Old school classic, but is it still relevant?
User Rating: 7 | Bare Knuckle: Ikari no Tekken GEN
Many old classics are still my favorite games. The Guardian Legend. Super Mario Brothers. The Legend of Zelda. Streets of Rage came along on the Genesis and inexplicably burned itself into the collective brain of pop culture and gamers wanting something different. I was one of those swept up. The Genesis was popular during a time when most games where fun, colorful, and safe. Sonic the Hedgehog was the most popular game of its time. Even fighting games during this era were still tame. Oh sure, later on we would see controversial games like Snatcher and Night Trap, but games were still years away from the era of "thugging it up" thanks to Grand Theft Auto. But then along came Streets of Rage. Is Rage a word we should be teaching our kids? Who cares? The title was so much fun to say. Where did this game succeed while other fighting games failed? I think Streets of Rage somehow managed to succeed in creating an atmosphere of desperation. Dark, windswept alleys crawling with thugs. The cops were either too scared or were bought out. That chilling, almost barren music. It was positively scary. Then after fighting your way through thugs and huge bosses who used their fists, you came across a big, very well-dressed man with broad shoulders(think of every stereotypical drug lord) who fought dirty by whipping out a large machine gun and spraying bullets across the room. But when the hero planted that final sidekick into the villain, and everything happened in slow motion, I think many gamers realized that Streets of Rage knew of the importance of tapping into the Hollywood sensibilties. The bleak atmosphere may have been Mad Max, but the game's heart was G.I. Joe, patriotic and teaching kids values they needed to learn. Resist gangs! Don't do drugs! That's what this game seemed to say. I think Streets of Rage also succeeded by being one of the first games to feature a strong black character and a strong female character.
Looking back I often wonder if this game is still good or if it's merely being propped up by nostalgia. Brawlers aren't known for being deep, and Streets of Rage is no exception. The enemies all looked the same, and you only had a few moves to draw upon to beat up your enemies. And yet, this game still stands out in the minds of old school gamers. Nobody compares brawlers to Fighting Force(and why would they?). It's Streets of Rage that has become the template to compare every brawler ever made. 
