If only they still made em like this
The age of sideways scrolling beat-em-ups unfortunately died off many moons ago, and although we still see re-vamped versions of a lot of the classics like Metal Slug, nothing has come close to the shear enjoyment that was found with these types of games. They were frustrating, time consuming and out right annoying, but god they were fun.
Streets of Rage 2 was, and still is my most loved game from this ageless genre. Set after the exploits of Streets of Rage 1, where Axel, Adam and Blaze fought off the ever oppressive forces or Mr X, the evil crime lord, to try and bring justice back to the city, we again join Axel and Blaze, with two new friends Max Thunder (a hulking pro-wrestler) and Skate Hunter, Adam’s kid brother in a bid to free their kidnapped friend Adam from Mr X, who was believed to of been dead.
Like the original, each character has their own special moves and abilities. Axel with his Grand Upper Cut and flaming fist punches, Blaze with her dazzling kicks, Max and his body slams and double handed lariats and Skate with his...well...skates.
In time old fashion your against the clock and health is sparse. Each level is lovingly drawn and detailed, and the movements of our 4 would be heroes are slick and well done. The music is as good as it ever was for its day, with some nice little tunes to help with your bad guy pounding. The AI is what you would expect from a game like this. The enemies don’t have much in the way of attacks, so once you learn them its pretty easy to predict what’s gonna happen. That’s not to say its easy. Put the difficulty on hard and you see if you can make it without using a continue :)
Obviously its two player, what self respectable beat-em-up wouldn't allow a mate to join in, but what is nice is the fact that you can play off each other, performing some moves that otherwise would not be accessible when on your own.
Its not a huge game, which in some ways is its only let down, but with 4 different characters to choose from and the shear fun that it gives you it has massive replay value. I today still play it, be it on my PSP using a Mega Drive emulator (I do still own the game - so don’t try and do me for copy right of anything like that) and probably will do for years to come. All I can really say is if you missed out on this game first time around, then you missed out on what is possibly one of the greatest beat-em-ups ever made on any platform. If you get a chance to buy it do so. I promise you, you wont regret it.