Streets of Rage: Round 8 & Good Ending (Axel, Hard)
90The final Round, Round 8, takes place in the Crime Syndicate Headquarters.
You can't use any Special Attacks here, as your police ally is enable to follow you through the penthouse. Also notice that you must travel to the left instead of to the right,
It is here that your character(s) will encounter Mr. X, the syndicate's leader. Before you can reach him, however, you must first fight through almost every type of enemy in the game, alongside deadly tables as well as recolored versions of every boss in the game as minibosses.
These include: A green & red Boomer, a black Zamza, a grey Abadede, a grey & yellow Big Ben, & the black-clad Mona & Lisa twins.
The twins wait for you right at the door to Mr. X. After you beat them, you can break the door into X's room.
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Mr. X is literally large and in charge. He's surprised that you were able to make it to him alive.
He offers you the position of joining his syndicate for your strength. If you say "YES", he drop you through a trap door and take you to back to Round 6.
If you choose "NO", he'll forget about that and summon some mooks to fight you. After beating some of them, Mr. X will summon more while also doing some fighting himself.
This is the final battle! Mr. X is really fast for a big guy, he can shoot in a quarter arc, and even hit you directly with his rifle. On higher difficulties you better hope you brought a lot of lives with you for this fight, as he has the most health in the entire game.
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When you defeat Mr. X, he flies into the air and slams into the ground. He tries to stand up, but then he collapses again. He's not just knocked out by this fight, he was killed.
It's for the better, however. Thanks to the efforts of Axel Stone, Adam Hunter, & Blaze Fielding, the city they lived in had become safe once again.
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There are actually two different endings in this game: Good & Bad. If I am not mistaken, getting the Bad Ending can only happen through under a specific condition during 2 Player mode. I might have to re-summon the techniques I used in my Gunstar Heroes playthrough to dynamically show what happen in this ending later.