Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage Review (XBLA)
To say as a kid growing up in the 90’s that I loved the Streets of Rage games on the Sega Mega Drive is an understatement. And while for ages Streets of Rage 2 was available on Xbox Live Arcade. It was great that Sega released this as part of there Vintage Collection that they seem to be doing at the moment. If you are a fan of old school scrolling beat em ups then there really is no excuse not to download this.
What is great about this collection is that it is a very good way of seeing how the series evolved over the years. For example while it is still a very enjoyable game the original Streets of Rage is a pretty bare bones side scrolling beat em up. You have a choice of one of three characters and you are out to clean up the streets. You only have attack, jump and a special move. The special move is pretty cool as a police car will come and blow up the bad guys for you. While it is a pretty basic game in the series it is still a very fun game to play through.
Streets of Rage 2 for me is one of the best video game sequels of all time. It is bigger and better in everyway. The graphics were greatly improved and the soundtrack to the game was just out of this world. You now had a choice of four different character and the game play was much more in depth. You could do many more attacks and you also had a few different special moves at your disposal as well. Streets of Rage 2 is actually very high on my list of greatest games of all time. There is also a fun versus mode that you can gave a break from the side scrolling action.
Streets of Rage 3 somehow packs even more content in. Let me just say Streets of Rage 3 is a fantastic game, but for probably more nostalgic reason the 2nd game is my favourite. But do not let that put this game down. Now you had even more attacks a larger roster of characters many unlockables and a much more cinematic story as well. Streets of Rage 3 was one of the most ambitious games on the Sega Mega Drive and it still holds up very well.
In truth all three of these games are great and there is not a bad game in the bunch, but there is far more to this game than just 3 Sega Mega Drive ports. You see the customisation that this game offers is amazing. You now can select what region you play each game from. Europe, USA and Japan. It may not sound like a huge deal, but in the case of Streets of Rage 3 the Japanese version is a very different game to what we got in the west and it is great after all these years to be able to play this version.
As well as those game play changes you also have control of the games visual presentation. If you want you can make it so the games look juts like they did in the 90’s or if you want to mess with the games filters you can make it smoother than ever. You also can play with the music settings as well.
In all this is probably the very best retro collection of the Xbox Live Arcade. It is not just a fast port in order to make a quick buck. This is a collection that has been carefully made for the fans.
