Welcome to another episode of the Nintendo Power cast.

I'm your host, N64 Josh.

It's Wednesday, so that means it's our NSO Game of the week.

This week's game Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis.

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N64 josh.com/elgato Code N64 Josh at checkout Let's jump in some of the back story behind Behind Streets of Rage 2.

Here we go.

Breach of Rage 2 known as Bare Knuckle 2 in Japan is a 1992 beat em up developed and published by Sega the Sega Genesis.

It is the direct sequel to Streets of Rage from 1991 and brings back Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding while introducing 2 new playable characters, Max Thunder, a slow but powerful wrestler and Eddie Skate Hunter, the younger brother of Adam Hunter from the original game.

Development was handled by an ad hoc team made-up made-up of Sega, Ancient Shout Design Works, MNM Software, and HIC, with Ayano Toshiro serving as lead graphic designer and game design planner and Yuzo Toshiro composing the soundtrack.

The game was programmed by the same team responsible for the original Streets of Rage.

Upon release, Streets of Rage 2 received widespread critical acclaim and top sales charts for several months.

It is commonly regarded as the best entry in the Streets of Rage series, the best beat em up on the Sega Genesis, and one of the greatest games of all time, with its soundtrack frequently cited as one of the best in video game history.

One year after the events of Streets of Rage, Axel Stone, Adam Hunter and Blaze Fielding reunite in Wood Oak City to reflect on their victory over Mr.

X and his criminal organization, The Syndicate.

Axel and Blaze have since left the city, with Axel working as a part time bodyguard and Blaze teaching dance classes, while Adam has returned to the police force and lives with his younger brother Eddie Skate Hunter.

The piece is shattered when Skate discovers their home destroyed and Adam missing, with evidence revealing that Mister X has returned and taken Adam captive, Crime and violence quickly spread across the city once again, prompting Blaze to contact Axel for help.

Determined to stop Mr.

X and rescue Adam, Axel and Blaze are soon joined by Skate, who insists on helping save his brother, and Max Thunder, a professional wrestler and friend of Alex, who joins the mission.

The group sets out on a rescue operation that takes them through Wood Oak City and ultimately to Mr.

X's island hideout, where they confront Mr.

X and his bodyguard Diva.

Streets of Rage 2 features a single ending in which Mr.

X is defeated, Adam is rescued, and the heroes escape by helicopter.

Design and programming for Streets of Rage.

Two were led in key areas by siblings Ayano Koshiro and Yuzo Koshiro.

At Ancient, Ayano Kushrow served as lead graphic designer and one of the game's design planners, creating the visuals, character designs and combat mechanics, while Yuzo composed the music and also contributed feedback on combat design.

The team drew direct inspiration from Capcom Street Fighter Two, which they had in installed as an arcade cabinet in the ancient office, and its influence can be seen in the refined combat system.

The game was programmed by the same team responsible for the original Streets of Rage, with the improvements made to the Sega Mega Dr.

cartridge specifications to allow for additional features and increased memory capacity.

The soundtrack was composed primarily by Yuzzo, with three tracks contributed by Moto Hero Kawishima, and was created using NECPC 88 O1 hardware along with Toshiro's custom audio programming language.

The music drew heavy influence from electric dance music styles including house techno, hardcore techno and breakbeat, and has since been widely praised as revolutionary and far ahead of its time for bringing nightclub style electronic sounds into a video game soundtrack.

Streets of Rage 2 launched in December 1992 with a regional differences across its releases in Japan and Europe.

The game used Roman numerals in its title, while North America used Arabic numerals.

Several visual and content edits were made for Western versions, including adjustments to Blaze's flying kick animation and the removal of Mr.

X's cigar.

Character names also varied by region, with Eddie Skate Hunter, known as Sammy in Japan, and Max Thunder, named Max Hatchett in Europe.

The game supported the Sega Activator motion control and was demonstrated with his peripheral at CES in January of 1993.

Streets of Rage 2 was later released on numerous platforms, including Master System, Game Gear, Arcade Hardware, Dreamcast, PlayStation Two, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PS4, PC, and mobile devices, with some versions featuring notable differences in content and presentation.

Enhanced version titled 3D Streets of Rage 2 was developed by M2 for the Nintendo 3DS in 2015, adding stereoscopic 3D and new gameplay modes such as Rage Relay and Casual Mode.

The original game was added to Nintendo Switch Online's Sega Genesis library on October 25th, 2021.

Streets of Rage 2 was a major commercial and critical success across multiple regions.

In North America, it ranked among the top five best selling Sega Genesis games in December of 1992 and remained a top seller at retail retailers like Babbages through March of 1993.

In Japan, it was a top selling Mega Drive game.

In it was the top selling Mega Drive game in January of 1993 and placed 11th on all the format sales charts in its debut week.

Across Europe, it became the third best selling video game between 1992 and early 93, trailing only Super Mario Kart and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, while in the United Kingdom, it debuted at #1 on both both the All Formats and Mega Drive charts in January of 1993, and remain near the top of the charts for several months.

The Xbox Live Arcade version sold over 184,000 units by 2011, with player estimates later reaching hundreds of thousands across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, while the Android release surpassed 1,000,000 downloads.

Critics widely praised the game upon release, with many publications awarding scores above 90%, including a perfect score from Game Pro and a near unanimous and near unanimous acclaim from game fan reviewers.

Publications across the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom consistently described it as one of the finest beat em UPS ever made, praising its combat presentation and Yuzo Koshihiro's soundtrack.

Streets of Rage 2 also received numerous awards, including Best Game, Best Action Fighting Game, and Best Game Music at the Game Fan Golden Mega Awards, Best Beat em Up of 1992 at the Mega Reader Awards, and industry recognition from Mean Machines, Sega and Segaforce.

In 1993, Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded Streets of Rage Two Wait For It, the title of the hottest video game babe, recognizing Blade Fielding as part of the magazine's annual awards.

Streets of Rage 2 is one of those rare games where everything came together at exactly the right time.

The combat feels tight, the characters feel distinct, and the soundtrack still hits as hard today as it did in the early 90s.

Whether you played it with friends on the living room floor or you're jumping in for the first time on Nintendo Switch Online, it holds up for the same reason it always has.

It respects the player with all it respects the player.

With all that said, I want to hear your stories because this is one of those games that means something different to everybody all right, here we go here we go What's up, You guys welcome on in I see the clever is here cryptic naiding Nae, who else we got gamer Oreo cookie and anyone else Joey here we go here we go love it all right, so I want to hear I want to hear from from you guys on this.

What what 'd you guys think of this one?

I immediately like the moment I picked it up.

So being the Super Nintendo kid, not the Sega, not as much of A Sega Genesis kid like I didn't own the Sega Genesis.

I had a good friend who I spent a lot of did a lot of sleepovers playing Sega Genesis Streets of Rage.

Like I, I don't like distinctly remember playing this, but it would have been right up my alley because I was such a huge fan of final fight.

Apcom's final fight is is very much Streets of Rage.

So basically Max who you're seeing on the screen right now was very much Haggar from from a final fight and final fight I loved in the arcade was super bummed out when it finally got over to Super Nintendo.

It was one player.

I'm like, how do you how do you take a beat em up like this and make it only one player like it was?

It was such a huge disappointment.

So when this game immediately felt familiar, just just because of my experience with with Final Fight, the music stood out to me immediately.

I was like, yo, this, this is a bop.

All right, you're going to notice as I get a little further into the game, I think it's like the third level.

One of the funniest things that jumped out to me was the fact that one of the signs just said do it baseball.

And I was like what?

Like really?

And then another one said it's like Boo.

I think I was like, OK, well, I don't know.

I don't know what this means, but we'll we'll go with it.

OK, so taking a look at some of the chats here.

So Nadine Nay says a one of the best Cryptic says my review of this game.

Honestly, I always thought it was a great game because of its mystique, but playing it I didn't like it.

Oh interesting.

It felt very slow for a beat em up coming from Battletoad which was way faster.

What I do enjoy about this game was that it's not entirely just a beat em up.

It's almost a fighter where each character has their own combos to learn, which you've rarely seen back then.

Very, very true.

Very, very true.

So a gamer?

Oreo says What about Street Fighter, the new Challengers 2 for Sega and Super Nintendo?

Fantastic.

Yeah, great.

A great game is a little tough to play on the Sega controller with only three buttons, that's for sure.

So Nate, Natey, Nace is such a classic.

So many hours put into this game with my cousin.

I love that the clever says and people say Josh doesn't like reading.

Yeah, right, right.

Well, part of the thing with these, like with these, I, I want people to be able to come back and watch this years from now and, and get a good idea of what this game's history, you know, So the, the intro, the first, you know, 6 to 8 minutes, whatever.

I'll be going through the history of these games like that.

And then we can, we can chat about them afterwards.

So Nate says I can do a whole stream of Josh reading off a list of people that work at Nintendo and Sega.

Yes, of course, of course, as I try to mess up all their Japanese names.

I'm so good at it.

I think you're drawing said a bop and 64 Josh is 17 years old confirmed You know like 6-7 right.

They says the genesis had such such that feel from the moment the game turns on.

They got those funky bass lines, freeze of rage 2IN arcades.

Then at home the music slaps.

Nadine nay says yo, it really does.

It really does like I, I was, I, I was definitely and, and each level had such, had such great music.

Like there was, there was, it was unique and it, it, it added to the overall atmosphere.

Like I love the, the current level we're seeing right now.

Like I think it's level level two or three.

It's like you're in this alien club.

Like the there's those are like clearly Xenomorph eggs is what it looks like.

And the the music is just kind of eerie.

It matches with the boss fight and I loved how games another game I feel did an amazing job with that is super Metroid.

Super Metroid was another one that just really nailed the the music helped the atmosphere.

And even though this was just like a beat like a beat em up, you know where it could have potentially had throwaway music, the music was was incredible.

Like I was very, very impressed by it.

So I want to go back a little bit to what Cryptic was saying about the game feeling slow.

And at times, yes, it it very much it very much did feel feel a little bit slow, but it didn't bother me.

It didn't bother me because I was like, you know what, look at the size of these sprites.

The, the fun is still here that there were times that I was trying to like maybe if I, maybe if I press twice, you know, press forward twice, they'll Sprint a little bit.

But I, I, I didn't mind, I didn't mind the pacing too much.

But I think a lot of that too, like I, it, it felt relatively on par with final fight.

Like I haven't played final fight in quite some time, but they, they are a bit little, you know, a bit little slower, a bit more methodical.

And Max is obviously slower.

I played as Blaze a little bit later on.

She was, she was, she was a bit faster.

So that, that helped as well.

So, so, yeah, we just finished up stage 3 right there.

So you'll see in the background there's a sign that says Sega Stadium.

And then it says it's like, Boo, that's what that little yellow sign in the background.

And then like this poor guy on the bench, I tried to just smack him while he was sleeping, but I could not.

I couldn't connect the guys with the knives.

So annoying.

But look at those signs right there.

You guys do baseball, do baseball, that's it.

Do baseball like I, I think it had to have been some kind of a translation thing going on there, but do baseball just it, it sent me as I was, as I was playing.

I thought, I thought it was great.

One thing for me, it was super, super nostalgic.

Even just going into the Nintendo Switch Online app for the Sega Genesis and just hearing Sega, just hearing the way it start, I was like, yo, this, this takes me back and it honestly it I'm very thankful for the fact that, like I, I wasn't just a a super Nintendo kid, but I got to spend a lot of time with this system because Sega did some amazing things back with the 16 bit stuff like there was there was no question there games that that really stick out in my mind.

Sonic, of course, road rage was fantastic.

Road rage road rage 2 on the Sega Genesis was like top notch.

We've looked at some other games like Shinobi and gun Star heroes was another one that was just that we we played all the time.

It was it was so, so good.

And so that was that was super nostalgic for me.

Just just fire it up and listening to the to that intro in the gameplay right now.

I loved picking up the pipe.

Like if you guys have played final fight, you like streets of rage and final fight have got to there's, there's got to be some, some overlap going on somewhere.

Some somebody was taking inspiration from somebody else.

I, I, I have to look into the timeline to see exactly.

But like there's, I mean, even the move set of Max here very much Haggar.

So if I'm curious, which one, which one came out first and which one took inspiration from the other, because there's, there's very, very quite a few similarities with these with those two games.

Even even some of the enemies look fairly similar.

One of the things I really loved was the bosses and how like, you know, you had you had this wrestler that was very much a version of ultimate warrior from back in the day.

And then you had this this boxer that was it was giving bald bull vibes, you know, from from a punch out.

And then I think there's a there's a some some bigger guys that we're going to see coming up here.

They're so they're right out of final fight as well, like right out of final fights.

So let's see, let's see, Cryptic said.

Don't get me wrong, I think the series is great.

Streets of Rage 4 on switch is one of my favorite games.

Blaze is my character.

I chose the character I choose and my girl.

I love that figured our figure drawing says those signs AI bots did that they travelled into the past slop of the game.

Sad but true.

Let's see Joey says so was this or what was the original home system not like arcade beat him up.

So this this if you're if see, I don't know if you're messing with Nate or if you're asking this serious.

So I'm going to, I'm going to answer you serious, but it's the Sega Genesis.

It was this game did make it into arcades.

I don't know the order in which that happened.

I kind of think it came to home console 1st and then arcades later, which is is is not typical.

But based on what we were just reading here, I'm pretty sure it was out on home console and then and then hit arcades a bit later.

And it could have been one of those scenarios that was like the arcade version is the same version.

It's not there's not too many too many differences to it, but I'd have to look in a little bit further to find out.

So yeah, but I've just I I had a lot of fun with this and it was great.

It was great jumping back in.

So he said no seriously, was the OG like a beat em up game?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yeah.

So that's.

This this series is, is absolutely, I mean, just like we played Battletoads and, you know, beat em UPS were, were such a huge, huge part of my gaming past.

Honestly, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the arcade game was one that I loved not only in, in the arcades, but also at home on the NES and, and, and so, yeah, I, I immediately felt right at home with this, with this game.

I, I don't like, I really don't feel like I've spent a ton of time with streets of Rage.

Like I, I knew what it was, but it may have been one of those, one of those things that I'm like, ah, I get like this looks like final fight and I love final fight.

Like I used to play through final fight in the arcade, so and it, and it wouldn't take me too many quarters.

Like I got pretty, I got pretty good at final fights.

So Cryptic said ariptic said something about the Genesis made the colors pop for me.

Was this after or before the Super FX ship?

It have been around the same time, right around the same time.

This game may have had blast processing.

I'm not quite sure.

It may or may not have had blast processing.

I don't know.

So but yeah, the the colors really did pop.

The pixel art is absolutely amazing.

One of my favorite things about this game that I wanted to make sure that I mentioned playing as Max anyway, I don't know if it happens with every character, but he's so big that when you're punching 1 character, if another one gets up close enough to you, you'll actually hit with your elbow and can knock them back.

And I was like, Yo, that is so great because how often the whole the, the, the computer, like the AI is programmed to like try to get behind you.

And so to be able to hit them with that as you're throwing your arm back to throw a punch forward.

I was like, that's such a great detail.

Like I love, I love little details like that.

That's, I mean, we did battle Toads last week.

It's full of little, little, just little details, little, you know, the giant fist, the giant boot, that kind of stuff that just like adds, adds a bit of charm, those little details like that, the same, same kind of thing.

So let me see.

Let me see.

OK, Just you guys, you guys just talking, talking, talking trash to each other as per usual is what it looks like.

So but yeah, you're seeing on screen right now this, this, this wrestler very much looking like like The Ultimate Warrior.

And I kind of love that nod.

I also was getting annoyed he's suplexing me.

And then I finally was able to get a suplex on him and I'm like, OK, there we go.

But the health bar much bigger on this guy.

And I did realize too, like if he misses, he's kind of frozen.

And it gives me the opportunity to then to then grab him and and do that suplex, which was taking like 3/4 of his health like it was it was doing significant damage, which I thought was great.

So I I do want to hear from you guys just a bit more like any, any really fun memories of this game?

Anything that that you just you know, Friday nights 9 O Nate mentioned with his cousin.

Like for me it was it was overnighters.

I I can't remember for sure if if we if if this was when we play.

I'm I'm I'm fairly certain we probably rented it.

At least it wasn't one that he owned, So I know so.

So yeah, it may have been like a rental or something, but.

So I don't have any specific memories with it, but I do want to hear from you guys, Cryptic said.

Yeah, but like you Josh, Sega was a console I missed up until the Dreamcast.

It wasn't until we VC that I started dabbling in these games.

Oh, interesting.

OK, Nadine A said.

Fun fact, I had to get this game twice because I jumped off the bed and broke the cartridge.

No way.

But no way that's crazy.

That is.

That's some Nate lore right there.

I love that.

I think it's worth pointing out too, Like Blaze had way different animations with the knife.

He was she was swinging that thing around much differently than than Max was, which I think was also super cool, but cryptic.

It's interesting that you started dabbling with Sega on the on the Wii Virtual Console.

Like I think that's great.

I'm I'm I'm so happy that you you know, we're able to get back into it then.

I know at times it's hard.

Sometimes it's hard going back to the the older game, 16 bit, not quite as difficult like that was that was that was really kind of a a golden age for gaming and it it it really has in some cases hasn't aged, you know, not like 8 bit, not like 64 bit like the 16 bit stuff just kind of is almost like a fine wine, you know, and this game, this game was no exception.

Like it it it really does look great.

I I was so, so impressed just with the Sprite work.

So yeah, there.

Yeah, Nate says they're still making 16 bit stuff.

Exactly.

Yeah, Like what that neon inferno so good.

Like so, so good.

And yeah, this, I mean, it's it's very much just a classic arcade feel.

So Joey said this was my first ever Genesis game.

Never touched the app.

OK All right.

Well, that's good to know.

I, I think we're going to do, I think we're going to do a second Genesis game this week, you guys, I think we're going to do a second Genesis game and that game is going to be Gun Star Heroes.

That to me is peak, peak Sega Genesis.

So I think you guys are going to have a really good time with it.

It's a cartoony version of Contra.

In my mind, it is kind of a, a more cartoony version of Contra.

You get great gun power ups and they are, it is a really fun game, very action-packed, Cryptic said.

I don't know what it is about 8 bit and 16 bit music that always sticks with me.

Modern music, minus a few like Halo music doesn't hit like these classic games.

So there's there's something, there's it's, there's something, there's magic that happens when you have to work within constraints, right?

And so chiptunes, you've got to be able to write music that can play over and over again for 10 to 15 minutes straight without getting annoying.

Not an easy thing to do.

And so you've got to, you've got to like weave in these melodies, good bass lines, all this kind of stuff working within those limitations.

And a lot of time, that's where that's where the magic happens.

There's, there's a lot of people that would say that, that the best Nintendo magic happens when they, they work within those limitations, right?

Like the Game Boy and and the NES.

And that's when they, that's when they really, really would shine.

So Nate says the that minute, 31 minute 32nd loops over and over again.

Yeah, yeah.

And they have to be good.

They have to be good.

Or you, you will lose people, right?

It can be.

I mean, to give you one example, the game that Donkey Kong replaced, Radar Scope, the music and sound effects of that game were so annoying that bartenders would unplug it.

They didn't want to listen to it where this game I could listen to, I could listen to this soundtrack.

It was, it was that good.

It, it was, it was that good.

It was, it's an impressive, it's an impressive soundtrack.

No, no question.

And you know, you, you really get to see it.

It's it's like the Super Mario Brothers theme from the from the NES, like it's it just sticks with you.

Those those melody lines just stick with you because they had to be they had to be good.

They they had to be good.

You had to be good at writing like those those like Nate said those minute and 30 loops so that so that it wouldn't Dr.

Gamers crazy, you know and in in if you were if you were really good, like we saw here, your music is going to add the overall experience.

It's going to add to the atmosphere.

It's going to make things that much better, which is which is great.

Cryptic said Gunstar heroes nice.

I never played it, but whenever Sega is brought up, someone always says to play gunstar yes, Yep, that is that's what we're going to do.

You're going to have a great.

I can't wait to go back.

It's one that I used to we used to beat, we would beat it and go back to it over and over again.

It was it was really, really fun.

So Nate says it's like a it's like a high melody with a chorus part.

Yeah, exactly that, exactly that.

And it's it's fantastic.

So Nate says, I just love Sega so much.

It's it's good.

It it was it was good.

It was great to see the competition with Nintendo.

What's really crazy is to go back, watch like Console Wars on Paramount Plus and just to see the way the the execs used to just go at each other's throats.

It was wild, Joey says.

I'm playing Gunstar right now.

It feels very high death game.

So I don't know if we used to punch in a code for extra lives.

I I'd have to, I don't, I don't recall, but I know it was a game that we would we would play all the way through, but it was a game that we would.

I don't want to get into it too much, but it was fantastic to play with a friend.

It was so much fun to play as a friend.

And so I do want to figure out like, do we let's let's talk about it in discord guys, But I feel like a lot of these games are better in Co-op.

And so like, maybe, I don't know, maybe Saturday mornings or something are like a let's let's jump in and play NSO game of the week and chat about it together and discord, something like that.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure it let me know like what, what everybody's like schedules look like, because I would love to be able to, you know, streets of rage would have been great with friends.

You guys were were chatting about it last week.

So let's let's try to set up a a time where we can, where we can get some of these get some of these games together, because I think it would be a lot of fun.

So Nadine says everyone go listen to Toxic Caves from Sonic Spinball after the podcast.

Love it, Joey says.

But Speaking of Genesis, what game on NSO is a good platformer?

I want to try a Sega platformer.

That would be Sonic, yeah.

You want to jump into like Sonic the Hedgehog?

I think they have two on there.

Sonic 2, which is which is just amazing.

So, so good.

So that is going to do it for tonight.

You guys.

Thank you so much for hanging out.

I really, really do appreciate you.

And these are these are turning into so much fun.

I'm having a blast with it.

So I just appreciate everybody turning out and you know, it's like our our little our little corner of the Internet, our little gaming book club, which has just been it's just been a blast.

And if you're, if you're listening after the fact and you can't make it to the live stream, please jump into the conversation, leave a comment on Spotify, jump into the discord and and talk about these games with us.

Like, like by all means, we would, we would love to have you be a part of the of the conversation, even if you can't make it to the live.

So just I just want to make sure that you, you, you feel there's your invite.

All right, So you're welcome to welcome to jump in and hang out with that.

You guys, as always, play it loud.