Video Game Review - Streets of Rage (1991 - Sega Genesis)

And now, I recite the lyrics to the old TV cop show "Car 54, Where Are You?" as an opening to my review of the Genesis game, Streets of Rage:

There's a holdup in the Bronx,

Brooklyn's broken out in fights,

There's a traffic jam in Harlem

That's backed up to Jackson Heights.

There's a Scout troop short a child,

Khrushchev's due at Idlewyld--

CAR 54, WHERE AAAARE YOUUUUU?

Car 54 is providing backup to the only 3 cops who give a damn about their city, with the best firepower available to the local police force. More on them later. Let's focus on why the city is in the grip of terror...and the three brave souls determined to save it.
Mr. X, a crime lord of unparalleled aims, is taking over the city. He's flooding it with drugs, thugs and psychos. It's not safe in the daytime, and you'd be insane to leave your home at night for any reason. The police are doing something about it: taking bribes from Mr. X to look the other way. A few cops are fighting back, but many of them are fired or killed in the line of duty before they can go into action. Three cops decide to play by Mr. X's rules and take it to the streets!

The three people who fight a private war against Mr. X are:

• Adam, a former boxer who is leading our trio
• Axel, a brash young police recruit that treats every battle like a video game
• Blaze, a female martial artist that doesn't take no for an answer

Each of these cops has pledged to fight Mr. X anywhere and everywhere he holds sway until his army of hoods and killers are off the streets. The three realize they ARE up against an army, so they have backup units. When summoned on the walkie talkie, the police cars pull up and fire either a bazooka or a gatling napalm in the general area, injuring many enemies. They have a limited amount of rounds, so our heroes call them only in times of dire need.
The army of Mr. X is legion, with some members more outstanding than others. With boomerangs, clawed gloves, super-strength, martial arts and the ability to breathe fire at their call, our heroes have their work cut out for them. Despite these forbidding opponents, the trio fight their way into Mr. X's penthouse suite and confront him. At one point, Mr. X tries to turn the cops against each other with the promise of riches and prestige. The act was all for naught, because the heroes want only one thing: to get JUSTICE for their city or die trying. Mr. X is more than happy to oblige them as his goons rush the heroes as Mr. X fires at them with his machine gun.

The battle was deadly and raged into the dawn. The sun rose just as Mr. X fell and surrendered. Justice was served and the streets of the city were free for its people. Adam, Axel and Blaze were commended and smiled great smiles as the sun beat down on their shoulders, relieved of the burden that were...the STREETS OF RAGE!

Our heroes (l-r, Blaze, Axel and Adam.) look out
over their city in "GOOD END."

Streets of Rage (titled Bare Knuckle in Japan) was basically a modernized version of a favorite game of mine, Golden Axe II. The characters in Streets compared to Golden Axe had similar traits, such as the case of the female character Blaze and her ancient counterpart Tyris-Flare. Both wore red, had excellent control of their movements and wore next to nothing. Axel and Axe-Battler had somewhat less in common; both wore blue, had the word "AXE" in their name and were musclebound lunkheads, yet Axel proved to be more useful than his earlier incarnation. Adam and Gilius Thunderhead, on the other hand, were not that similar. Both were wise, had powerful moves and a good reach, yet Adam was a 6-foot tall Negroid in a yellow tank top and that contrasted visually with Gilius' Dwarven stature and green clothing. The magic aspect of Golden Axe was replaced by the weapon-bearing police cars. But with all of these slight changes, one thing stayed the same between these two games: they were both extremely therapeutic.

The whole game was based on beating the ever-lovin' crap outta the bad guys. When you beat one up, there was another waiting, or more than one would challenge you. Once you got done with them, there was a stage boss to defeat. After 7 stages, the eighth and final stage forced you to fight every boss you already fought once again in order to reach the final boss. I always expect him to be hard as shit, and he never fails to disappoint. If I didn't beat it, I'd vow to fight the forces of evil much later--and win. When I did beat a game like this, I'd breathe a sigh of relief and revel in the credits and the feeling of a job well done.

This game's good, yet it could be better.  And that's why its sequel blows it out of the water.

RATING: 7/10

Video Game Review - Shining in the Darkness (1991 - Sega Genesis)

Role-playing games weren't big in my neighborhood or in my school growing up. If they were, no one was about to tell another dude that they played a game and leveled up their main guy to level XX and got all the items and keys to... by now, the person listening would've stopped listening and you'd be labeled a geek/herb/nerd/oreo/sellout/inarticulate insult here. Times have changed and the average person will only be mildly interested in the tales of your fighting dragons and the usual love story built-in to an RPG. Some things have not changed in the march of time and remain in place to this day, namely the dungeon crawl.

The game Shining in the Darkness was not the first to do the dungeon crawl; It's only one of many. It does bear the distinction of being the first RPG in Sega's "Shining" Series, created by the SONIC team. The game was set up in a first-person format and sets the history for the meat of the "Shining" Series, Shining Force and its sequels. The stories of the "Shining" Series are always told in hindsight by a visible narrator, who manages your save file by REMEMBERING where they left off in telling the tale. For Shining in the Darkness, an old man tells us tales of long ago. In memoriam, we live the life of our main character and his course to defeat the evil eminating from a nearby tower. We are also introduced to other characters: your partners Pyra (a whip-wielding wizardess) and Milo (a cudgeling clergyman), and the requisite royals with the notable but goofy court wizard Melvin, who ends up possessed by the evil in the tower to become the arch-nemesis of the light, Dark Sol.

The game is alright, but the lack of free (read: diagonal) movement hinders it a lot. The weapons you can make are built of standard stuff, such as Mithril, and cursed ore known as Dark Matter. The Dark Matter
weapons are strong but have their consequences to using them. Which is why I try NOT to use them; make do with what you got. The magic is sub-par for the abilities of the Sega Genesis in those years, but they
can be forgiven. With only 3 characters(counting yourself) to fight with on a regular basis and the occasional helper, this game only serves as a history lesson as to who Dark Sol is and the history of the world of the
"Shining" Series.

Video Game Review - Golden Axe 2 (1991 - Sega Genesis)

Coming up, I was brought up on fairy tales. I was taught the code of chivalry, about knights saving fair damsels and the perils of ancient Greece from Edith Hamilton's Mythology as related to me by my mother. I've never read The Lord of the Rings, yet I feel I know it through myriad homages to it. My cartoon lineup consisted of Thundarr the Barbarian, Galtar & the Golden Lance (an early double-bladed lightsaber), the original Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and to a stretch, He-Man. Nothing appealed to me more than cleaving through monsters to stop the bad guy and get the girl. There are two ways I was able to access this fantasy: one was the all-purpose daydream, the other was through video games.
Some of my favorite memories are the times I spent playing the original Golden Axe, Gauntlet, Final Fight, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. The release of smacking a few hundred bad guys around who'll smack back was fun. I was not prepared for the onslaught that is Golden Axe II.

Every "sword-and-sorcery" story has to have a text scroll to inform the viewer of the world they were about to visit. So it is with Golden Axe II:

A few years after the last battle...
in this land, the peace is threatened again
by an evil power.
The lord of darkness, 'DARK GULD',
who should have been imprisoned
in ancient times, arose again.
He destroyed entire countries with his evil clan
to bring this world into chaos.
Once again, the three warriors
have thrown themselves into a mighty battle.

Yep, the big dude in the big armor with the BIG axe is at it again. And so are our 3 heroes.
The dude, the girl and the dwarf are ready to take on the forces of evil once more as the crawl stated earlier. The Bizarrians (the weird pink-parrot-sperm thingies you ride) are back also. The gameplay of Golden Axe II has been spiced up with several options. Each character has their own maneuver to get out of being surrounded by pressing the attack button and the jump button at the same time. You can collect as many magic potions (to cast magic) and use as many as you want in a given moment by holding down the magic button. An example:
Tyris-Flare (the girl) has 8 magic slots. She can hold 6 magic spells. When she casts a small spell, you'll only have to hit the magic button once. One of the blue bars representing a magic slot will turn white and the spell will be cast. To cast the magic at full power, hold the magic button down until all of the blue bars turn white. Needless to say, game play has improved. But what of the enemies? Have they improved as well?

The enemies in Golden Axe II have improved vastly, yet they leave something to be desired. Many of the low-level enemies are dumb as posts (as they should be). Some of the bosses are the same way also. Two different enemies stand alone in their ability to kick ass in greater quality than their peers or supervisors.

THE SKELETON: Cunning, fast and relentless, these undead minions make up only a few elite units in Dark Guld's army and his personal guard in the final battle. Fighting them is worth every minute spent outwitting them.

THE LIZARDMAN: Lizardmen are not to be fucked with. Close-quarters fighting is their forte; the only way to really stop them is lots of charges. Even with that tactic, they'll find a way to make you pay with your blood and sweat.

The only disappointing thing about Golden Axe II is its bosses. The programming for these enemies makes the boss look like he's phoning it in. The only thing that makes the bosses formidable enemies is their attacks hurt a lot when they are conscious enough to hit you.

With a high nostalgia factor and some of the best rear attacks out there, Golden Axe II gets a 9.

RATING: 9/10