Year: 2006
Platform: Windows
Developer: Bomber Games
Genre: Action/Adventure
Review Date: 1/13/07
Rating: ****

Superb! Pure gaming satisfaction! I haven't had this much fun playing a video game in a VERY long time. After Sega dropped the ball on the "Streets Of Rage" franchise ten years ago, a group of hardcore fans took it upon themselves to create the next installment, utilizing assets and elements from the first three SOR games. The results are astounding. Imagine "Streets Of Rage III" if it didn't suck. SORR takes the best parts of the series and reassembles them into a new adventure featuring Blaze, Axel, Adam, Skate, Max, and Dr. Zan. The SOR3 character sprites and move lists are used, and the original Japanese color schemes are maintained (meaning that Blaze wears her traditional red and Axel's shirt remains white). Even the controversial Ash shows up, who was removed from the American release of SOR3 for being just a little too gay.

Levels and enemies from all three games are thrown together, creating a welcome freshness as well as some awkward discontinuities. The entire experience is driven by nostalgia, and SOR fans will be thrilled by the amount of love and detail that was put into the game. Perhaps the most impressive aspect is the soundtrack, which features some outstanding remixes of Yuzo Koshiro's incredible original score, along with some new compositions. Great stuff. Now I just need to figure out how to rip the soundtrack onto a CD... Overall, if you're a SOR fan or an old school gamer, "Streets Of Rage Remake" is guaranteed to delight. If you're not, then you're probably not reading this in the first place.