Topic: Streets of Rage 4

@themcnoisy Ha yes, Im working on it, up to Max so far. Such a great game!

Oh man this game is incredible. I’ve been playing it through Game Pass PC with my proper cans so the soundtrack sounds brilliant, both the retro and the remixes. I just can’t beat the policewoman with Axel, she’s really hard and I’m still trying to get back in the swing of things. The last time a new retro game impressed me this much was Shovel Knight back when it first released. One thing I will say though is that my thumb’s killing me!

@nessisonett it gets easier once you have learnt the basic attack patterns of the enemies and how each tries to attack. It seems way harder initially. Defence special is rubbish in this version, however can be used to juggle in combos. 1 player is way harder than 2 player as well, you are often defenceless facing the same amount of enemies.

There's actually a joke going round about level 2 with the cop who electrocutes you. Every single first run on YouTube, every one gets hit and is like wtf? Comes out of nowhere. But you learn fast. I'm still having a bit of trouble with the biker girls but you may not have seen them yet. I almost always lose health to the robot mid boss (he appears 3x altogether) who can magnetise stuff and flings it towards you.

Also worth pointing out, using attacking specials can be advantageous once you know the patterns. After a special you can recover the health by performing a combo, rather than using them sparingly in the old games it opens up the game.

Just had a great game with @KALofKRYPTON and we only just missed out on the trophy for the 1 credit game on hard in arcade mode. It was nail biting especially as we had never played online in this game before. Almost biting the bullet 2 or 3 times before the last level. We had 0 lives going into that one, I got the killing hit on the mid boss but his projectile move hit me too (double ko). Kal got through to the very end and was unlucky with the AI sneaking in odd slices with Mrs Y taking off about an eighth of health each time without leaving herself open whilst Mr Y was messing around in his robot smashing overhead. A bit of a limp end to an enthralling drama as we had the tactics down mostly without using a mic.

@themcnoisy Yeah, at the start of level 4, the ones who jump kick you take off so much of my health that I end up with just the one life against the boss. I’ve probably hit my first wall so once I get more used to the intricacies I should be fine.

Anyone got tips for getting S ranks for hard mode?

I'm consistently getting A ranks, but getting that S seems elusive. It's a fine line between taking unnecessary risks to booost time, and getting your ass kicked and losing a life.

Got to stage 9 of arcade mode on normal, it was a lot easier playing through the story 2 player on the same difficulty lol.

I guess I need to practise the story mode on hard for a bit, then go back to do a normal arcade run solo.

Got up to Stage 7 with my wee brother today, it’s crazy how much easier the game is even when he’s constantly punching me by accident. I still enjoy the single player mode but the multiplayer is really fun, especially trying to top each other’s scores.

@nessisonett You can turn off the two player hits.

@Genrou Brilliant, it was getting a bit annoying chucking knives only for them to hit my brother! Now that’s a sentence I probably shouldn’t say in front of my mum.

@nessisonett Yeah it's either in the options menu or when you select your characters in the upper right hand corner it say what button to press to toggle it on and off. Sorry don't know which button it's PS since I am playing it on Xbox.

@Grindagger I can't help just yet. Trying to get all the other more conservative playstyle trophies first before going for it. I don't think I have a single S Rank on any difficulty - tons of As but not a single S Rank.

@kyleforrester87 When I first played I got smashed around on hard so I started fresh on normal. That was still tough and took a few too many retrys and assists around levels 7-12.

The reality is the best way to play in single player is to preemt what the enemy will try and do. I didn't know the enemy or my character abilities and was trying to play like SoR 2. I dropped the difficulty to Easy for the next playthrough and ploughed through, you learn the enemies attack patterns with less on screen. The bosses don't have so many additionals and you can experiment rather than play in chaos. Also the AI seems to play the same (mostly) with the big difference the number of enemies and amount of lives and damage you take.

I can now beat the first 2 levels on mania single player off the bat! My tactics are exactly the same as in easy mode.

@themcnoisy yeah I did the first level on mania just to see what it’s like, it wasn’t so bad! I’m thinking it’s worth grinding the boss rush for a while to get some of them down, as that’s where I tend to lose a well earned life.