The original Streets of Rage is not the game I think of when I think of the series, for me, it’s always Streets of Rage 2. I know I got the original after playing and loving the sequel but it never felt the same when I was a kid. Let’s see how it goes as an adult. n

From a graphical standpoint, I still can’t tell the two games apart. The 16 bit pixel art looks just as great today as it did when I played it almost 30 years ago. The way the game looks is really where all the good stops for me with this classic game.

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I have not gone back to play the second game and I hope I’m not disappointed like I was with the original but this was a rough game to go back to. Nothing felt intuitive and moving around and fighting felt more like a chore than a game.

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The game is also very hard and I think some of that is because of the way it plays. I made it to the last level twice and ran out of continues. This made my third run even more painful because I was scared of another game over screen. n

Walking around feels slow. Punching feels inconsistent. Jumping never felt needed. Some enemies went down easy others seem to somehow just absorb my attacks and launch heavy attacks of their own crippling my health bar.

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The boss battles were extremely inconsistent as well. Some of them were just punching bags that gave no threat at all. Others I felt like would just melt my lives away. When I would beat the hard ones it never felt rewarding. Those fights felt more unfair than anything.

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Verdictn

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Playing the original Streets of Rage has me a little nervous to go back to one of my childhood favorites, Streets of Rage 2. The game is hard and sometimes unfair. The bosses are inconsistent and frustrating, but at least the game still looks good while you are annoyed at it.

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Final Score 4/10