Streets of Rage 4 is a video game developed by Dotemu, Guard Crush Games and Lizardcube, released in April 30th, 2020 for the Microsoft Xbox One, Sony PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC. It is the first iteration of Streets of Rage 4 to be publicly announced and also the first new installment in the series since Streets of Rage 3 released in 1994. The game takes place around 10 years after the events of Streets of Rage 3.
Story
Edit
Ten years have passed since the fall of Mr. X and his Syndicate. The city has been at peace... until now. A new crime empire has arisen, corrupting everything good in the city. It is rumored to be led by Mr. X's own children: the Y Twins.
Former detectives Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding join forces with their old friend's daughter, Cherry Hunter, along with Floyd Iraia, an apprentice of the brilliant Dr. Zan.
Together these four vigilantes stand against the Y Syndicate on the... Streets of Rage.
GameplayEdit
Streets of Rage 4 carries on the style of previous entries in the series. New to the gameplay formula is the ability to recover health spent using a Blitz Move by performing successive follow-up attacks. Players are also able to juggle opponents against each other and walls for extended combos. Another major addition are the Star Moves; these are limited use moves which consume the star icons below the player's life gauge and cause massive damage to multiple enemies at once. Hidden around the stages are Star icons, which add a Star Move stock when collected.
The game can be played locally with up to four players, while online play allows up to two players simultaneously. After each stage players are graded on their performance, with points being added to a meter which serves to unlock the retro characters. In addition to the main Story Mode, the player can also unlock a Stage Select, as well as Arcade Mode and Battle Mode.
Pickups Edit
Items Edit
- Apple, Onigiri*, Croissant*, Onion Rings*, Pizza Slice*, Tofu*: Small health refill, +300 Points at full health
- Chicken, Bowl Of Ramen*, Ham*, Loaded French Fries*, Cheeseburger*, Salad*: Full health refill, +1000 Points at full health. These food * pick-ups can be swapped out for other foods, if you prefer. Go to Options > Food.
- Power Star: Special Star move
- Money Bag: +200 Points
- Money Case: +500 Points
Weapons Edit
- Knife: Knocks enemies down, can be thrown
- Metal Pipe: Swings above the player and to the front, knocking enemies
- Taser: Electrifies enemies, causing damage. Only can be used once
- Nightstick:
- Bottle:
- Broken Bottle:
- Baseball Bat: Swings in front of the player, knocks multiple enemies
- Toxic Bottle:
- Pool Cue:
- 8 Billiard Pool Ball:
- Fire Bottle:
- Motor Bike:
- Boomerang:
- Katana:
- Sai:
- No Entry Sign:
- Cleaver:
- Naginata Spear:
- Grenade: Detonates upon impact or after a while, it's explosion can hit multiple enemies and the player
- Golden Chicken:
- Floor Squeegee:
- Nail Bat:
- Hammer:
- Mallet:
- Brick:
- Lightning Bottle:
- Sword:
- Morning Star Mace:
- Shuriken:
The weapons displayed above are listed in order of appearance in-game.
Playable CharactersEdit
ReturningEdit
- Axel Stone - "Back in the fight!" "Axel Stone."
- Blaze Fielding - "Bring it on!" "Blaze Fielding."
- Adam Hunter - "I'm hunter and you're the prey!" "Daddy's gotta go to work!" "I'm gonna put the cherry on top!" "Let's call you a time traveler... cause I'm slapping you to the middle of next week!" "Adam Hunter!"
NewEdit
- Cherry Hunter - "I'm no daddy's girl!" "Cherry Hunter."
- Floyd Iraia - "I got bombs on these arms!" "These guns are ready, are you?" "Floyd Iraia."
ClassicEdit
As well as the new characters, the classic, sprite-based versions of the cast from the previous games can be unlocked.
EnemiesEdit
- Galsia (B.T., Galsiaaaaa, Jonathan, Joseph, Garam, Brash)
- Donovan (Altet, Gudden, Z)
- Signal (Y. Signal, G. Signal, R. Signal, D. Signal)
- Dylan (Kevin, Francis, Brandon)
- Garnet (Ruby, Diamond, Pyrop, Saphyr)
- Goro (Dokuja)
- Raven (Condor, Pheasant, Sparrow)
- Assassin Agent (Gold, Silver, Iron, Bronze)
- Feroccio (Dick, Barney, Lou)
- Sugar (Honey, Caramel, Candy)
- Victoria (Elizabeth, Margaret, Anne)
- Koobo (Baabo)
- Big Ben (Gourmand, Anry, Heart)
- Murphy (Dunphy, Sand, Shadow)
- Shadow
- Nora (Boss), (Queen, Belle, Stiletto)
Stages and BossesEdit
| Stage | Name | Boss | Background music (BGM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Streets | Diva | They're Back The Streets Chill or Don't |
| 2 | Police Precinct | Commissioner | Call The Cops Funky HQ |
| 3 | Cargo Ship | Nora | The Storm Boat |
| 4 | Old Pier | Estel Aguirre | Ghost Fair
Down the Beatch |
| 5 | Underground | Barbon | The Undergrounds On Fire |
| 6 | Chinatown | Shiva | Chow Time Do Joe |
| 7 | Skytrain | Estel Aguirre and Commissioner(s) | Aphex Train |
| 8 | Art Gallery | Beyo and Riha | An Exhibition |
| 9 | Y Tower | Max Thunder | Rising Up |
| 10 | To The Concert | DJ K-Washi | 25 Years Ago |
| 11 | Airplane | Mr. Y | A-Ki-Ra Lift The Ground |
| 12 | Y Island | Ms. Y, Mr. Y and Y Mecha | Ti Un Fou |
Retro levelsEdit
During the game the player can find hidden levels by hitting the breakable Arcade machines with a taser gun. These levels consist only of short fights against bosses from Streets of Rage 2.
- The first level is found on the second stage, leading to a fight against Jack.
- The second level is found on the fourth stage, leading to a fight against Zamza.
- The third level is found on the fifth stage, leading to a fight against Abadede.
- The fourth level is found on the eighth stage, leading to a fight against Shiva and Mr. X.
Achievements and TrophiesEdit
There are 37 available achievements, with an additional trophy available on PlayStation 4.
| Icon | Name | Description | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 100 Yen | Clear the Arcade mode on Hard difficulty or higher. | Gold |
 | All Clear: Adam | Clear all stages in single-player mode as Adam. | Silver |
 | All Clear: Axel | Clear all stages in single-player mode as Axel. | Silver |
 | All Clear: Blaze | Clear all stages in single-player mode as Blaze. | Silver |
 | All Clear: Cherry | Clear all stages in single-player mode as Cherry. | Silver |
 | All Clear: Floyd | Clear all stages in single-player mode as Floyd. | Silver |
 | All Clear: SOR1 | Clear all stages in single-player mode with a "SOR1" character. | Silver |
 | All Clear: SOR2 | Clear all stages in single-player mode with a "SOR2" character. | Silver |
 | All Clear SOR3 | Clear all stages in single-player mode with a "SOR3" character. | Silver |
 | All Too Easy | Complete a stage on Mania difficulty. | Silver |
 | An Elegant Death | Use a chandelier to kill an enemy. | Bronze |
 | Birth of the Cool | Catch a weapon in the air. | Bronze |
 | Bleeding Knuckles | Reach a lifetime score of 5,000,000. | Gold |
 | Broke My Toy | Break a spear. | Bronze |
 | Collateral Damage | Use a barrel or a grenade explosion to kill 3 enemies at the same time. | Bronze |
 | Combo Expert | Achieve an "Amazing!!" combo. | Bronze |
 | Combo Master | Achieve an "Out of this world!!!" combo. | Silver |
 | Combo Pro | Achieve a "Super!" combo. | Bronze |
 | Demolition Man | Use a wrecking ball to kill an enemy. | Bronze |
 | Dojo Master | Beat Shiva. | Bronze |
 | Dude, My Car! | Break the car in The Streets. | Bronze |
 | Eating off the Ground | Consume a healing item. | Bronze |
 | Family Reunion | Get the Golden Chicken from the art gallery to the stock room. | Silver |
 | It's Chilly in Here | Break both elevator window panes. | Bronze |
 | Life's a Struggle | Free yourself from a grab. | Bronze |
 | Maniac | Get an S-Rank on all stages on Hard difficulty or higher. | Gold |
 | Miss Me? | Meet Adam. | Bronze |
 | My Work Here is Done | Obtain all trophies. | Platinum |
 | Old-Schooled | Beat Mr. and Ms. Y. | Silver |
 | Oops | Hit an ally. | Bronze |
 | Perfect | Complete a stage without taking damage. | Silver |
 | Snap Out of It | Beat possessed Max. | Silver |
 | Somebody Call the Cops! | Call the police with a Streets of Rage 1 character. | Bronze |
 | Stage Mastery | Get an S-Rank on any stage. | Silver |
 | THIS IS WOOD OAK CITY!!! | Kill an enemy by tossing them in a hole. | Bronze |
 | Throwback | Discover a retro level. | Bronze |
 | Walk on Foot | Destroy all motorcycles. | Bronze |
 | Wasted Wine | Break a wine bottle. | Bronze |
DevelopmentEdit
Rumors of a fourth entry in the series being in development have circulated since the mid-1990s. Following the success of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, a 2017 remake of 1989's Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, publisher Dotemu and developer Lizardcube approached Sega about creating a sequel in the Streets of Rage series. Sega agreed and production on the game began in the beginning of 2018, with the game publicly announced on August 27, 2018. The game is co-developed by Guard Crush Games, using a modified engine from their Streets of Fury game. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in April 2020.
The soundtrack is mainly composed by Olivier DeriviĆØre, with participation of original series composers Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, along with Yoko Shimomura, Harumi Fujita, Keiji Yamagishi, Scattle, Das Mƶrtal, XL Middleton and Groundislava. Koshiro was not a part of the project from the start, but joined after playing a demo of the game at BitSummit, an indie game showcase in Kyoto, in June 2019. He cited fan requests and how the game was coming along as reasons for joining. Initially Hideki Naganuma was supposed to be taking place of Fujita, but in March 2020 Dotemu announced that he would no longer be composing for the game due to scheduling complications.
According to Jordi Asensio, a game designer at Guard Crush Games, Joe Musashi from the Shinobi series was proposed as a playable character, along with other Sega characters, but the idea was turned down by Sega of Japan.
ReceptionEdit
Streets of Rage 4 received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 84/100 on PC[1] and 82/100 on PS4[2] & Xbox One.[3]
GalleryEdit
VideosEdit
Trivia Edit
- This game follows Bare Knuckle 3's storyline instead of the censored Streets of Rage 3 version (the Rakushin element is mentioned on both Floyd and Zan's profiles).
- This is the first game in the series not developed nor published by Sega.
- This is the first game, since the original, to not feature robotic enemies (the Koobo's don't count as they're cyborgs).
- This and Streets of Rage 2 are the only games where Big Ben (and any other heavyset enemies) are throwable (though, they have a slower throw/slam animation).
- A motorcycle segment (which is set after Stage 5) was supposed to be implemented once again (as it includes an unused motorcycle segment in SOR3's screenshot), however due to the amount of work needed to include it, it was scrapped.
- This game uses the original names for both Galsia and Garnet (whom they are called Garcia and Soozie in the US/EU version of SOR3).
- Some of the enemies (Galsia, Donovan, Signal, Dylan, Murphy, Garnet and Goro) had an unused final palette swap (2 in Goro's case) as seen in their respective galleries. As these are unused, they have no names.
External LinksEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ā Metascore for Streets of Rage 4 on PCMetacritic, Retrieved June 17, 2020
- ā Metascore for Streets of Rage 4 on PS4Metacritic, Retrieved June 17, 2020
- ā Metascore for Streets of Rage 4 on Xbox OneMetacritic, Retrieved June 17, 2020
