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Lucid Dreams84
118,715
TA Score for this game: 103
Posted on 31 May 12 at 07:15, Edited on 24 March 13 at 20:48 |
This review has 17 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Original
Release Date: May 30, 2012
Platforms: Xbox Live
Publisher/Developer: SEGA Yesterday / SEGA
Genre: Beat 'Em Up, Action
ESRB/PEGI Rating: T
Online: Yes
A lot of games that I played at local arcades as a Kid are now swarming into consoles. Beat ‘em ups were awesome and playing them with a friend was even better. Double Dragons and Final Fight were the first to hit the cabinets, but the Streets of Rage series wasn’t far behind. This review won’t be a deep evaluation of each game, but more of a “should I buy this if I was a fan” review. I mean, let’s face it, kids these days only care about the big releases and the shiny graphics that make their pants tight while the old school gamer likes to relive those breathtaking moments of their past.
I’ll do a quick recap about the series plot and gameplay. The story arc throughout the games focus on a group of ex-cops who go after a man known as Mr. X and his crime Syndicate in each title. The story is very basic. There is a bad guy and they need to stop him before it is too late. There is an opening scene and an ending scene for all of them with no talking in between except in the third. There are multiple endings in each one; however, it isn’t that hard to grab them. Like the end of the first you are asked a question or the third game some require you to be on a different difficulty.
Axel, Blaze and Adam are the original three. Adam leaves after the first and lets his little brother Eddie “Skate” take his place in two and three, because a child on rollerblades would do fine against a crime organization. Axel’s friend Max who is a professional wrestler tags along in the second and Dr. Zan takes place in the final installment. Each characters have their out sets of strengths and weaknesses.
The games have the characters side-scroll to the right in most of the eight stages having you stop to fight a certain amount of enemies before continuing on. You beat the enemies by performing melee combat using either your limbs, performing grapples, or various weapons available for you to pick up. There are special attacks in each game; characters in the first Streets Of Rage are the same, but the last two each character has their own unique move that they can do.
You can set a different difficulty making it easier if you just want to breeze by or harder if you want a bit of a challenge. In Streets Of Rage 3 if you have it on Easy, you get the neutral ending by round five, so if you want the good ending you’ll have to be at least on Normal. There is also a save feature where you can save at any time during gameplay, so if your wife is yelling at you just save it, deal with the distraction, then get back to playing. There is also a replay feature, but I really don’t see any reason to have it. It just seems boring to send this to someone else, or to watch yourself play.
The online feature is the best part. You can play co-op with a friend, but if you don’t have someone near you, you can play online. In earlier releases the remake’s online feature was very slow or you would lose your connection. In custom match you can make it so they have to have a required signal strength, difficulty or game mode to join you. You can also compete with others with your score on the leaderboards, so being in the top 25 would be impressive if you were playing against everyone on Xbox Live.
THE VERDICT
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
DESIGN: 8/10
SOUND: 8/10
REPLAYABILITY: 8/10
OVERALL: 8/10
Closing Thoughts:
If you are into the beat ‘em up genre this is very good and a classic. Each title improves upon itself putting together more features and being faster in pace. If you are an old fan of this series as I am they do not disappoint, and I would say the 800 MSP/ten dollars is worth it.
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