Game Debate #40: Streets of Rage 2

[Sumez | 2,952]

Nah, it's definitely for people who like beat'em ups.

Turtles In Time less so.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

On 3/11/2021 at 12:19 PM, Gloves said:

Never played it.

 

Skate is the shit and loved his behind the back head walloping move.  Music was amazing too.  This to me was the reason why I wanted a Genesis more than SNES. 

10/10 for me, there are only a small handful of games I enjoyed as much as this game.

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by FireHazard51

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

10/10

Holy Shit I love this game and everything about it

I seriously can go back and play this any time. Hell I'm kinda motivated to right now lol

[Redmond | 152]

11/10.

I don't think SOR2 needs any qualifiers like "within the genre".  Does that mean a beat-em-up that's a 10/10 can only be a 8-9/10 "regular" game?  Just not sure how that works out.  A lot of beat-em-ups are garbage, but I don't feel as though SOR2 deserves to be dragged down or judged through a different lens because of that.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Redmond

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

38 minutes ago, Redmond said:

I don't think SOR2 needs any qualifiers like "within the genre".  Does that mean a beat-em-up that's a 10/10 can only be a 8-9/10 "regular" game?

Yes, the world’s best porno mahjong game is still a porno mahjong game.

This message brought to you by the anti-beat ‘em up gang.

[Redmond | 152]

2 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Yes, the world’s best porno mahjong game is still a porno mahjong game.

This message brought to you by the anti-beat ‘em up gang.

I don't think a beat-em-up, especially one like SOR2, is much different gameplay-wise or quality-wise from anything else.  Beat-em-ups do have a weird reputation as the red-headed step child of gaming or something.

EDIT: Discriminating against beat-em-ups makes you a gaming racist.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Redmond

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 697]

It really deserves a 10 just for dat soundtrack

 

[Sumez | 2,952]

Just completed a much overdue 1CC of the game, and crossed this one off my stack of shame.

It doesn't change my original rating in this poll though, the game is exactly as great as I've always thought. People in this thread have been comparing it a lot to Final Fight, and it would be unfair not to do so, considering it lifts the formula directly from that game.

I do enjoy it more than Final Fight, however. FF gets absurdly punishing in a manner that's not always very enjoyable, and likes to spam tons of copies of the same enemy, turning large parts of the game into a pure mess.

Streets of Rage 2 takes everything that defines Final Fight and refines it. It's a very simple game, but I enjoy that thoroughly. If you manage to isolate one enemy, you can easily take them out with a stupid rote infinite combo, but everything about even getting them into that situation is where the game shines. Well thought out zoning and crowd control carries the game all the way, and no constellation of enemies ever feels overused, even though the game runs a little long at probably over an hour.

It's generally quite easy for the genre, but it has three more difficulties on top of the default, so anyone wanting to master the game has a lot to potentially get into. I definitely hope to return to it some time to clock a 1CC on the "Hardest" difficulty.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Sumez