Streets of Rage 4

As others noted, it's a great game and an excellent sequel to the classic trilogy. I'll patiently wait for a patch soon, otherwise I'll have to request a refund and rebuy when online co-op is added.

A nearly perfect sequel that updates the formula to the modern day without losing what made the prequels great.

I was not expecting much from this game but I was wrong I played the streets of rage trilogy back in the day and had a blast playing them and I had a blast playing this game

I only bought this for singleplayer so whilst you should be aware of the multiplayer issues they are not a factor for me. Simply, I don't think SoR4 plays very much like the old ones. It's a lot more about juggling and combos now, as per the trailers to be fair, but means they tend to be strong and tedious. The enemies tend to be quicker than you, which is annoying and a lot of them have very long ranged rush attacks. Some can hit you when you are down and then juggle you - on one boss I repeatedly lost half my health when I got knocked down as an enemy would launch me from the ground and I would be juggled helplessly. A part of this is the AoE desperation move no longer really works as an emergency move. It gives you invicibility when doing it, but cannot be fired off when being hit so you have to do it before you really need it, or used offensively, but it does not feel like it works properly. Bosses all have their own invulnerability crutch powers normally combined with a rush move and I guess the only way around this it to launch your AoE move at the right time? I don't know, but they aren't very fun. When enemies start blocking your regular attacks as well, it just feels a lot clunkier and awkward than Streets of Rages 1,2 or 3 especially as you now can't close down enemies as they throw out jabs when you get near, so unlike the games of old you can't easily walk in for a grab. I do like that you can throw a weapon at someone's head and catch it on the rebound, that's cool. The graphics, whilst not a style I really like are nicely animated, so that's a plus. The music is completely forgetable, which is a real shame given the talent behind it. It's cheap, but sadly the real competition is streets of rage remake, which is free and with all the many options always going to be more like the SoR of old. This is a modern take on SoR and comes with changes that don't gel with me - it might have grown on me, but I'm not really itching to play again to find out

Many ideas have been taken from Streets of Rage Remake (an indie game), which is a good thing since SOR Remake is a remarkable piece of work. I don't think the combo system really adds very much. It turns the game into some kind of Sengoku 3 hack and slash where combos are more important than effectively cleaning up the streets. I have found a bug that is extremely frustrating: while using legacy controls in the keyboard, there's no way to grab a weapon thrown at you, like in the defensive tricks with Cherry, when the robot throw a pipe at you. The attack button only attacks, it doesn't catch the weapon no matter how many times I try. This is a very basic command, and not having it to work after 4 years of game release is infuriating. The new art is amazing, depicting very well urban decay. Music is good. I expected more from sound effects though. SOR 2 and SOR 3 beating sounds really sounded hard as it should be.