The sense of history is not burdened with good feelings: once kings of the hill, the genres of arcade style of the last two decades of the twentieth century are a grave, not on the battlefield, but in desed . The shoot'em up and others beat'em all who did the business of the tenants gradually gave ground to the domestication of the media, leaving room for others, who will one day suffer the same fate. Twenty-six years after the release of the last installment of the Streets of Rage trilogy, who could have imagined that a small group of French people would manage to resuscitate one of the pillars of its genre? Certainly not us.
Whatever the episode dear to our heart, all players with a little bottle remember the mandals distributed by the dozen in the dirty streets of Wood Oak. Whether for the endable music of Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima or his terrifying bosses at the end of the level, the series fairly aptly summed up the Sega spirit of the time, quick to deviate from overly balanced paths. So how do you restore the substantial marrow of Streets of Rage almost thirty years after it started? This is the crazy gamble in which DotEmu, LizardCube and Guard Crush Games have embarked.
The Fab Four and the France Five
The first quality of Streets of Rage 4 is undoubtedly its generosity: whatever the angle from which it is observed, this suite in the form of a tribute ticks all the boxes, and offers fans formerly bereaved of the trilogy enough to get back in the saddle for months come. This pleasure to offer begins as soon as the selection screen of your street fighter: limited to four during the first run, the latter will not stop expanding as you progress, offering itself a good reason for enchant the parties. And if quantity is never in itself any guarantee of quality, the triptych at the controls will have taken care to differentiate styles like never before, drawing with accuracy in what the versus fighting
Whatever your style: you will inevitably find the right shoe for your foot, to better stick it right in the face of your opponents. Axel plays the card of defensive classicism, since less mobile than his little comrades, Blaze masters the air like no one, little Cherry moves at breakneck speed and launches auto-combos in less than two, while Floyd will delight fans of efficiency, since the slightest blow is simply devastating. Just with this basic roster, the possibilities are rich and varied, but it will also take into account the arrival of the fearsome Adam (heart on you baby) and other retro skins inherited from previous games, which have all their characteristics clean. But if their presence caresses undoubtedly nostalgic fans in the direction of the hair, their interest in-game is somewhat limited, the fault a palette of strokes less varied than modern counterparts, and a skinny style that swears with the rest of the decor.
Adam & Eve Isus
As in the good old days when we had it (the time), we will have to multiply the parts and the scenarios to fully exploit each of our heroes, and work on his muscle memory. Like a good fighting game, Streets of Rage 4 offers each problem a solution, which will have to be thought through while an increasing difficulty will quickly remind you of the order. In addition to the basic mandals, potential dashs and air attacks, you can sacrifice part of your health bar to launch a more consequent attack, but it will then be necessary to combine without being interrupted to recover what has been mortgaged. A bet that requires you to keep an eye on each situation that presents itself to you, but which certainly rewards good risk-taking. Said combos will be all the easier to obtain as the enemies bounce on the invisible walls which delimit each play area, and allow you to have fun under the conditions of direct testing different strategies. With a bit of mastery and an effective teamplay, it's almost a ballet that takes place before our eyes, only interrupted by the combo counter, deactivated on request.
Add that cross-up all that is most legitimate, but also some subtleties like the recovery Street Fighter (pressure on the bottom when you get to the ground), and you get a cocktail of tasty complexity, which is revealed all the more since the difficult enough Corsican game forces you to quickly slow down the tempo to distribute only the necessary strokes. Streets of Rage 4 would have this title won propose a cancel families, a regrettable oversight, but in the end not so damaging. If we keep aside the retro sprites which decidedly bothered us a little, the hitboxes do not suffer from any dispute, a detail which is important in this kind of situation, even if the bosses tend to abuse cycles too widely. of invincibility the relief. What do you want, nobody is perfect.
You became the bad guy!
Anxious to maintain a breathless rhythm while respecting the canons of a genre by repetitive definition, the triad with the joysticks also had the good idea not to draw the dozen long courses, to better roll out a gallery of varied and detailed backgrounds . In addition to the traditional cradingues alleys and other port areas and elevators of rigor, the developers stroll through many places that try to justify an intrigue which we will unfortunately do without in the second part. Beyond its side B assumed, it does not ultimately bring much an arcade formula that satisfies itself. The winks and other camos are legion (by placing one here for Tekken, the one for Street Fighter …), and we feel every moment that the artists have really enjoyed telling the story of each rental through its different environments. This attention to detail brings a real plus which allows to break the monotony during the innumerable parts which will follow, since we are surprised to spontaneously pick up certain pieces. Special mention to the glove butt plug, destination of … Paris, obviously.
However, the long-awaited soundtrack does not benefit from the same consistency, and is likely to offend some. Anxious to welcome fans in the best way, the first melodies remain put to the credit of the master Koshiro, but we are regret to note that the talented Olivier Derivire does not sign his greatest musical work, far from it . The interested party had rightly warned us: he would not try to imitate the work of the legendary duo Koshiro / Kawashima. With a theme for each internship and another for his dedicated boss, there was enough to do, but the Frenchman manages only rare exceptions to aim just, and delivers mostly themes that will not mark memories, nor the ears, and that’s obviously a shame. On the other hand, the themes benefit from a very reactive dynamic engine which succeeds in tuffing them at the right time without giving the sensation of doing it violently, after having fought for several minutes to empty a room. The effect is exhilarating, and allows you to reconnect at times with this fusion between gameplay and music that has always placed the series above its competitors.
The fists on the i
Once the adventure is over, there will obviously be a lot to do, since each level can be replayed independently, a good opportunity to perfect your game and gradually increase the final score, or to try the difficult Mania, which carries very well last name. Take our word for it. It will indeed be necessary to respect as the time a strict training to hope to tackle the Arcade mode, and its unique starting credit … Suffice to say that the competitors will get their money's worth. The others will throw a curious head at the Duel mode, which shows how much the loans to versus fighting have been numerous, but its interest turns out to be quite limited. The boss fight without additional credit will be another step in the rigorous training that will allow the bravest of mouth breakers to aim for the impossible: finish this damn Arcade mode.
Because with a friend (or up to three) with the buttocks screwed into the same sofa, the lifespan could undoubtedly be close to infinity, as long Streets of Rage 4 offers good reasons to come back to it like any good beat'em all think with the love of the peg to the body genre. It is undoubtedly this same desire which pushed the developers to fill the Extra menu with contents of all kinds, revealing a sum of working documents which bear witness to questions about the look of this or that protagonist, and the concern for detail that animated the artists of this beautiful fresco to the end. And the physical company of a good old man sparring partner will be more than advisable for the moment, insofar as online gaming suffers from real slowdowns which still require large corrections and very nasty lags. The editor assures us that everything will be in place for the launch of the game, and we will obviously update our test in this direction once before the fait accompli, it is promised. Rest assured: nothing was left to chance, however, since the game will constantly adapt the damage inflicted and received according to the number of players, and to hell with it rage.
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