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Streets of Rage 4

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by Jason, Aug 27, 2018.

  1. Mentski

    Mentski

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    Being a mysterious face.
    That was possibly me. I posted a video where somebody had replaced the sound effects in a gameplay video with the ones from SoR2, and it was incredible how much of an improvement it made - They replied something along the lines of "SoR 2 wouldn't have all the FX we need for the new game, but the ones there at the moment are placeholders".

    They also made a bit of a passive aggressive comment about the fact that SoR2 is an "old" game and theirs is "new", and why on earth would they use something old. Which... Well...

    To which I replied "They don't have to be the actual SoR2 sound effects, just make a set for your game that SOUND enough like them, because currently it sounds like you're slapping people with a wet fish".

    I never got a reply to that.
     
  2. LockOnRommy11

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    I hope this lives up to the SoR name, I just feel very flat about the whole thing so far.

    To me the first two SoR were very 80’s / early 90’s in visuals and audio. The third was more mid 90’s experimental, but had the aesthetic of the second but with added wackiness and a somewhat darker tone.

    The fourth is just looking like Streets of Rage 2 with cartoony graphics right now. There’s no real innovation from what I can see in terms of gameplay or even music, which seems to be like it’s trying to emulate what old game music should sounds like, rather than what actual music sounds like.

    Imagine if they added to this game to make it a true step up from 3. I can think of really cool ways to carry on SoR: the ability to turn down random alleys and take somewhat different routes in the style of Outrun to reach your destination, a combination of special attacks like calling the police and special punches, making screen-filling hysteria that looks totally awesome, three or four player mode...

    I’m not saying that it doesn’t look good, it just looks alright.

    Oh, and for god sake, bring Adam back.
     
  3. Xilla

    Xilla

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    Apparently they've already ruled out branching paths.

    They really should be in I think. BK3 (No SoR3 here, no siree) had it in a single stage where you could take different paths through Round 5, but you always ended up back on the main route in the end. They could easily do that across multiple stages, like Remake did in a way (although I didn't like how there was one route early on that led you directly to the bad ending without any way to come off it).
     
  4. Meat Miracle

    Meat Miracle

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    You guys shouldn't be so hard on expecting innovation; this is the first SOR game since 25 years. Let's just make sure they got the basics down first, so it sells well and they can do DLCs or something more ambitious. Frankly, I'm more worried about the stars being limited stock supers. I know SOR1 had those, but it was just a Golden Axe throwback. What worries me is that you have a move you cannot always execute, because you will need to store it away for some harder scene. This introduces stock management into a game that was hundred percent skill based.
    It's why I did not like BK3 making the weapons have lifebars, since it limits their use too much, while in SOR2 the only limit was your skill (all things considered, SOR2 was beautifully minimalistic in this regard). Of course in BK3, they HAD to limit weapon usage, since you could do enhanced blitz and super attacks with them, which made the game extremely easy.

    I also dig Shiva's new look, but I dislike how he can teleport around now. He just doesn't seem as climatic as he used to be, but the game is still under development so I'm hopeful that things will change.

    I wonder if Balak is still working on the art, or if they only brought him in for the intro. He makes totally sick art.
     
  5. Xilla

    Xilla

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    I think the Game Gear version of 2 had a screen clearing attack that worked similar to 4.

    Personally I feel the juggling mechanic would have been the next logical step had the series continued back in the 90s, as 3 was released around the time of Super Street Fighter 2 X where it got popularised. I'm really not sure about the bouncing-off-the-invisible-walls thing though, think it should be reserved for enemies already flying through the playing area.
     
  6. LockOnRommy11

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    That’s the problem, the basics are easy - fans have made a Streets of Rage that was incredible. I can go and play the first games whenever I want.

    It’s not like SoR has had a bad outing and now they’re like “back to formula”, they’re just riding off the back of the last two, particularly the second outing, to make this one. It’s a bit different with things like The Force Awakens because the last Star Wars films were quite different to the originals so they felt that the next one had to be a rehash of sorts.

    I felt the same way about this as I did about Sonic 4 all those years ago, except now I’ve also come to the realisation that we CAN have better after Mania released and that I shouldn’t just ‘be grateful’.
     
  7. ...the series hasn't had a game in 20+ years, whinging that things aren't changed up enough just because it didn't have a string of bad releases sounds idiotic, to be frank. The existence of a fan remake doesn't change the fact that there hasn't been an official release in a sizeable stretch of time.
     
  8. LockOnRommy11

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    It’s not about how long it’s been since the last game. The old games are still accessible and have been re-released up until recently, so it would be silly to argue that innovation should take a back seat simply because ‘it’s been a while’.
     
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  9. Meat Miracle

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    No, they are not *that* easy. If the fan game you are thinking of is SOR Remake, that one did NOT have the basics down, it just tried to put everything from all games in, which resulted in a terrible mishmash of gameplay, graphics, and balance. You can just run left & right and jump kick or blitz all enemies to win the game, and you can also change most of the options to make the game easier.

    You need great level design, great enemy placement, and balanced moves. SOR2 had all of those, and all the enemies followed a difficult ramp of their own (the more rare a punk was, the more difficult it was, generally speaking). It managed to place enemies in a way so they had a lot of variety, despite the fact that it only ever used a small set of basic punks. The third game couldn't get any of that right, despite having twice as much content on paper. Also the power bar for the super moves was more of a disadvantage, since you couldn't use your attacks defensively in the hardest difficulty, like if you got grabbed twice in a row before it recharged (ironically this is one place where the American version fixed the gameplay, you didn't lose a quarter of your health if you used a special without the bars charged).
     
  10. Xilla

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    One of my main criticisms of 3 was that they introduced most of the standard enemies way too quickly and had to compensate by introducing gimmicks into everything past Round 2 (bar the Bad Ending Round 7).

    As you've pretty much said, all but three of the regular mooks have been fought by the end of Round 1. It didn't gradually feed them in like 2 did. None of the bosses reappear as mid-bosses either (other than the 20-odd Robo.X's that zoom past in the lab stage, and that one Rocket but he wasn't the "main" boss of R6).

    Alot of people seem to forget that whilst BK3 is miles better than SoR3, magazines that reviewed the import at the time panned it. Gamesmaster in particular were scathing.
     
  11. Meat Miracle

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    Yeah, BK3 isn't all that great, it's just actually playable compared to SOR3. It feels like a rushed, incomplete game IMO, if it had more polish, it could've been great since it did have a vastly improved set of features.
     
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  12. big smile

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    I love SOR3 simply because of all the variety, such as having to smash down a wall while being chased by a bulldozer or avoiding the vines. The branching paths were a brilliant idea and it's too bad they didn’t do that for every level (It's also a big shame that SoR4 has ruled out this idea).

    But I can understand why magazines were so hard on it at the time. For all it's improvements, it is essentially just SoR2.5. The game carried a premium price tag because it came on a 24 Meg cart, while at the same time SOR2 had been marked down to a budget title, so there was just no way to justify getting SoR3 over SoR2 (and even for SoR2 fans, there wasn't enough new content to justify the price).

    It looks like they had even more variety methods planned for SoR3 such as the bike level which was cut and I think if they had done more with such concepts, then SOR3 would have been a big step forward.
     
  13. Icewarrior

    Icewarrior

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    I always felt like they wanted to clearly make the difference from the previous entries in the beginning by coming up with the regular new thugs right off the bat instead of the usual Garcia, Signal and Donovan.
    It's not like you fight all of them at once anyway, since Fabio and P1 make their appearance at stage 3 and 6 respectively.



    I'll also have to strongly disagree with people saying SOR4 isn't innovative because there's plenty of features that aren't in the original trilogy.
    Here's the list of new features I gathered so far:

    ENNEMIES:
    Coming back from previous games:
    Galsia (act like in SOR2, except he can now charge at anytime with knife instead of sticking to one knife behaviour)
    Donovan (act like in SOR2, can now use butcher knife.)
    Signal
    Garnet
    Nora
    Big Ben (besides fire throwing, has jump attack from SOR2 and roll from SOR3. Can be thrown like in SOR2 as of latest build.)
    Eagle (is now able to break free from grabs)
    Silver (in a buffier version)

    Newcomers:
    Kevin (seems to have an evasive behaviour and tries to kick you. They can also jump kick.)
    Feminine version of the classic bikers.
    Elizabeth (that girl punk specializes in throwing hazardous items such as poison, flame, electric bottles as well as grenades. If she loses, she will get another one from pocket)
    Goro (that karate master act similarly to SOR2 Hakuyo except doesn't have a jump attack and the fireball is replace by a powerful forward punch. He can break free from grabs. He can block attacks and counterattack immediately.)
    Kooboo (act as a midboss like Jack or Bruce. Interesting design between a cyborg and ninja, he can use pipes, make them spin against characters either by telekinesis or magnetism or attack by jumping very high and landing hard on characters.)

    Bosses:
    Diva (stage 1, lady with a snake that produces electricity based attacks)
    Police antiriot officer (uses a shield)
    Shiva


    Gameplay novelties:
    DEFENSE:
    - Every A attack will now consume health but leave a green portion of lifebar that can be recovered into health by striking ennemies continuously without getting a single hit. Getting hit cancels that green part.
    - You can now break free from front grabs.
    - You can now safe land if you get knockdowns hit. (like in Scott Pilgrim the game)

    ATTACK:
    - You can do teammove but it will only perform a basic jump forward attack.
    - You can now also do a teammove by vaulting on ennemies.
    - you can apparently perform blitz attack while grabbing ennemies.
    - you can now juggle hit ennemies and players in midair like in a fighting game.
    - ennemies can be bounced off walls for more combos
    - ennemies cannot be knock downed out of screen anymore, they always stay on screen now.
    - You can now do all new A special attacks in midair. They look awesome and allow for devastating combos. Also consume recoverable health.
    Axel dives in a roll and then perform a powerful forward punch. Useful to push back ennemies.
    Blaze's is reminiscent of Chun-Li's Senkukyaku technique, she can use twice in a row in a combo.
    - Each character has now a new Star move, only performable if you collect stars scattered throughout the game. They do much more damage than any attack and cover a longer range.
    Shiva as an ennemy has a substitute, which consists of creating chi clones (1 or 2 at the same time) of himself to perform forward palm strike around him.

    WEAPONS:
    - they have durability like in SOR3 but don't display healthbar (for now)
    - you keep them when you grab ennemies, like in SOR1 and 3, this time they are shown and don't disappear on sprites.
    - apparently, doing a defensive special (press A only) let go of the weapon
    - biggest novelty is, you can grab them while they're bouncing off midair. Probably requires a bit of timing.

    - blunt weapons bounces off ennemies when thrown, like in SORR. You can do a combo of throwing then catching the weapon then throwing and so on...
    - you keep them between scenes.
    - the usual weapons back are : knife, pipe, metal bat, wooden bat, grenade, katana.
    - new weapons shown: butcher knife, poison or flame or electric bottles, spear.
    - there is also explosive barrels like in SORR but they're clearly shown as dangerous and not hidden.
    - Weapon specials are in this game, they have been since the first private build but nobody ever does them in these gameplay videos (thanks Mr.Din).

    MISCELLANEOUS:
    - Action takes place in Wood Oak city.
    - breakable items now takes more hits to be broken.
    - characters apparently travels in bike between stages but as asked on twitter if there are bike stages, "that'd be great but complicated"
    - There is now a dedicated button for picking up items, separate from the attack button.
    - Poison ponds depletes your health gradually which is recoverable by hitting ennemies. Anyone poisoned is also slower and jump lower than usual. Characters and ennemies are both affected. Stays for some seconds.
    - AXEL: if he performs his super combo (A + forward) and doesn't hit anybody, the combo will stop midway instead of continuing until the end.
    - BLAZE: when she throws an ennemy, she also performs a back roll. Useful for keeping track of the thrown ennemy and avoiding being crowded.
    - They're going to support the game after release with DLC. They have a lot of ideas for a game that big and they don't think they'll be able to put everything they want in the game at time before release.
    - Too soon to say for a SoR5
    - No branching paths. They want something simple in terms of story structure.
    - Main campaign is going to be the longer than the other official entries.
    - The default mode will not need to start from the beginning if you get a game over. You'll start from the beginning of the stage in which you lost.
    - Aim for very good replay value with games modes, difficulty modes, many unlockables.


    CHERRY HUNTER:
    - Story:
    Cherry Hunter is the daughter of Adam Hunter from the original Streets of Rage.
    Trained by her father and Axel, Cherry learned self-defense from a young age. Her interest in following in her father’s footsteps and becoming a cop soon faded out, replaced by her love of music. Nowadays, she plays with her electro progressive rock band in some of the most dangerous places in Wood Oak City. She may look young but make no mistake – she is a seasoned veteran of kicking ass and taking names.

    - She is the new Skate, weakest but fastest.
    - She is the only character able to run (as of now)
    - She is able to consecutively head stomp on ennemies. This mechanic is in Scott Pilgrim the game.
    - Her Star move consists of performing a guitar power slide which hit ennemies around and forward with a good range.
    - Her guitar shockwave shakes the breakable items around, nice detail.




    It clearly feels more like a sequel to SOR2 than SOR3 though. If they ever make SOR5, I hope they'll build upon SOR3.
     
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  14. DigitalDuck

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  15. Xilla

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    Safe landing from a throw isn't new, but in the video linked above, Blaze is kicked into a knockdown by Eagle and lands on her feet. That's new.

    The Star thing echos the Game Gear version of SoR2 rather than the way it worked in 3:

     
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  16. Galvatron

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    Adam has now been revealed as a playable character:
     
  17. Jason

    Jason

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    Parenting has not been kind to Adam's face. If this game takes place ten years after the trilogy he should be like 34. Black may crack, but man he got jacked.

    All signs point to Max being the character on the right.
     
  18. Aesculapius Piranha

    Aesculapius Piranha

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    I can't get behind this art style.
     
  19. Icewarrior

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    Actually, he's 23 in SOR1, 24 in SOR2 and SOR3 happening a year or two after that, 25.
    So yeah, something around 35.
     
  20. TheInvisibleSun

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    Me neither; the cartoonishness of it just bugs me.