Unlike Double Dragon and Final Fight, Streets of
Rage had a playable woman on its roster. Blaze was,
admittedly, a female archetype – faster and weaker
than the men – though her vicious throws made her
a real force to be reckoned with.CLASSIC HERO
T
he early days of the Mega
Drive were all about proving it
could match, or at least come
close to, the quality of the
company’s arcade output. Sega’s next
raft of games set out to show what it
could do on its own. Which isn’t to say
that Streets of Rage was entirely original
in concept – it leveraged ideas from
7HFKQĈV-DSDQşVDouble Dragon series
and Capcom’s Final Fight – but the Mega
Drive had a new, exclusive side-scrolling
beat-‘em-up it could call its own.
Though supplanted by its sequels
(Streets of Rage 2 tends to be the
connoisseur’s choice of 16-bit brawler)
the original got the series off to a
strong start. It looked good, with
colourful and detailed art, and sounded
even better, with Yuzo Koshiro’s
excellent soundtrack drawing its
inspiration from the house and rave
music of the time, in a clear departure
from the usual chiptune fare. With its
funky beats and crunchy beatdowns,
Streets of Rage was an impressive
flexing of Sega’s developmental
muscle – proving it could keep pace
with anyone as it strove to stay at the
industry’s summit.Developer Sega
Publisher Sega
Genre Beat-’em-up
Released 1991