Streets of Rage 4
From Sega Retro
- For the unreleased Sega Dreamcast game, see Streets of Rage 4 (Dreamcast).
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System(s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Steam, Windows PC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Dotemu Limited Run Games (US) 3goo (Japan) Merge Games (Europe, US) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Lizardcube, DotEmu, Guard Crush Games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Action[1], Adventure[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Streets of Rage 4, known as Bare Knuckle IV (ベア・ナックルIV) in Japan and Asia, is a sequel to Streets of Rage 3 developed by Lizardcube, DotEmu and Guard Crush Games with the approval of Sega. It is the first official sequel of the series since 1994, with a gap of 26 years between episodes 3 and 4, and has been released on all the consoles of the 8th generation (Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch) and on PC.
Contents
History
Development
- Main article: Streets of Rage 4/Development.
After the critical success of the remake of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap by Lizardcube in 2017, Lizardcube asked Sega to trust them with another IP from the Mega Drive era. The deal concluded with the revival of Streets of Rage, with the production starting early 2018. As they didn't have any experience in doing beat-em-up games, Lizardcube associated again with DotEmu, this time for production and not edition, and with Guard Crush Games to provide an improved version of their engine used on their 2015 released game, Streets of Fury.
Artistic direction was once again led by Ben Fiquet, CEO of Lizardcube, along with Julian Nguyen You as the background artist. They decided to set the story of the new game 10 years after the last episode to give more freeways to re-imagining the old characters. One of the new characters, policewoman Estel, has been inspired by a real policewoman that did a strong impression on Ben Fiquet when she broke into his building once for an operation she was in charge, along 2 ripped male partners. Some backgrounds are inspired by real places:
- The encounter with the first boss Diva is set at a place looking like the Viaduc des Arts, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France.
- The backyard where we meet the fifth boss Barbon seems to be set next to the Golden Bridge in San Francisco, USA.
- The stage map displays a Manhattan look-alike island.
For the sound aspects, the studios contracted early with Olivier Derivière based on his work on adaptive soundtracks on several video games, giving a strong dubstep colouring to Streets of Rage 4, probably because the sound work of Yuzo Koshiro on the original SoR trilogy heavily influenced the dubstep musical trend during the early 2000's. The studios reached to Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima during their concert Diggin' In The Carts in Paris in 2018 and successfully contracted for their participation in the game soundtrack through the company Brave Wave Productions. This deal also gave the opportunity to have other legendary Japanese guests like Yoko Shimomura from Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts fame, Keiji Yamagishi, well known for Ninja Gaiden and Dynasty Warriors, and Harumi Fujita who worked on Strider and Final Fight. This all-star sound team is completed by other guests from the West: Scattle, XL Middleton, Das Mörtal and Groundislava.
Reception
The first announcement of the game was made on DotEmu and Lizardcube's Twitter accounts on 27 August 2018, along with a trailer already showing some sequences of the game at its early stage. The reception from the retro gaming public was quite lukewarm at the time, negatively comparing the artistic direction to popular Flash games during the 2000's. The uncertainty at the time of whether Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima would return as composers on the game was also quite unappealing to long time fans of the franchise.
With trailers being regularly released and groundbreaking announcements like the 4-player co-op mode or the possibility to play the game using old incarnations of the classic characters, the public and critics alike welcomed the game quite warmly after its digital release on 30 April 2020, sales figures exceeding all the expections of the 3 development studios. This has been followed by a worldwide physical release on 30 July 2020, managed by 3goo in Japan, and Merge Games in Europe and the USA. Limited Run Games also released a batch of their own regular and classic editions of the game at the same date. Their limited edition with a figure of both Axel and Blaze will be made available during the last quarter of 2020.
All the physical releases came with some goodies, Merge Games editions all having at least a keyholder and an artbook (actually an "art manual"), and 3goo editions coming with a single CD soundtrack and a poster having the back side showing the complete command list for the 4 characters available during the first run of the game ala Bare Knuckle III.
Magazine articles
- Main article: Streets of Rage 4/Magazine articles.
Artwork
Physical scans
PlayStation 4 version
PlayStation 4, JP (Special Edition) |
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PlayStation 4, US |
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PlayStation 4, US (Classic Edition) |
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PlayStation 4, US (Limited Edition) |
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PlayStation 4, US (Brawler Bundle) |
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PlayStation 4, UK |
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PlayStation 4, UK (Signature Edition) |
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PlayStation 4, FR |
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PlayStation 4, FR (Signature Edition) |
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Nintendo Switch version
Switch, JP (Special Edition) |
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Switch, US |
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Switch, US (Classic Edition) |
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Switch, US (Limited Edition) |
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Switch, US (Brawler Bundle) |
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Switch, UK |
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Switch, UK (Signature Edition) |
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Switch, FR |
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Switch, FR (Signature Edition) |
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Xbox One version
Xbox One, UK |
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Xbox One, UK (Signature Edition) |
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Xbox One, FR |
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Xbox One, FR (Signature Edition) |
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PC version
PC, UK |
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External links
- Official website
- Streets of Rage 4 on LimitedRunGames.com
- Streets of Rage 4 on 3goo.co.jp
- Streets of Rage 4 on MergeGames.com
- Streets of Rage 4 on Steam
- Streets of Rage 4 on PlayStation.com: JP, US
- Streets of Rage 4 on PlayStation Store: US, UK, AU
- Streets of Rage 4 on Xbox Store: JP, US, UK, AU, KR
- Nintendo catalogue pages: JP, US, UK, AU, HK
- Streets of Rage 4 on GOG.com
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/streets-of-rage-4-ps4/ (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 18:56)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 PlayStation Store (en-us; UP1482-CUSA16237_00-00STREETSOFRAGE4) (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 18:59)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 PlayStation Store (en-gb; EP1470-CUSA16221_00-00STREETSOFRAGE4) (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:02)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 PlayStation Store (fr-fr; EP1470-CUSA16221_00-00STREETSOFRAGE4) (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:03)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 PlayStation Store (en-au; EP1470-CUSA16221_00-00STREETSOFRAGE4) (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:05)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 http://www.3goo.co.jp/bareknuckle4/ (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-02 15:48)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/northgard-standard-edition-ps4?variant=14879014027299 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:09)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/streets-of-rage-4-signature-edition-ps4?variant=31682138177600 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:13)
- ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 https://www.shop-justforgames.com/streets-of-rage-c112x792863 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 18:50)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/limited-run-332-streets-of-rage-4-ps4 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-14 18:11)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/limited-run-332-streets-of-rage-4-classic-edition-ps4 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-14 18:25)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/limited-run-332-streets-of-rage-4-limited-edition-ps4 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-01 17:49)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/streets-of-rage-brawler-bundle-ps4 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-01 17:50)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/streets-of-rage-4/9n7h54kncb9n?rtc=1&activetab=pivot:overviewtab (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:43)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/streets-of-rage-4/9n7h54kncb9n?rtc=1&activetab=pivot:overviewtab (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:41)
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/p/streets-of-rage-4/9n7h54kncb9n?rtc=1&activetab=pivot:overviewtab (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:44)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 https://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/p/streets-of-rage-4/9n7h54kncb9n?rtc=1&activetab=pivot:overviewtab (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:45)
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 https://www.microsoft.com/ko-kr/p/streets-of-rage-4/9n7h54kncb9n?rtc=2&activetab=pivot:overviewtab (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:46)
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 https://www.microsoft.com/ja-jp/p/streets-of-rage-4/9n7h54kncb9n?rtc=2&activetab=pivot:overviewtab (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:48)
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/streets-of-rage-4-standard-edition-xbox-one?variant=31682193653824 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:16)
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/streets-of-rage-4-signature-edition-xbox-one?variant=31682148728896 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:19)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/streets-of-rage-4-switch/ (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 20:01)
- ↑ https://archive.is/kgPf7
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 https://archive.is/NaCvb
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 https://archive.is/p3OZc
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 https://archive.is/EE48U
- ↑ https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000026149 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 20:19)
- ↑ https://archive.is/umWPB
- ↑ https://ec.nintendo.com/JP/ja/titles/70010000029104 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 20:26)
- ↑ https://archive.is/uWDvd
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 https://store.nintendo.com.hk/70010000028293 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 20:32)
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/streets-of-rage-4-standard-edition-switch?variant=31682156167232 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:22)
- ↑ https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/streets-of-rage-4-signature-edition-switch?variant=31682145419328 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:25)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/switch-limited-run-65-streets-of-rage-4 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-14 18:49)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/switch-limited-run-65-streets-of-rage-4-classic-edition (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-14 19:05)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/switch-limited-run-65-streets-of-rage-4-limited-edition (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-01 17:45)
- ↑ https://limitedrungames.com/collections/streets-of-rage-4/products/streets-of-rage-brawler-bundle-switch (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-01 17:46)
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 https://store.steampowered.com/app/985890/Streets_of_Rage_4/ (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 19:37)
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 https://store.steampowered.com/app/985890/Streets_of_Rage_4/?cc=uk (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 21:09)
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 https://store.steampowered.com/app/985890/Streets_of_Rage_4/?cc=fr (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 21:16)
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 https://store.steampowered.com/app/985890/Streets_of_Rage_4/?cc=au (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 21:22)
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 https://www.gog.com/index.php/game/streets_of_rage_4%2520 (Wayback Machine: 2020-04-30 23:07)
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 https://signatureeditiongames.com/products/streets-of-rage-4-standard-edition-pc?variant=31728901947456 (Wayback Machine: 2020-05-07 16:32)
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