Streets of Rage 2

Infobox VG| title = Streets of Rage 2


developer = Ancient
H.I.C.
Shout! Designworks [http://park21.wakwak.com/~suka/sega/staff/f3_md/bare2.html]
publisher = Sega
designer =
composer = Yuzo Koshiro
Motohiro Kawashima
engine =
released = 20 December 1992 ("North America")
13 January 1993 ("Japan")
27 September 1993 ("Europe")
genre = Beat 'em up
modes = Single player, multiplayer
ratings = CERO: A ("Sonic Gems Collection")
B ("Virtual console")
ESRB: E
PEGI: 7+
platforms = Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, MegaPlay, Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade
media = 16-megabit cartridge
requirements =
input = Genesis controller, Wii Remote, Classic Controller, Gamecube controller

Streets of Rage 2 is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released by Sega in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It is the second game in the "Streets of Rage" series, a sequel to "Streets of Rage" and followed by "Streets of Rage 3". It is known as "Bare Knuckle II" in Japan and "Streets of Rage II" in Europe. Its soundtrack is again done by Yuzo Koshiro, whose work was inspired by early '90s club music.

The game was ported over to the Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear and released for the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console on May 21 2007 for the USA and June 1 2007 for Europe as well as Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) on August 29 2007. The game introduced two new characters: Max Thunder (known as Max Hatchett in Europe) and Eddie "Skate" Hunter (known as Sammy Hunter in Japan), brother of Adam Hunter from the original game.

Gameplay

Though "Streets of Rage 2" plays very similar to its predecessor it improves and refines much of the gameplay. The biggest change is the replacement of the original special attack, which was calling a police car to damage all on-screen enemies, with individual special attacks performed by each character, that depletes some of their health. Each character's move list has been expanded and edited to make them very individual to play instead of similar with different handicaps.

Enemies are also improved; all are given "Life Gauges" (previously only Bosses used them) and names, and like the selectable characters, given bigger and more individual movesets. There are many new enemies, including Bikers, which speed across the screen in certain levels, running over the Player, tossing grenades and/or leaping off their bikes to attack; new Ninjas, which are excessively quick and sometimes deadly to fight due to their avoidance tactics, ranged weapons and special moves; Kickboxers and Robots.

There are also changes to the weapons that can be picked up. The "Pepper Shaker" and the "Bottle" from the original game have been removed. The "Knife" has been tweaked, so the Player can choose to throw the "Knife" when he or she pleases, whereas in the first game the "Knife" could be thrown seemingly by accident by the Player, with all the hazards it implies. As a trade-off, the "Knife" does much less damage when thrown in "Streets of Rage II". A "Kunai" has also been added, with the same functionality as the "Knife". The "Baseball Bat" from "Streets of Rage" is replaced by a "Katana", which is the most deadly weapon in the entire game.

Aside from the differences in weapons and enemies, the characters themselves are given some special abilities and handicaps. In addition to their traits and individual moves, the characters now have a "semi-special move": a powerful, non-energy-draining attack.

Synopsis

Plot

A year has passed since the events in Streets of Rage. To celebrate the defeat of the mysterious "Mr X" the prior year; Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding met at their favorite nightspot.Both Axel and Blaze had moved out of the city. Axel has begun working as a bodyguard, and Blaze teaches dance. Adam has since rejoined the police force and lives in a small house with his kid brother.

The next morning, Axel received a phone call from Eddie 'Skate' Hunter, Adam's younger brother. Skate had arrived at home from school to find his house in ruin and his older brother missing. Attached to the front door was a picture of Adam chained to a wall at the feet of Mr. X. The criminals began to retake the streets. Beatings and lootings took place regularly and in broad daylight. Chaos reigned in the city, far worse than before.

Levels

"Streets of Rage 2" featured much longer levels, each with multiple settings. It also added weather effects, like rain and mist.

*Round 1: Downtown - You start your search in the streets. Trailing them into Barbon's bar, you'll eventually meet Barbon in a back alley, behind the bar.

*Round 2: Bridge Under Construction - Moving across a bridge full of thugs and bikers, you continue your search. The boss Jet, is equipped with a jet-pack and has a few nasty moves up his sleeve.

*Round 3: Amusement Park - Strolling through the park grounds, arcades and the Alien House, where the props explode, and real danger lurks in the fake fog.

*Round 4: Stadium - You make your way into the stadium, where you find a secret elevator hidden on the baseball pitch which then takes you to an underground fighting ring.

*Round 5: The Ship - Mr X seems to have got himself a private island this time, so you have to take a ship out to it. You fight your way through some cargo decks before emerging on deck to deal with the bikers.

*Round 6: Jungle - You've landed on Mr. X's island, so you now have to make your way across a beach and through a jungle.

*Round 7: Munitions Plant - You make your way across the factory floor, contending with conveyor belts. You then arrive at an elevator, where you make your way up to the roof.

*Round 8: Syndicate Stronghold - As in Streets of Rage, you face all the bosses in the game here. You begin downstairs, then grab an elevator up to Mr. X.

Characters

*Max Thunder is the absolute "Powerhouse" of the game. His "Atomic Drop" is the most powerful move in the entire game. He is able to clear both in front and behind with a "Lead Pipe" or "Katana" due to his huge swing. He is also unable to vault over an enemy to throw, due to his weight. Instead, "Max" jumps into the air holding his victim in a facelock/waistlock and can deliver some crippling slams. His semi-special is a "Power Slide" which is vulnerable to many attacks and not so powerful. His downside is his incredibly slow, lumbering pace, which may be a serious problem against ninjas, kickboxers, bikers and their grenades and other fast, avoidant enemies.
*Axel Stone is the most popular character, and the best choice for beginners. His semi-special is the "Grand Upper", which is arguably the most useful and effective move of the game, great for bosses and almost invulnerable. His great technique allows him to kill easily every enemy unable to block, except Bosses: when you punch the enemy, wait for a moment before you punch him the second time, the third and so on. The enemy will not be able to react and "Axel" will not continue his combo, instead he will punch him over and over, until he is knocked-out.
*Blaze Fielding is the all-rounded fighter of the game. Her advantages are her remarkable flexibility and her improved skill with weapons. She has a special ability which allows her to deliver two attacks with the "Knife" in one action, a stab and a slash. Her semi-special move is a "Vertical Slash" which knocks down all opponents affected. She also seems to be faster than "Axel", although they have the same speed percentage.
*Eddie "Skate" Hunter is the lightest and most agile character, also the weakest. However, "Skate" is the only character capable of sprinting, by double-tapping a direction, and this can allow him to escape many attacks which the other characters could not. Since double-tapping skate causes him to sprint, his semi-special is a "Dynamite Headbutt" which can knock over large crowds of enemies. It is perhaps "Skate's" most invaluable move. He is also a great thrower, forward and backward. His skill with the "Lead Pipe" and the "Katana" is poor, due to his weakness, but he is very fast with the "Knife".

Release versions and ports

In Japan, and in Europe, "Streets of Rage 2" uses Roman numerals (Bare Knuckle "II", Streets of Rage "II") and Blaze's up-skirt jump kick sprites are intact. "Bare Knuckle II" also shows Mr. X smoking a cigar, which was edited out of the EU/US version. Bare Knuckle II gives Skate's first name as Sammy, but in "Streets Of Rage 2" and "Streets of Rage II", his name is Eddie. "Streets of Rage II" (the European version) gives Max's second name as Hatchett, both "Streets of Rage 2" and "Bare Knuckle II" give it as Thunder.

*Beta Version via ROM Emulation, a beta version of the game's first level is playable. It is semi-complete with moves, areas, rain effect and all sound effects missing. The bar area is much shorter and without breakable tables and chairs, and the Electra mini-boss is missing, replaced by a Donovan sprite named Singer. Barbon, the level's boss is scrambled when performing certain moves and constantly respawns upon defeat. Max Thunder uses a completely different sprite set, giving him a more gorilla-like appearance. Axel's special moves were also changed for the final, in this beta he uses two attacks similar to Sagat's Tiger Uppercut and Ryu and Ken's Hurricane Kick from "Street Fighter II". It also features a different Background Music, more similar to Streets of Rage's.

*8-bit Versions the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear versions of Streets of Rage 2 are quite different from the Mega Drive original, and to each other, similar to the Master System/Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog, they are, in truth, different games. As well different levels and the inferior graphics, Max Thunder is omitted from both. The Game Gear version does not show enemy names (because of size constraints).

*Arcade Version An arcade version of Streets of Rage II was released onto Sega's Genesis/Mega Drive based Mega Play hardware, with brighter colouring and a few different sound effects. It uses a regular credit system. In this version, all 1-ups have been replaced by money bags, there is no in-game timer (though a 10 seconds timer for selecting a character appears) and the difficulty levels are one step above the Megadrive version. Scoring is kept by number of KOs, instead of damage inflicted.

*Collections "Streets of Rage 2" was collected in the "Sega Smash Pack" for Sega's final home console the Sega Dreamcast; the port is not of good quality. There is also a port of the game as well as the first and third games on the Japanese version of "Sonic Gems Collection" for the PS2 and GameCube. The ports on "Sonic Gems Collection" are Genesis perfect and are the Japanese versions of the games. (They are also available on GameTap)

*Virtual Console On May 15 2007, the game was released for Japan's Wii Virtual Console, and then released on North America's Wii Virtual Console on May 21, 2007. On June 1 2007, it was released on Europe's Virtual Console.

*Xbox Live Arcade On August 29 2007, "Streets of Rage 2" was released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Microsoft Xbox 360 console. This version features improved graphics and online co-operative play. [ [http://majornelson.com/archive/2007/08/29/arcade-streets-of-rage-2.aspx Arcade: Streets of Rage 2 - Xbox Live's Major Nelson ] ]

Cultural references

* Some levels of the game have references to the Japanese name of the series. In the second half of Round 3-1, there are arcade machines that say "Bare Knuckle", posters featuring "BK2", and adverts in Round 4 that say "Bare 2"."
* One of the fat enemies in the game goes by the name of "Heart", as a reference to the popular manga "Fist of the North Star", which featured an extremely overweight martial artist called Heart.
* The character Skate resembles the eponymous playable character from the game "DJ Boy", another side-scrolling beat 'em up. This arcade game, developed by Kaneko, was later published by Sega on the Mega Drive. In fact, Sega changed the in-game name of the character from "Sammy" in "Bare Knuckle 2" (Japanese release) to Skate in "Streets of Rage 2" (U.S. release); American Sammy licensed the arcade game for U.S. distribution. Skate is the character's nickname in both incarnations; his first name in the non-Japanese versions is given as Eddie.

taff reference

* The Round 4 boss Abadede is named after a staff member listed in the credits.
* Two bonus thugs in the game are called Talk and Wanter. They are named after Talk Uchimura (Planning & System design) and Wanta (Project management).

References

External links

* [http://www.streetsofrage.net/ Streets of Rage Expanded Universe]
* [http://soronline.classicgaming.gamespy.com/sor2.htm Streets of Rage Online's "Streets of Rage 2" Section]
* [http://www.ntsc-uk.com/feature.php?featuretype=ret&fea=ClassicGameStreetsOfRage NTSC-uk's "Streets of Rage" Retrospective]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/Longplay-StreetsOfRage2_Gen/ Complete Streets Of Rage 2 video] on archive.org
* [http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7B81694C4FC9C791 A complete video walkthrough of Streets of Rage 2]