Ah, Streets of Rage. From the arcade to home consoles, Streets of Rage was always one of my first choice brawlers, along with Final Fight, Double Dragon, and all the rest. I have different memories of each, with each just as fond. The side-scrolling beat’em-up genre is classic, and an essential experience for any who wish to capture the experience of gaming in the arcade, 8-bit, and 16-bit eras. SEGA has done the world a great favor and brought the full Streets of Rage collection to its Vintage Collection line-up on XBLA and PSN. Join the casts of each Streets of Rage game as they fight for what’s right. Yeah!
Sorry, you couldn’t see it, but when I said “Yeah!” my buddies and I jumped up and did a freeze frame with our fists in the air.
Well, maybe not literally, but inside, totally.
Anyway, Streets of Rage is one of the titles from my childhood that stands out, so when I heard that SEGA was releasing Streets of Rage as one of its Vintage Collections, I was sold. SEGA brings you the trilogy of titles in their original forms as a downloadable title for 800MSP. In this day and age, where you may expect to pay anywhere from 400-800MSP EACH for retro titles ported and dumped on XBLA, having three fantastic titles combined into one launcher for 800MSP is one hell of a deal. But wait, there’s more! Not only are the titles ported over beautifully…not only is the launcher for the Vintage Collection functional and clean…not only is it perfectly priced…each game includes the original local multiplayer, and has been updated to offer online multiplayer over Xbox LIVE.
While the mere port of the titles themselves into a convenient, cheap package is enough to justify the purchase, it’s the inclusion of online Xbox LIVE multiplayer that makes the package stand out. If you’ve ever been a fan of side-scrolling beat’em-ups or Streets of Rage, or you’ve ever been curious about the titles that were before your time, the SEGA Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage package is a purchase that you won’t regret.
Review
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Classic Streets of Rage action Local and online multiplayer All three titles in one cheap package | Don't expect anything new other than MP |
| Rating |
