which previously worked on the
equally beautiful remake of Wonder
Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap.
No amount of footage shown can do
the game justice, however. You can,
of course, tell that a lot of love and
care has been put into the character
designs and animations, but it’s only
when you’re playing the game that you
can truly appreciate it. The characters
feel weighty and their movements
organic, with each hit landed feeling
solid and powerful. Even their clothing
moves in a natural way. Honestly, we
could spend hours just staring at the
characters’ idle animations.Shred cred
Cherry Hunter is the latest character
to be joining the squad of street
soldiers. Daughter of original crime-
fighter Adam Hunter, Cherry was
trained in self-defence by both her
father and Axel. Initially, she wished
to follow in her father’s footsteps and
become a police officer, but found a
passion for music and now plays in a
rock band. She still seems to find time
to fight crime, though.
As well as your standard combo
moves and grapples, each character
has unique abilities. Axel gets a new
flaming uppercut – as he engulfs
himself in flames, the fire condenses
into his fist and he launches an
attack that leaves behind a scorching
whirlwind of fire. Blaze has a new,
almost mystical ability, where she
performs some sort of ritual, complete
with glowing eyes, damaging anyone
caught in the blast radius. Cherry
comes with her own unique moveset,
using her guitar as a literal axe as
she smashes it down on the enemy.
Her special has her sliding across the
screen on her knees while thrashing
her guitar, sending enemies flying.
There is still another character to be
revealed, but sadly it doesn’t look like
it’s going to be a returning one, unless
of course they’ve had a significant
makeover. In the promotional art
there’s a silhouette of another
character sporting what looks like a
mechanical arm. There may even be
yet another character to be revealed,
in the same image there is what looks
like an obscured fifth person in the
background. It looks like our fingers
are crossed once again - this time for
Adam Hunter to make a return. QDespite being announced in August
last year, we’ve had our fingers tightly
crossed for an official word that this
beat-’em-up sequel is coming to
Xbox One. Well, we can finally put our
fingers to better use now, because
our wishes have just come true. No
release date has been given, but just
knowing we’ll be able to play it on
Xbox is good enough for now.
Next to nothing is known about the
story, either. All we do know is that
despite all the criminal ass-kicking of
the previous games, it seems to have
done little to make Wood Oak City a
safer place. Gangs of thugs and punks
continue to plague the streets, and
series stalwarts Axel Stone and Blaze
Fielding are back to finish what they
started by kicking them all to the curb.
During the gameplay demos we’ve
seen, we caught sight of returning
bad guy Shiva, the previous game’s
Mr X’s right-hand man. Does this spell
the return of the original trilogy’s
antagonist, or is Shiva in cahoots
with another crime syndicate? The
other boss was see, Diva, who has
an affinity for snakes, might allude to
this. We’ll have to wait to find out.
Streets Of Rage 4 looks absolutely
stunning. The lovingly hand-crafted
2D art and flowing animations that are
reminiscent of ’90s Saturday morning
cartoons are courtesy of Lizardcube,Originally Axel was going to be named Hawk, while Adam Hunter was initially called Wolf
Streets
Of Rage 4
Meet the newest crime-fighter
looking to clean the streets
Adam Bryant
PUBLISHER DOTEMU DEVELOPER LIZARDCUBE, GUARD CRUSH
GAMES, DOTEMU
ETA TBCSOUNDS
TO LIVE BY
In just another
confirmation that
Dotemu is doing
things right, the
composers of the
original trilogy, Yuzo
Koshiro and Motohiro
Kawashima, will be
returning to create
the soundtrack for
this fourth instalment.
These musical
legends will be
accompanied by
other veteran guest
composers, such as
Hideki Naganuma
(Jet Set Radio),
Yoko Shimomura
(Street Fighter II) and
Keiji Yamagishi
(Ninja Gaiden).
“It’s only when you’re
playing the game that you
can truly appreciate it”
026 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW