Streets of Rage 4: The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

Hey Jefferson,

What a coincidence it is that Streets of Rage 4 wasn’t exactly our Game of The Year, but we both wanted to find the outlet to talk about how impactful it was. Reading your letter, I’m glad to see how it was an extra help in establishing your support to abolish the police, with current movements like Black Lives Matter, and news circulating how defunding budgets and getting rid of them altogether, can be great for the future. While it showed you how things should change, it continued to be a grim reminder of how things are still much the same.

I first played Streets of Rage 4 live on twitch, the day before it came out with the help of the publishers handing us a code! I was excited to play it, as I’ve played the other games growing up, and longed for a much-needed pause to reflect on my existence with everything going on, from COVID ordeals, having gone to protests, and the instability of employment. However, with every streaming session, I usually have blown all the steam I’ve had after an hour, call it a night, and head to bed. Much to my surprise, I finished the game in one sitting, with my friends watching me try over and over to beat the sexy villians I so badly wanted to play as. Having Nora whip her abiding men and myself into shape made me feel some type of way. Seeing Shiva again from his reign in Streets of Rage 2 and his lovely flowing hair, reminded me that my minor crush on this 2D man truly hasn’t left. Don’t even get me started on Mr. Y and trying to ravel my head around his shoujo face and his big muscular build. All this eye candy, for me and my viewers at the time, was such a blast.

While I can talk about how all the characters were diverse and amazingly designed all day, the true nugget of treasure for me was the unbelievable soundtrack, which features works by Olivier Deriviere, Yuzo Koshiro, Motohiro Kawashima, and other wonderful composers. While playing it for the first time, I found myself repeating how much the music pushed me to keep going. Having Chow Time, one of my favorite tracks in the game, blaring in my ears while getting through Chinatown, had me super pumped when usually I would be feeling so exhausted by playing a video game for this long.

After my 3 hour run, I was able to finish the game, feeling satisfied and happy that some of my friends were able to experience it with me. But, after sleeping on it, I looked into how it really made me feel. Having people after my characters for wanting a better change, but having both resident citizens and police push you out of those odds to even let you think about doing things differently. This is a reality that has been very much real all my life, mainly coming from how I look and where I come from, forced to the conformity of being a “model” citizen to keep myself and others from getting hurt. While I’m so relieved to hear that this year’s movement and the help of this game helped you realize more on how copaganda dehumanizes people, I’m brought back to the question, “well, how many more people still think this way? How many more cycles of this do Black people have to go when they have gone through hundreds of years of this? How many more years of this are going to stay the same because people refuse to think outside their current influence, and stop pushing hurtful narratives from those different from them?”

This game gave me a flashy fun experience, where in a world on fire, I could beat up those who are hurting me. However, when you strip down the super strengths, the massive tasty turkeys you eat to regain health, the world shattering ultimates you pull to slash down your bosses, it’s still reflective of real life problems, but I can say this is a bit of a reach on my part. The SoR series still very much shows how much the police isn’t for the people, but your character isn’t as well, and that is something we both bring up and think in the same way, despite how differently this game made us feel. 

While I woke up feeling a bit emotional over the game, it is still a sleeper hit in my book. With the gameplay, the music, and the visuals, it all was so amazing to unveil for the first time and I wish I could experience playing it as if I had no idea what I had coming, one more time. Your letter helped me reflect on how positive and life changing this game can make someone feel, and ultimately helped me feel happy about carrying this game in my Game of The Year list. We’ll see what other sleeper hits we might run into next year!