Streets of Rage 4 (SOR4) is an outstanding side-scrolling brawler that I enjoyed playing through last year. Dotemu, Lizardcube, and Guard Crush, with Sega’s blessing, did a superb job of revitalizing the venerable franchise. The result was more than just a retro-nostalgic sequel with fan service — no, SOR4 is arguably one of the best brawlers ever made. Both accessible and technical, deep and yet button-mashy, with excellent presentation, a dozen great stages — it really had about all you could ask for. Fast forward to present day, and there is a big update as well as an $8 DLC pack available called Mr. X Nightmare.
The latest update, which is available to anyone that owns the game, opens up the insane Mania+ difficulty and some additional color changes for characters. The very reasonably-priced DLC also includes three new playable characters and Survival Mode. The three characters are actually bosses from the original game that are now “on your side” and available for you and your buddies to choose to play as. They have a variety of different skins to choose from as well, all of which look pretty great. The characters are Estel Aguirre, one of the early bosses from SOR4. Then there’s the tank super-wrestler known as Max Thunder who is enormous and has a lot of great wrestling moves and a heckuva mule kick as his rear attack. And then there’s Shiva, the shifty, fast, high-combo dude that I enjoyed playing as the most.
All three of these newly playable characters are great and it’s fun to replay through the game, whether in sequence or just hopping around in Stage Select. Estell has impressive reach, stun grenades, and a great shoulder ram. Max Thunder is slow, but can take a lot of damage and deal a lot of damage with his wrestling moves that include suplexes and pile drivers. Shiva’s axe kicks are a thing of beauty, and I love his teleport attack where he zips across a portion of the screen and damages foes. He can also reflect thrown objects back at his attacker with a well-timed counter.
In addition to the new characters, there are also new weapons and new moves peppered in the game. Not being an astute SOR4 player, I didn’t notice some of these moves at first, and it turns out you have to grind through Survival Mode to unlock each character’s complete move set. It’s a slog, and I have no intention of playing the game enough to unlock everyone’s moves; but, if you have some friends that enjoy playing, it does offer a high goal to shoot for.
So what is this Survival Mode? Well, it’s an arena-like gauntlet in which players enter into what’s called a ‘simulation’ in the game. The backgrounds here are based off of areas seen in the old school Streets of Rage games, but so are the music and the enemies you come across. There are numerous enemies spanning the whole franchise for players to contend with in either solo, couch co-op, or online multiplayer. During the battles, players earn unlocks for new moves, and can also use new weapons, one of which is actually a swordfish that you can swing around. In between stages of survival mode players are given a choice between two upgrades that they can use to carry into the next stage and beyond (if they survive — you only get one shot). Upgrades are, like the rest of the game, well thought out and compelling. You might only get to choose between two at a time, but these upgrades can stack to really increase your character stats, or, you can also get things like lightning damage added to your attacks or even NPCs to help you win the day.
With the Mr. X Nightmare DLC, SOR4 feels fresh all over again. The new characters, moves, and weapons make replaying through the campaign with friends a treat, and the Survival Mode offers an intense barrage of enemies to beat with interesting gameplay elements. At just $8, it’s easy to recommend the DLC, but if you’re a fan of physical media, there is a fresh re-release of the game that includes the DLC on the medium, too. Regardless, Streets of Rage 4 is not to be missed, and this DLC is worth adding to an already stellar game.
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