle, so you can prioritize her. (Though on Boss Rush mode, defeating the Commissioner gives you a bonus Turkey.)

Gallery

Trivia

• She 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. 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).
• 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/ backup. This term is incorrect since the correct phrase would be "Call in fire support!" and "Requesting Backup!" respectively.
• 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 SoR3 counterpart in SoR4, Estel is the first boss to be in character select, as well as the first DLC character.