It would be twenty-six years since then Rage 3 roads released back in the spring of 1994, but jumping into this new chapter in the series, a joint venture between Lizardcube – the makers of the best Wonder Boy: The Dragon Boat – Dotemu and Guard Crush Games, it really feels like a little time has passed since they last kicked and hit the streets of Wood Oak City. Rage 4 roads reciprocate with great goodness in a beloved franchise; the direct continuation, celebration and rejuvenation of the classic side-visible hit-em-up series manages to remain completely true to its roots while refreshing and improving almost every aspect of its gameplay, which is very rewarding Poetry of the Rage so far.
Taking over a decade after the events of the third game that saw Mr X and his gang defeated, a new threat has emerged in Wood Oak in the form of X's children, the Y Twins, and their brutal criminal regime. It's about returning heroes Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Adam Hunter – as well as newcomers Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia – to take to the streets in search of answers as they go out and beat everyone who stands in their way.
As soon as you jump into action here you can say that you are in safe hands; Lizardcube's sophisticated and incredibly hand-drawn nature brings together familiar areas of the first chapter of the game of living life. The neon symbols of the arcades and tattoo parlors – recently released from their skin pockets – are now flicker, buzz and showcasing pools of water, the smoke flowing out of the sewage through pipes surrounded by overflowing rubble bags and fun graffiti – Wood Oak works very well The vision of & # 39; 80s NYC – as enemy teams you'll quickly remember them from the early games from all corners of the screen, making your fist line and feet always ready.
From this opening on the city's narrow streets, with neon poisonous streets, to the top of a fast train, high-speed shooting glass on the top of an enemy dump, dense bicycle bars, combat rings and modern art galleries. a spectacular game it's fun from start to finish, with each location, the enemy and the playable character draw in masterpieces. Oh, and in case you're wondering, we've compared the Switch version directly to the PlayStation 4 version, and the game runs exactly the same on both machines (and comes at the same time, 60fps raw smooth in curved or portable ways) – port specialist Sewast Studio did wonderful work here.
All kinds of classic Rage thug-type styles are back here and their signage is well on its way; regular enemies who did not change their tactics for the past quarter of a year since they last arrived on the scene. Short goons and biker-helmeted headbutt stocks-in your direction as knim-clad thugs armed with a knife hold the edges of the fight waiting out the right moment to move quickly to the tune. The enemies of the R and Y Signal – still wearing their signature park-built sack – attempt to get in from a distance while the Donovan species arrive in metal pipes and bats and are fine with snatching them from the air. There are women in electric locks, Thai-kicking warriors, fire-breathing boys, robots, police, gunmen, and everything else. Every old group is here, present and ready; a carefully crafted combination of types of enemies that conspire to compromise.
To successfully navigate this common assignment of bad boys The Rage 4 Trails also includes all the old stuff you'll remember from back in the day, now gently expanded with some annoying new modes. Your basic hits and quick kicks combine with strong variations – drawn by double-tapping forward and punch – and high-defensive attacks that use a piece of your health bar every time you do it and are a great help in getting out of tight spots. The main difference in gameplay here is that the part of the health bar you choose to sacrifice by performing these highly-motivated moves can now be achieved by effectively attacking your enemies afterwards without hitting. This gives the battle a light and brutal fight, allows you to drop the bars of heavier hits, pull down your health bar and take the calculated risk of getting it all back by moving the holes while avoiding all future attacks. In short, it makes for some really fun times.
Defeating enemies, tying them in or dropping them is still available by simply jumping into them, but you can now tie up big combos by pushing enemies to each other or to the side of the screen to keep them in the air, where you can snap them up by attacking and creating huge, combo-boosting chains. Super Special Steps are done by pressing A and X together – make sure you care for the classic or double returns – and now it is earned by collecting stars that you'll find hidden levels, so it's always best to bookmark all the pieces of the corrupted environment you encounter as you do your chapters. Oh, and it's worth noting that selecting items such as stars, weapons and food is now available using the dedicated button instead of the attack button (although the & # 39; type & # 39; control option is available if you like – if you have an 8bitdo M30 pad that is useful, you can enable this type of buttons three give the game away the truth
For a moment, the action here feels very similar to the one found Rage Roads 2, is much more complicated than this the first game but the broken shortness of running and rolling (and the difficulty of making a soul) for a third – it's also tough, smooth and very responsive. Uses a modified version of Guard Crush Games & # 39; Roads of Anger engine, gameplay here feels fantastic; attacks convince me enough, combos look and feel great and straight and surround enemies, jump-kick your way out of crowds, hold melee weapons to take out opponents and break open barrels and health barrels have never been a ton of fun.
By adhering closely to the combat rhythms that have made real games so addictive, keeping attacking options simple and not bothering the action down with a ton of modern arguments and whistles, the gameplay in Street of Rage 4 has managed to get a boost he is perfect the balance. This is quickly accessible to an old school that anyone can play and can play, but there's also enough depth here to satisfy those who wish to make money racing, collecting combo points and earning the highest levels in all chapters of a campaign made from land that can be replaced continuously with their 12 bite levels , each was approved by a very good employer battle.
Depending on the characters in play, the departure of Axel, Blaze and Adam will be familiar to fans of the series but all expanded with the newest addition. Of the many new characters, Cherry is our absolute favorite; Adam's daughter is clearly based on her uncle, Skate from the Street of Rage 2, and she carries a very nice electric guitar with crowd control and a quick knee attack of the chaingun chair – she is quick and can do much damage to enemy groups too much quickly as he is one of the only characters to be blessed with a double run. Floyd is perhaps the most fragile of all things in our opinion; big and heavy, he did a lot of damage and had a surprisingly special action but found him slow during the boss battles and surrounded by packs of fast moving thugs. However, there were some levels where its unlimited power and impressive reach were huge benefits, so the ability to switch characters between stages makes sense – and also allows you to see all the broadcasts that have to be given rather than sticking to just one adventure time.
Having said that, any slight disappointment we may feel about not actually contacting Floyd is off as soon as we start opening something else. twelve classic characters that you will gain access to as you play through various game modes. Each of these pixelized pugilists comes with their own original full-length features and adds a huge amount of variety to the reboot of campaign mode. It sounds like the perfect celebration of this series; a large list of classic characters with their own original characters sitting alongside their modern counterparts. In addition to that, you can also choose to play through the entire campaign with a retro or retro CRT enabled filter, enhancing the old-school vibe, and the game still looks great with its graphics hidden by any of these options.
There is so much to like about what Dotemu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush Games have achieved here – all the good memories from the old series made the jump to this new entry and to catch a friend to jump on the whole thing in a co-op – and now you can play campaign with up to 10 players. of three on the same Switch – it's just as much fun now as it was back in the 90's & # 39; s.
The sound too, especially the work of Olivier Deriviere with contributions from Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima among others, is absolutely delightful; the sophisticated mix, the ever-expanding mix of old-school chiptune, Daft Punk-esque pop, Jazz, funk and a whole bunch of pumpkin music, mimicking the experimental madness of Stourse of Rage 3 & # 39; s a divisive soundtrack that lets the unpleasant crowd- entertaining. It is also tied together with the action on screen well, the tracks sometimes kicking completely when the first contact is made with the enemy; you might notice a weird thug kicking some kind of background while in music here and there. Rage Trails has been all about attacking bad badges at some point in a fun drive and the developers have given us a presentation of this here; all music is just as important to the enjoyment of your process as the act of standing. As a bonus you can also unlock unchanging straightforward sounds from the first two tracks of the Rage game, so you're in trouble for being selected as to which music to accompany the beat you have released.
As well as a nearly two-and-a-half-hour campaign where five hard-to-find settings can be found from an easy-to-crush soulmate, the game also packs an old-school game mode that challenges you to complete the story using just one credit, throwing it back to level one when it fails (a basic campaign kindly lets you take it from the beginning of your current chapter on death) and the difficult mode of speed mode, battle mode to retreat and online gaming to be able to meet friends or rands to take Wood Oak offenders to two players.
From the opening of the fist to its last glamorous battle, Star of Rage 4 sounds like a pretty modern twist on a beloved plot. The action here will feel incredibly familiar to gather fans; these are still the same old Rage stories you know and love, carefully developed and expanded by a new generation – a new entry in the series better in every way than we would have ever dreamed.
