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pc - 2020 - dotemu, lizardcube, guard crush games
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↓ written 03/01/2025, edited 11/01/2025 ↓
streets of rage 4 is a side-scrolling beat 'em up with a soundtrack that's bass-boosted to the heavens.
an immediate takeaway from the game is its length; the main story clocks in at just shy of 3.5 hours. with the recent trend of games being pushed for having hundreds of hours of content, it's a refreshing palate cleanser. streets of rage 4 doesn't overstay its welcome - though it does offer endless replayability to achieve higher scores on harder difficulties for those players that do want more. it's a (somewhat saddening) novelty for a game to have as high as 50% of players unlock its steam end of game achievement.
↓ written 11/01/2025 ↓
sadly, a fair few of the moves were inaccessible to me, as they required two or more buttons to be pressed down simultaneously. many games have some leeway with similar inputs in the form of a half second or so buffer where a delayed press of the second button will still count as the combination input. if streets of rage 4 does include this concession, it's an absolutely microscopic amount of time. ideally games should include such padding and expose it to the player to customise in the options to improve their own liklihood of hitting the multi-button moves.
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