It's been a long time since the 1994 release of the last new installment in Sega's iconic beat 'em up Streets of Rage series, and today Dotemu, Lizardcube, and Guard Crush Games have announced Streets of Rage 4!
According to the official site:
After many years, Axel and Blaze are finally picking up the fight where they left.
Streets of Rage 4 builds upon the classic trilogy’s gameplay with new mechanics, a fresh story and a gauntlet of dangerous stages with a serious crime problem. Streets of Rage 4 recalls classic gameplay but it stands as an entirely original arcade-style romp thanks to the expertise of Guard Crush Games and Dotemu.
Whether players gang up with a friend or clean up the city solo, Streets of Rage 4 is a skull-bashing, chicken-chomping delight all set to a thumping soundtrack sure to get your blood pumping.
The reveal trailer shows us some glorious gameplay featuring an older and more grizzled Axel Stone along with long-time bare knuckle companion Blaze Fielding taking on some familiar old enemies in a truly amazing new visual style. No word yet if other old friends will be playable characters as well like Adam or Eddie "Skate" Hunter, Max Thunder, or possibly even former-enemy-boss-turned-friendly-combatant Shiva.
I'm also hoping they nail the music for the game, as it played a massive part in setting the tone of the first and second games.
Sega has been slowly porting some of their greatest games to the mobile markets as free-to-play titles under the SEGA Forever moniker, and they are getting better with each new addition. We've already received an entire library of classics such as Altered Beast, Ristar, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kid Chameleon, Beyond Oasis, The Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Phantasy Star 2- but today marks the release of the beat 'em up Streets of Rage.
Following the 1980's tradition of cops taking to the streets to clean up their city:
Three cops, a city on the edge, and a crime lord known only as Mr. X – welcome to one of the all-time SEGA greats. Arm yourself with knives, bottles, and drainpipes and battle through eight thug-infested urban environments to bring order to the city. Relentless, explosive, and addictive as hell – Streets of Rage is the grand-daddy of beat-‘em-ups!
As with all the Sega Forever titles the game is a free-to-play with ads and an IAP to make ads disappear. The game features both HID & MFi compatible controller support, local Wi-Fi multiplayer capability, and the standard competitive leaderboards.
I've read that this was supposed to be a Final Fight killer, and while they didn't do that, they created one hell of a game. All around decent and entertaining. And after replaying there are two things I never noticed back then- the first is that there is actually a time limit for each level's individual section of enemies, and multiple endings. There are two different endings depending on if there are 2 players and one or both agree to "join" Mr. X. What we've got here is great music, good graphics, and tight controls in a city in turmoil. When boiled down Streets of Rage's best feature is that it spawned sequels, one of which stands as one of the greatest beat-'em-ups in history. If you like the series it's a fun play, if not- try Streets of Rage 2- it's a lasting gem that has few rivals.
Overall the Sega Forever games have been fairly great ports with one glaring issue across the board with their touchscreen input controls being clunky and troublesome. Other than that they are all just as fun as ever. In Streets of Rage's case, we can hope they've either remedied the situation, or will be, on the way to bringing us its sequel somewhere down the line- as I've said many times before Streets of Rage 2 is simply one of the greatest games ever created.
Thanks to the SEGA Forever program, the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive classic, action-adventure RPG Beyond Oasis, known as The Story of Thor: A Successor of the Light in Europe, is now available on mobile devices.
SEGA Forever has been expanding their library of classic games, ported as free-to-play mobile titles, and Beyond Oasis is another tremendous installment being brought to the modern gaming market. Beyond Oasis is the story of Prince Ali stumbling upon a sentient gold amulet attempting to save Oasis from a villainous enemy in possession of the silver amulet. It's kind of like a wonderful combination of Prince of Persia and the Legend of Zelda- a huge open world filled with a variety of weapons, magic, secrets to uncover, and a wealth of enemies to slay.
One neat new feature of this version is the "Rewind" button, which was recently added to Golden Axe, which helps alleviate some of the problems I had in my Golden Axe Sega Forever review. It's a small clock in the upper left corner, that rewinds the game 15 seconds- oddly fitting for Beyond Oasis making it feel a bit more like a Prince of Persia game by coincidence. It should be noted that there is an abuse-prevention measure in the form of a cooldown timer (or at the cost of watching an ad, if you didn't purchase the single IAP to remove ads), so you can't just rewind time over and over.
In addition, like all the rest of the SEGA Forever lineup, the game comes with cloud saving, leaderboards, and controller support. I'm hoping they've cleaned up the controller support as it's been relatively loose and has been unresponsive on previous titles. Beyond Oasis is a game with a 6 button set up, doubling the usual 3 button standard of the last bunch of games, meaning it'll need a much better handling of the control scheme.
I'm looking forward to giving this title a go, as it was a an amazing title- ranking up there with games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Alundra, and Landstalker- all around great action-adventure RPG games.
Beyond Oasis on [ Google Play ] and iOS To eliminate ads, there's a one-time IAP of $1.99/ €2.29 / £1.99.
As a long time fan of Sega, from their great system Genesis to their amazing game series' like Streets of Rage, I was truly excited to see they were doing what I complained Nintendo should've done years ago- port their games to the mobile market via iOS and Android. So far, Sega's ports have brought us classic games such as Altered Beast, Ristar, Kid Chameleon, and Phantasy Star 2, and now, they've brought the fantasy arcade turned Genesis beat 'em up Golden Axe to the Sega Forever lineup.
Players can once again take on the role of a Dwarf, Barbarian, or Amazon Warrior to battle the dreaded Death Adder for the legendary Golden Axe to restore peace to the land of Yuria. Slay enemies, ride beasts, and cast spells all along the journey to take back the ravaged kingdom!
Starting with the good, the Sega Forever titles get some upgrades from the old version. There's a choice in graphics, either the original or new smooth versions, there's also a slightly easier mode, leaderboards, and a new duel mode where players can face off wave after wave of enemies. They've also stated that there is a, "Multiplayer experience coming soon."
Now, sadly, the bad part. As with all the other Sega Forever games (the exception being Phantasy Star 2- it doesn't require the quick responses of the other games), Golden Axe is another great old school gaming experience once again marred by awful controls. I noticed numerous times where my character wouldn't respond to inputs, or the controls were off just enough to be frustrating- like trying to make a jump across a gap and instead falling to your death, and I'm not fully positive on this, but I believe some enemy hit boxes were altered, because there's a bunch of times where I'd swing directly through enemies and they'd remain untouched.
It's also unbelievably irritating to get caught in stun-locked to death sandwiched between enemies because the controls lag or unresponsive d-pad inputs leave you standing still. The game was originally designed as a quarter-muncher arcade meant to siphon peoples' pockets of coins to make money, and the irksome unfairness of the arcade difficulty is greatly exacerbated by the d-pad input problems.
In reality, a small patch could easily fix this. It's the biggest issue with the wonderful games they've been putting out, and if Sega wants to start making money off of these they need to specifically fix the controls. They've begun a trend that retro gamers want, and have started down the right path, they just need to hone it in and really make these games shine.
Despite its flaws, Golden Axe is still a good addition to the growing Sega Forever library with its extras and the promise of an online co-op on the way we can hopefully look forward to fixes yet to come. I honestly hope they do fix the consistent control problems, because Sega has a monstrous library of tremendous games worth replaying, or bringing to a completely new audience, and this is the singular stumbling block in the way.
Golden Axe via the App Store and Google Play. It's free to play with adds, but has a $1.99 IAP that removes adds and allows for an
Streets of Rage. What can really be said about this game? Anyone who had the privilege of playing it back when it was first released probably have good memories about it. Which isn't bad at all. It still holds up pretty well now. Not amazing, but still entertaining and quite playable.
Three fed up ex-police members want to take back their city which has been overrun by a crime syndicate. Unfortunately the syndicate has also corrupted much of the police force, and the 3 vigilantes- boxer Adam Hunter, martial artist Axel Stone, and Judo expert Blaze Fielding- decide to do something about it. And that something is fighting crime with brute force. Of course the differences between characters are simple- Adam is slow and strong, Axel is the middle ground, and Blaze is fast and weak. Finding one to fit a play style is easy, and only Adam feels slightly hampered as enemies tend to come in droves and are noticeably faster than the player.
These cops have a surprising amount of combat depth for such limited button controls. It's much more than Golden Axe or Double Dragon had to offer with the same 3 buttons- special, attack, and jump. There is a range of combos and throws- and even a special move that, neglecting city safety issues, has another police officer shoot a bazooka blast into the area you are in- inflicting instant kills for small goons, and large damage to bosses. Combat sensitivity causes there to be various moves, and each character has a couple only for themselves (Axel has a great head-butt)- and throws are range relative- just get in close and the grab is automatic- just point and toss. It's a very useful way to clear a path of enemies.
Along the way- players must beat down a steady stream of baddies- ranging from pitifully weak nameless punks to end boss and syndicate head honcho Mr. X over the course of 8 rounds (levels). The streets are littered with usable items as well. Phone booths, trash cans, and old tire stacks hide inexplicably left cooked meat, 1 ups, and a wide variety of weapons to help put the smack down on all criminals in your path.
I've read that this was supposed to be a Final Fight killer, and while they didn't do that, they created one hell of a game. All around decent and entertaining. And after replaying there are two things I never noticed back then- the first is that there is actually a time limit for each level's individual section of enemies, and multiple endings. There are two different endings depending on if there are 2 players and one or both agree to "join" Mr. X.
What we've got here is great music, good graphics, and tight controls in a city in turmoil. When boiled down Streets of Rage's best feature is that it spawned sequels, one of which stands as one of the greatest beat-'em-ups in history. If you like the series it's a fun play, if not- try Streets of Rage 2- it's a lasting gem that has few rivals.
Back in the side scrolling beat-'em-up arcade days, around the time of the fantasy barbarian sword & sorcery movie explosion, we managed to receive a grand original arcade game that combined the two- and Golden Axe was born.
Golden Axe is the hack-n-slash story of a trio coming together to defeat the evil Death Adder, who has taken control of the king's castle and laid waste to the land of Yuria- threatening to kill the rulers if he is refused the throne by the peasants. Not much in the way of story telling depth, but for the time it fit just fine. I find it a bit odd that Death Adder abducted the King and Princess. Where's the Queen? All the other castle dwellers presumably killed, I suppose.
All three of these mighty warriors are on quests of scantily-clad vengeance for deaths caused by Death Adder:
First up is Ax Battler, whose name doesn't really fit as he is a broadsword wielding, stone magic using barbarian seeking vengeance for a murdered mother. Medium in strength, speed and magic.
Next comes Tyris Flare. A fire magic Amazonian armed with a longsword, looking to enact vengeance upon the killer of her parents. Weakest in strength, but fastest and most powerful with magic.
Last, but not least, the Dwarf Gilius Thunderhead, whose slain twin brother will be avenged with the titular large Golden Axe and the magic of lightning. By far the strongest, but also easily the slowest and weakest magic user.
The Sega Genesis port of the arcade was quite amazing in it's time. This game was filled with tons of variety. There were plenty of different attack animations, a variety of special magic potions that increase in power with number of potions, and a constant stream of enemies to battle along the path towards Death Adder himself. In addition they had beasts you could ride upon, and a mini-game of sorts at the campfire levels where you could replenish health and magic potions by beating up the looting gnomes that spawn. They felt far in advance of their time.
Though the coin-op itself had better graphics and a few less levels, it felt longer. The Genesis port was also missing the 4th wall breaking ending as well if I recall correctly.
Even playing with my rose-colored glasses- the game is fun despite the flaws. Yes, there are plenty of frustrating moments because this Golden Axe was designed as a quarter-muncher coin-operated arcade. They purposely made arcades to be difficult and unfair to keep you pumping quarters in for more play.
Enemies are considerably faster, have way longer reach, and have much smaller hit-boxes than the player. It does hamper the return enjoyment, but not enough for me to stop playing. It is a lazy way to arbitrarily add challenge- but since there are infinite continues it isn't too bad. It also helps that the game is very short- roughly an hour long. (A block button certainly would've been nice.)
While Golden Axe doesn't hold up nearly as well as the Streets of Rage games- it is still a decent game. Honestly, I relished returning to the roots of hack-n-slash fantasy gaming. It's tough to judge this game as it is a classic, and there really isn't much for the fans of today- so due to the age of this fantasy brawler, I can only truly recommend it to fans of the series.
Note: The Sega Genesis Ultimate Collection has all 3 Golden Axe games and I unlockable game that plays like The Legend of Zelda. Sega also released an Arcade Classic version that I believe had online co-op, challenge modes, and a few extras such as "Duel Mode." These versions have a few added features that give incentive to new players, and might be worth looking into.
