Streets of Rage (Master System) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
263A playthough of Sega's 1993 beat 'em up for the Sega Master System, Streets of Rage.
Played through on the normal difficulty level as Axel.
Please note that the game was only released in PAL regions, and so this video is encoded at 50fps rather than the NTSC standard of 60.
Streets of Rage was huge when Sega released it for the Genesis back in 1991 to directly compete with Capcom's Final Fight. Specifically paying attention to complaints about the SNES Final Fight port's shortcomings, the brand new Sega beat 'em up featured a full eight stages, two-player co-op play, and was well optimized for the hardware to avoid chronic slowdown. It quickly became a best seller, and it laid the groundwork for one of the best beat 'em ups of all time, Streets of Rage 2.
However, in some regions at the time - particularly Europe - the Master System was still enjoying a good deal of popularity as the Mega Drive failed to make much of dent in that market. As a result, many of Sega's popular 16-bit games, like Streets of Rage, were adapted for the 8-bit hardware.
This is also one of those unusual cases where the Master System and Game Gear games are not the same. They are both based on the Genesis original, but there are significant differences between them. The Master System game is by far the better of the two. Smashed into a 512K ROM, Streets of Rage manages the impressive feat of bringing all of the stages, characters, and moves over to the Master System intact. Though the flow of the gameplay feels a bit different and the 2-player option was cut, the overall package comes far closer to replicating the original experience than you might expect.
The stage backgrounds have all be accurately recreated, and though they have been a bit simplified and all of the parallax scrolling is gone, the two are strikingly similar to look at. The use of color is bold and emphasizes the small details, and the the general layouts are the same. The music is also a good recreation of the original's - the bloopy PSG-driven music of the Master System is no comparison for the Genesis's sound hardware, but Koshiro's tracks are all here, and they sound about as good they possibly could have on the hardware.
The controls are also very good. The limited animation makes the timings feel different for many of the moves and this does make the game easier than its 16-bit cousin, but the assortment of moves is outright impressive for a Master System game. Even only using two buttons, you still get the full array of combos, jump kicks, backward strikes, and throws that you'd find on the Genesis. Even the rocket-launcher toting backup squad car appears here, though you do have to pause the game and hit a button to trigger it. The attention to detail and variety should be commended, and it feels much more like a 16-bit game than an 8-bit one.
Really, I can't say enough good about Streets of Rage. It's an outstanding port of an outstanding game, and you won't find a better beat 'em up on the Master System.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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