[dessgeega]

this past week bombergames released their long-anticipated homage to sega's much-loved bare knuckle / streets of rage brawlers. play magazine ran a feature on the project a while ago -- stating, "some of the most hardcore sor fans became coders, artists and musicians at bombergames, the multi-national indie team responsible for streets of rage remake."

bomber's windows remake features redrawn sprites and gorgeous, remixed music. the stages branch through scenes from all three of the original mega drive games, and are populated with characters from throughout the series -- the player roster (two of whom are secret) is no exception. a generous options screen allows the game to be tweaked to play more like one game or another, and things like the time limit and presence of guns can be turned on or off.

the game includes an impressive list of features: two-player versus battles, a sprite color editor, volleyball mode (most of these unlockable). and of course, the capability for two players to play through the game co-op with (or without) usb joypads.

now maybe james will show us some of those streets of rage comic scans!
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[another coma]

yes, I played a few stages already, and I have to say I am very impressed with the level of polish.

projects like these, which promise improvements over the orginal titles don't often actually deliver on their promises, but my short time with this would prove it as an exception, I'd say.

edited for weird grammar
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[km]

Is there a torrent someplace for the game? I'd rather not suck on their bandwidth if I can help it!
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vi) RPGs (Role-Playing Games)
For adolescents; half-formed personalities roaming (in packs) in search of identity.

[luvcraft]

*starts "C&D letter stopwatch"*

aaand... GO!

At least I'm assuming it's unlicensed, since I see no mention anywhere of their having licensed it.

[Felix]

afaik, sega never bothered to renew the copyright on streets of rage, and we're up to 1991 now in terms of expired stuff, so at least the first one is probably C&D free.

[aderack]

You do realize that copyright lasts to something like eighty years after the death of the original artist, or in perpetuity for a corporation?

Yeah, it's kind of antithetical to the original concept of copyright. That's how it works, though.

Patents -- now they still have a sane shelf life. They're about all, though.

[aerisdead]

Eric have you read Lanark yet
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"Did you read that mr. ignorant new games journalist? YOU JUST DON'T FUCKING GET IT. "
-Alex Kierkegaard, better known as "Pikachu", irrationally responding to the wonderful gentleman who wrote the post you just read.

[Felix]

my fault - what is it that expires after fifteen years and makes things like home of the underdogs possible, then?

[BotageL]

Nothing, actually. They just operate on the "boy I hope nobody tries to sue us" plan IIRC. Most of the time the companies that have the rights to these old games really don't care, but on occasion, they do, and HOTU will take the download link down when threatened.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[luvcraft]

[BenoitRen]

This remake must be lazily programmed to have a requirement of 800 Mhz...
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[Toups]

[BenoitRen]

I doubt that has anything to do with it when you can emulate Genesis/Mega Drive games at 200 Mhz. The system requirements would get even lower if you could run the game natively, looking at the system requirements of Genesis/Mega Drive games that were ported to the PC.
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[stotelheim]

No, no. I'm pretty sure it's the blast processing.
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go away extralife

[JamesE]

This feels a little... off. Blaze doesn't move like she used to on the Mega Drive, and the co-op mode seems pretty glitchy. I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but I doubt it'll get me away from my ROMs.

[Dracko]

Some of the sprites don't match up. Same gos for collision detection. And, well, the game lacks soul, to be frank. It's a lonely experience to me, feeling nothing like the bombast series it's based on.

[Takashi]

For the record, this game is pretty slow on my 800Mhz PC. This was coded in Fenix, what provably accounts for the overhead.
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low-end.net | Whimsy (soon) | Serfdom 2.0

[Balzac]

I'm sorry, but pumping techno music, swarms of enemies and more awkward fashion than you can shake a stick at is just about the antithesis of a "lonely game".

This could seriously be amazing if they just polished it up. Too bad that probably won't happen though. Why is it that these fan remakes always go through so much trouble to recreate the best aspects of a franchise, add a million stages/characters/gimmick modes, and then leave out the minute stuff that really matters like accurate collision detection and coherent sprite styles?

The fan remixed tracks are good stuff though. Does a nice job of capturing that early 90's house style that Koshiro was going for.

The cut scene art on the other hand, looks like something a bored high schooler would doodle in the middle of biology class.
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It wasn't homoerotic, but a girl did ask me how much metamphetamines cost, and if they were a powerup in any of the Super Mario Land games.

[Deets]

I haven't played any game in the series in about 4 years, which is probably why I thought this game was fucking sharp. I certainly didn't notice any collision detection problems. Color me impressed!

[Dracko]

[aderack]

This is the best game in the series. Were it not for the reused graphics, this could easily be the fourth game.

Despite being based largely on SoR2, it carries on the tone and feeling of the first game better than either of the official sequels. Hey, level interaction (including multiple paths, even). Return of fun tactile elements like the pepper shaker and the police "ninja magic" function. The ratio of fighting move variety to game length is way superior to the second game in particular, and probably the third one -- though I've not played that one to the end. Result: it's less repetitious than any of the earlier games (though again, in particular the second one). With the selection of (and distinction between) characters, multiple paths, multiple modes, and multiple fighting strategies (to the point where it's becoming actually strategic), there's no close end to the replay value.

All in all, hey. Damned excellent. This is all Streets of Rage could have been, and sort of meant to be. Though this may just be enthusiasm speaking, at the moment at least I swear it's the best 2D brawler I've ever played.

[aderack]

[JamesE]

Aderack, the first Streets of Rage didn't have level interaction besides a few pitfalls you could fall into or throw bad dudes into in the latter half of the game. If anything that didn't really go anywhere in the series until 3 with it's explorable time limited game-end-determining stage and the bit with the bulldozer and the walls.

As for repetition it goes from SoR2's first stage to SoR3's second stage in the first two levels. That's like doing a remake of Sonic and placing Emerald Hill right after Green Hill, really inexcuseable stuff.

I wouldn't dare complain this exists but there's a ton of slop between the neat ideas like the "off" character movement and the Guile "handcuffs" glitch seemingly being introduced to the series. They should have made their own stages up for front and centre with the tileset then added remade stages as an unlockable side. If they did that I'd maybe orgasm.

[aderack]

In the first game there also were moving floors and harmful machinery. The third game did follow up on this a lot better than the second, yes. Remake goes rather further, though.

Am I misremembering, or was there wind in the first game? As in that stage from Ninja Gaiden II?

I don't know about the level progression you mention, as I took a different path. The logic of the path I took was generally pretty solid, though. Go up stairs, wind up on the roof, be hassled by guys in rocket packs, try to take an elevator down yet it goes up instead; when you climb down, there's an inexplicable motorcycle stage to help the protagonists catch up with the people they're chasing; you hop from the motorcycles to the back of a truck... It flows pretty darned well.

Didn't notice any "off" movement or glitches. Then again, these things tend not to bother me.

[Deets]

I uh, actually took issue with the fact that you ride an elevator to the top of a building, then get an inexplicable cutscene in which you find a pair of motorcycles at the bottom. Especially since the stage before the elevator was on a rooftop. That definitely seemed sloppy. I agree with aderack's sentiments otherwise.

[BenoitRen]

I was talking about Genesis/Mega Drive emulation with a friend of mine a couple days ago, and mentioned the system requirements of Sonic CD and Sonic & Knuckles Collection, which are PC ports, and not emulations, which the Sega Smash Pack was.

Sonic CD:
Pentium 75 Mhz
8 MB RAM

Sonic & Knuckles Collection:
Pentium 75 Mhz (90 Mhz recommended)
8 MB RAM

My friend has the Sega Smash Pack, which according to him runs perfectly on a Pentium II 266 Mhz.

This Blast Processing is a cheap excuse. The Streets of Rage games are slower paced than Sonic games, even.
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[Deets]

I was under the impression that using "BLAST PROCESSING" as an excuse for the game's minimum requirements was a joke. Still. Who here has a computer shittier than the minimum requirements for the remake?

[Toups]

I can't believe anyone took my blast processing joke seriously.

:( at this thread.
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[The Drunken Samurai]

sup toups
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[100Proof]

Seriously... does anyone know how to rip the music? I always loved the SoR1/2 soundtracks (still have that Mars re-release of 2).

[BenoitRen]

[Pijaibros]

[Toups]

[BenoitRen]

[Toups]

Dude Blast Processing was a marketing term and nothing more.

I mean yeah, technically it does refer to something the genesis does but like, seriously, only a fucking ham-fistedly literal pocket-protector wearing magic-card-organizing nerd would use it in that sense.



Oh wait.

Never mind, this explains a lot.
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