A quick look at Streets of Rage 4

Game Pass continues to make my gaming backlog way too big. Streets of Rage 4 was day and date released on Game Pass, and I’ve been slowly making my way through the few hour long campaign.

I ended up playing through on my PC. Sadly, the cutscenes seem to run at just 1080p, and the game has no support for ultra wide screens. Most cutscenes looked pretty blurry, but the gameplay looked crisp. The gameplay fits the throwback style that Dotemu went for. For better or worse movement is very sluggish, and closing the gap with enemies can be difficult. That isn’t to say it plays badly, it just feels like an older title.

The game isn’t very long, but offers incentives for replying through the campaign. You also unlock a boss rush mode upon completion of the story. It would be very easy to blaze through the game in a short sitting.

I don’t have the history that some people might have with the Streets of Rage series. I am no stranger to beat em ups though, and did enjoy my short time hammering through the campaign. Perhaps I will revisit the title to give multiplayer a shot sometime in the future.