Streets of Rage Longplay (Game Gear) [60 FPS]
23Developed and published by Sega in 1992.
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The 8-bit Game Gear version of Streets of Rage was actually my first brush with the series. I remember having a friend round and he'd bought his Game Gear and we were sat together playing Streets of Rage cooperatively via the link cable. In a time before the internet or wireless networking, this seemed incredibly futuristic at the time.
The Game Gear version is a surprisingly solid version of the game. Unsurprisingly, certain things had to be left out, such as one of the playable characters and two of the levels, but the game is still easily identifiable as a Streets of Rage game despite these omissions.
Whilst not as fluid as the Genesis version, the fighting is still remarkably satisfying. Enemies can be kicked, punched and thrown around the screen with ease, whilst knives and metal pipes can be collected to give the player the edge.
Whilst I can find no real fault with the game, it is perhaps slightly unforgiving on "Hard" difficulty due to the level timer. The game decides to throw enemies at you that have extreme amounts of health, with simply no way to defeat them quickly enough before the timer expires.
The graphics are very good considering the size of the sprites. The background art, the ship level in particular, is great and really captures the essence of it's 16-bit sibling.
The music is also excellent. Yuzo Koshiro's music score is still recognisable and as great as ever, despite the transfer to an 8-bit platform.
I certainly played the game through to completion on many occasions and thoroughly enjoyed the game. A sequel would be released a year later and would improve on the original in every way.
Streets of Rage Game Gear is a solid beat 'em up experience and comes easily recommended.
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