Streets of rage 2 in particular was a cornerstone of my childhood. Even on the Genesis it looked as good as many arcade games and Axel,Blaze,Skate,and Max all played drastically unique from each other. "Special moves" replaced the assist cop-car/rocket launcher guy from the 1st title and the stakes were high as one of the heroes from the original team had been kidnapped. (Skate's older brother Adam)



What slapped harder than the various street thugs were Streets of Rage's "sic beats" and "Go Straight" is one of my favorite game tunes to this very day.

I suppose to a poor country boy who irked out much of his life in isolation SOR2 created a place that was bright,colorful,and constantly exciting. The city seemed to overflow with beautiful scantily clad women,bros helping bros,and neon lights illuminating dangerous yet lively alleyways, train stations,factories,and amusement parks. My hypothesis is to many malcontent young men from my generation beat em ups were that catharsis that allowed us to beat up our bullies and get the girl of our collective dreams. Certain snooty college grads with a degree in gender studies may call that "sexist" but I'd just call it hormones,male testosterone,and natural biology!

Regardless, SOR 4 is coming out and I'm excited! (On the 30th of this month for us Steam users!) Some have complained about the more slick and less pixelated somewhat cartoon-looking graphic style but I really like it. (What can I say? This is likely in part to the fact Newgrounds animations grew on me and Castle Crashers was loads of fun as well!) However retro fans can rest assured the original soundtrack from SOR2 is available along with "retro pixel versions" of the main protagonists. (Though sadly there are no throw-back retro versions of the newer characters making their first appearances in this iteration.)

If I could take my own characters and story beats I've already entertained the possibility of a beat em up with multiple characters, branching paths, and light rpg elements. Y'know, if I was actually a good programmer and good animator!

Anyway,any of the rest of you looking forward to the revival of one of the best beat em ups of all time? Feel free to post a comment!