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>>Rafael Fernandes: The retrogamer community is quite peculiar.

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Not content to reminisce and discuss the great jewels of the past,

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many fans and aficionados dedicated themselves to personal projects,

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which are usually made without any financial or structural support to move on.

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There are hundreds of translations, hacks, patches, remixes, remasterings, anyway,

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various types of tributes to the games that provided so much joy in the past.

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Many of these projects end up stopping along the way,

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either for lack of support, time or motivation.

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And others, when you think that will not continue and almost forget that it ever existed,

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here it rises from the ashes and surprises everyone with a masterful job.

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It's the case of our review:

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the final version of Streets of Rage Remake, for PCs.

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The project, initiated in 2003 by a programmer named Bomberlink,

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intended to pay homage to this franchise unjustly forgotten by Sega in time.

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The idea would be recreate on PCs several classic elements of the series,

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plus add some new features, in a completely new engine.

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As he described it, the remake is a visual interpretation of the Mega Drive games,

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being created from an entirely new programming,

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that would simulate perfectly the gameplay of the original games

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and would update some things to bring a better gaming experience.

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The first beta version of the game was launched in the same year,

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bringing a great receptivity to the project and attracting more contributors.

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From time to time, new versions were posted,

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but only in 2006 is that the project would launch its most complete version, called 4.0.

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This version became a big hit, spread across several sites and social networks.

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Of course there were still some bugs and things to be improved,

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but still, the game was complete and well done.

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Since that time, many people had forgotten about the game, until now…

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The fifth version of the game is also the final,

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as stated by Bomberlink on his own site.

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And all credit must be attributed to him for having made one of the best games of all time.

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The game features 105 stages, remixed songs, various characters,

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enemies, a cool story, and many customization options.

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It's impossible not being better with that, right?

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When starting the game, the player can choose which stage to start,

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which is directly related to what kind of adventure the character will play,

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in other words, each of the four routes is inspired by a game in the series.

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In the middle of the adventure, there is the possibility of changing the path,

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in other words, if you're playing the stages of the first Streets of Rage,

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you can change to the stages of the second, and so on.

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Still, the design of the stages mix elements and bosses of the three games in the series,

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what is something really cool, because it brings some surprises for those who played very much the original games on the Mega Drive.

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And just as in version 4.0, there is the option to play with a computer-controlled sidekick,

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that despite having a very agile artificial intelligence that helps a lot in times of struggle,

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just gets kinda dumb in the final stages, losing many lives and continues.

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But if you are a forever alone player,

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you will surely need this help, because the game is quite difficult.

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The graphics are sensational.

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All the sprites of games in the series were reused, including those from the first Streets of Rage,

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that received some finishing touches and enhancements to stay at the same level of other games.

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There are several really cool visual effects, like explosions, shadows,

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transparencies and even a simple reflection effect.

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More enemies can appear on the screen at same time,

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without any slowdowns happening or something.

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All of this without requiring a lot from the machine, eh.

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The new scenarios are very creative,

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and even with some funny details, so to speak.

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Some of these new scenarios have depth issues, in other words,

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it is confusing when you have to go through them,

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but we can still live with it.

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It is worth remembering that with the Blood option enabled,

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the game gets more violent than any other Streets of Rage has been before,

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with even Galsias and Donovans mutilated flying around.

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It's not a Mortal Kombat, but…

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the first death always surprises!

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Along with these new scenarios, new challenges have been introduced during the game,

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like this one that requires quick reflexes…

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or this weird stage where the character controls a speedboat.

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In this case, while the idea seems to be very good,

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perhaps the execution has not been that good, huh.

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Anyway, this stretch of the game is still pretty fun,

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and it's a totally unique surprise in this game

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which is pretty much a mixture of what is best in the series.

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Who played the version 4 knows the great job done with the remixes of classic productions from uncle Yuzo Koshiro.

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In this case, the impossible happened:

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they still managed to produce better remixes!

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Almost all the songs of the series had a new version,

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and there are even totally original compositions,

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that owes nothing compared to the others.

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It is worth mentioning the work done on the songs of Streets of Rage 3,

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that despite not being the favorite soundtrack of many people,

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surely the remixes managed to further improve the experimental work of uncle Koshiro,

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and, somehow, these new songs have a much more organic feel than the Mega Drive originals,

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while still sounding as crazy as the originals.

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Note: this song may turn individuals handicapped, as we can see by the video.

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The sound of the game uses the SDL audio driver,

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which allows 24 channels of simultaneous audio, in addition to music.

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This means that the stages now have surround sound,

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various sound effects at the same time,

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and better use of the stereo space.

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So, I advise playing it with a hi-fi system connected at maximum volume,

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to give neighbors a new meaning to the words "hard beat".

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In summary, Streets of Rage Remake is a wonderful surprise,

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that every lover of old games, in other words, an old gamer, should play.

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The game has several alternative routes, secret modes, customization, unlockable characters

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and even a supposed editor of the whole game which I couldn't at least enable yet,

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but it already arouses a curiosity that generates countless hours of play due to the almost infinite replay factor.

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Undoubtedly, Bomberlink and his team deserve congratulations for this excellent blend of continuation with tribute

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that Sega could never do in its current state, huh.

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In times where people discuss whether it's worth paying for the original Mega Drive games,

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a hint: download this one because it's free!

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Free download of the game
bombergames.net

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Produced by Rafael Fernandes

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http://passagemsecreta.com