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About This Game
History
About This Game:
Rating: Pre-Rating Era. Publisher: Sega. Year: 1992.
I think of this game as an "urban western". Remember the old cowboy movies, where the hero goes down the street and shoots up or knocks down the bad guys? That's exactly what this game is like, only it's set in the inner city. Strange as it might seem, the Streets of Rage games were made for general audiences. They came before the days of video game rating, but are rated E for Everyone in the rereleases. There is fighting, and knives, and other such things, but there is no gore or anything else inappropriate. You strike a bad guy, and he flashes off the screen...that's it. This game is safe for kids to play, and it's fun. The idea of being a hero that goes around fighting bandits is a romantic concept that appeals to everyone.
Streets of Rage 2 is set a year after the events of Streets of Rage. The heroes of the first game, Axel Stone (the white guy), Adam Hunter (the black guy), and Blaze Fielding (the girl) meet at their favorite nightspot to reminisce about taking down the mysterious Mr. X and his organization who, only a year before, had the city in a crippling stranglehold of crime. Axel and Blaze moved out of the city since that time. Axel worked as a part-time bodyguard; Blaze, a dance instructor. Adam rejoined the police force and lives in a small house with his kid brother, Eddie "Skate" Hunter.
The next morning, Axel received a phone call from Skate. Skate had returned home from school to find his house trashed and Adam missing. Attached to the front door was a photo of Adam chained to a wall at the feet of Mr. X. Crime ran rampant once again in the city, far worse than before.
Mr. X seeked revenge against Axel, Adam, and Blaze. Axel and Blaze team up, along with Skate and Axel's friend Max Thunder, a professional wrestler. Interesting enough, the character of Max Thunder is completely gone from the Sega Game Gear version. Max Thunder is also omitted from the Sega Master System (original Sega console) version. In this version of Streets of Rage 2, the team consists only of Axel, Blaze, and Skate. Our three heroes set out on a rescue mission that takes them all the way from the city to Mr. X's hideout on a desolate island.
The Sega Game Gear and Master System version of the game is much different than the standard Sega Genesis game. In fact, they are like different games. The biggest difference is the total exclusion of the fourth hero, Max Thunder, in the Game Gear/Master System version. Also, the Game Gear and Master System have only 8-bit quality graphics; very poor quality in comparison to the 16-bit Sega Genesis. The levels are also altered. With the Game Gear version, the enemy names are not shown due to size constraints.
The play of Streets of Rage 2 is an improvement on the original. In the original game, the special attack was calling a police car to destroy all onscreen enemies. This time around, each character has their own special attack move that depletes some of their health. The moves of the characters have been expanded to make them very individual. In the original game, the three fighters were practically the same but had different handicaps.
Enemies have also been improved. Each one has their own life guage now, not just the bosses. They also have their own names, and have been given individual movesets like the heroes. In addition to these new qualities, there are simply more new villains. Some of these include bikers, kickboxers, ninjas, and robots.
Some changes were made to the items you could pick up. The bottle and pepper shaker are gone from this game. The knife has been tweaked, so it could be thrown when the player wished it. In the original game, the knife would just be thrown by accident. One downside is that the knife causes less damage when thrown in this game. However, a sharp weapon called a kunai has been added that has the same functions of the knife. The baseball bat from the original game was replaced with a katana and is the most deadly weapon of all.
My favorite character to play in this game is Skate. He seems to pack the hardest punch and moves the quickest. In the original game, my favorite character was his brother Adam. The other two heroes are very limited in power.
History: Sega released this game in 1992. It was a 16-bit game made expressly for the Sega Genesis console (also referred to as Mega Drive). It was then ported to the Sega Master System (original console) and Sega Game Gear (handheld console) as 8-bit versions that were greatly altered from the Genesis version and had inferior graphics. The history of this game boasts a lot of interesting trivia.
In Japan, this game was released as Bare Knuckle II. In Europe, this game is called Streets of Rage II. Both Japan and Europe use Roman numerals in the title. From a technical standpoint, the sprites in Blaze's up-skirt jump kick are intact. In Bare Knuckle II, Mr. X is shown smoking a cigar. This was edited out of the American and European versions. I guess being extremely evil was okay, but smoking a cigar was a big no-no. Political correctness reared its head, again!
Bare Knuckle II gives Skate's first name as Sammy. In all other versions it's Eddie. In the European version of the game, Max's last name is Hatchett. Both the American and Japanese version give it as Thunder.
This game was put in a collection called the Sega Smash Pack for Sega's final home console, the Dreamcast. It is noted that this port is not of good quality. It was also put in another collection called Sonic Gems Collection, but only in the Japanese release. This particular collection is mostly Sonic the Hedgehog games, but the three Streets of Rage games (or Bare Knuckle, as they're called in Japan) appear as unlockable games. Sonic Gems Collection was released on the Sony Playstation 2 and Nintendo GameCube consoles. This release of Streets of Rage 2 is the best quality since the Sega Genesis release. It has also been released on GameTap, the online game download service from TBS (Turner Broadcasting System).
In 2007, Streets of Rage 2 was released on Nintendo's Virtual Console, that company's online game download service. On May 15 and May 21 the game was released on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console for Japan and North America (respectively). On June 1, it was released on Europe's Virtual Console.
August of 2007 saw the release of Streets of Rage 2 on Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft's online game download service, for the Xbox 360 console. This was the first time the game was given improved graphics and online co-operative play.
This classic from the 16-bit era doesn't show any signs of slowing down in popularity. As 3-D video games have seemingly reached their limits in technology AND people's interest, a lot of people are looking back fondly on the beautiful, two-dimensional games of the early 1990s...marvels within themselves. The Streets of Rage games have not only maintained their faithful following, but are being introduced to a whole new generation of gamers.
I think of this game as an "urban western". Remember the old cowboy movies, where the hero goes down the street and shoots up or knocks down the bad guys? That's exactly what this game is like, only it's set in the inner city. Strange as it might seem, the Streets of Rage games were made for general audiences. They came before the days of video game rating, but are rated E for Everyone in the rereleases. There is fighting, and knives, and other such things, but there is no gore or anything else inappropriate. You strike a bad guy, and he flashes off the screen...that's it. This game is safe for kids to play, and it's fun. The idea of being a hero that goes around fighting bandits is a romantic concept that appeals to everyone.
Streets of Rage 2 is set a year after the events of Streets of Rage. The heroes of the first game, Axel Stone (the white guy), Adam Hunter (the black guy), and Blaze Fielding (the girl) meet at their favorite nightspot to reminisce about taking down the mysterious Mr. X and his organization who, only a year before, had the city in a crippling stranglehold of crime. Axel and Blaze moved out of the city since that time. Axel worked as a part-time bodyguard; Blaze, a dance instructor. Adam rejoined the police force and lives in a small house with his kid brother, Eddie "Skate" Hunter.
The next morning, Axel received a phone call from Skate. Skate had returned home from school to find his house trashed and Adam missing. Attached to the front door was a photo of Adam chained to a wall at the feet of Mr. X. Crime ran rampant once again in the city, far worse than before.
Mr. X seeked revenge against Axel, Adam, and Blaze. Axel and Blaze team up, along with Skate and Axel's friend Max Thunder, a professional wrestler. Interesting enough, the character of Max Thunder is completely gone from the Sega Game Gear version. Max Thunder is also omitted from the Sega Master System (original Sega console) version. In this version of Streets of Rage 2, the team consists only of Axel, Blaze, and Skate. Our three heroes set out on a rescue mission that takes them all the way from the city to Mr. X's hideout on a desolate island.
The Sega Game Gear and Master System version of the game is much different than the standard Sega Genesis game. In fact, they are like different games. The biggest difference is the total exclusion of the fourth hero, Max Thunder, in the Game Gear/Master System version. Also, the Game Gear and Master System have only 8-bit quality graphics; very poor quality in comparison to the 16-bit Sega Genesis. The levels are also altered. With the Game Gear version, the enemy names are not shown due to size constraints.
The play of Streets of Rage 2 is an improvement on the original. In the original game, the special attack was calling a police car to destroy all onscreen enemies. This time around, each character has their own special attack move that depletes some of their health. The moves of the characters have been expanded to make them very individual. In the original game, the three fighters were practically the same but had different handicaps.
Enemies have also been improved. Each one has their own life guage now, not just the bosses. They also have their own names, and have been given individual movesets like the heroes. In addition to these new qualities, there are simply more new villains. Some of these include bikers, kickboxers, ninjas, and robots.
Some changes were made to the items you could pick up. The bottle and pepper shaker are gone from this game. The knife has been tweaked, so it could be thrown when the player wished it. In the original game, the knife would just be thrown by accident. One downside is that the knife causes less damage when thrown in this game. However, a sharp weapon called a kunai has been added that has the same functions of the knife. The baseball bat from the original game was replaced with a katana and is the most deadly weapon of all.
My favorite character to play in this game is Skate. He seems to pack the hardest punch and moves the quickest. In the original game, my favorite character was his brother Adam. The other two heroes are very limited in power.
History: Sega released this game in 1992. It was a 16-bit game made expressly for the Sega Genesis console (also referred to as Mega Drive). It was then ported to the Sega Master System (original console) and Sega Game Gear (handheld console) as 8-bit versions that were greatly altered from the Genesis version and had inferior graphics. The history of this game boasts a lot of interesting trivia.
In Japan, this game was released as Bare Knuckle II. In Europe, this game is called Streets of Rage II. Both Japan and Europe use Roman numerals in the title. From a technical standpoint, the sprites in Blaze's up-skirt jump kick are intact. In Bare Knuckle II, Mr. X is shown smoking a cigar. This was edited out of the American and European versions. I guess being extremely evil was okay, but smoking a cigar was a big no-no. Political correctness reared its head, again!
Bare Knuckle II gives Skate's first name as Sammy. In all other versions it's Eddie. In the European version of the game, Max's last name is Hatchett. Both the American and Japanese version give it as Thunder.
This game was put in a collection called the Sega Smash Pack for Sega's final home console, the Dreamcast. It is noted that this port is not of good quality. It was also put in another collection called Sonic Gems Collection, but only in the Japanese release. This particular collection is mostly Sonic the Hedgehog games, but the three Streets of Rage games (or Bare Knuckle, as they're called in Japan) appear as unlockable games. Sonic Gems Collection was released on the Sony Playstation 2 and Nintendo GameCube consoles. This release of Streets of Rage 2 is the best quality since the Sega Genesis release. It has also been released on GameTap, the online game download service from TBS (Turner Broadcasting System).
In 2007, Streets of Rage 2 was released on Nintendo's Virtual Console, that company's online game download service. On May 15 and May 21 the game was released on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console for Japan and North America (respectively). On June 1, it was released on Europe's Virtual Console.
August of 2007 saw the release of Streets of Rage 2 on Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft's online game download service, for the Xbox 360 console. This was the first time the game was given improved graphics and online co-operative play.
This classic from the 16-bit era doesn't show any signs of slowing down in popularity. As 3-D video games have seemingly reached their limits in technology AND people's interest, a lot of people are looking back fondly on the beautiful, two-dimensional games of the early 1990s...marvels within themselves. The Streets of Rage games have not only maintained their faithful following, but are being introduced to a whole new generation of gamers.