If you had a Sega Mega-Drive / Genesis, it's almost guaranteed that you played one of the three 'Streets of Rage' games at some point.
Up there with 'Double Dragon' and 'Final Fight' as one of the defining side-scrolling beat 'em ups of the '90s, there really was something atmospheric and dangerous about 'Streets of Rage' when you played it. For one thing, almost all of the stages were set at night with just your fists and your ability to throw punks around the place to get you through. Not only that, you had Yuzo Koshiro's techno-laced soundtracks blasting over the violence and the neon-tinged backgrounds just drenched it all in layers of coolness.
So, after 25 years, a fourth 'Streets of Rage' has been announced by Sega and Dotemu and the first gameplay trailer was revealed this week. Based on what we've seen in this forty-odd second trailer, it's business as usual for 'Streets of Rage 4'. That means lots of combos, lots of punch-throwing, lots of sound effects, and lots of synths.
Interestingly, no platforms have been announced as of yet - so it's not clear if it'll be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch or if it's just PC only. At any rate, the hand-drawn animation looks slick and the music (sadly, Yozu Koshiro isn't doing the soundtrack) has the same synth-driven edge we'd expect.
No release date has been confirmed of yet, but here's hoping it's pretty soon because this all looks very exciting.
