First of all, welcome to part III in my new series of blogs describing the games that I have enjoyed the most in my life as a gamer. Please check out the introduction to get a hang of it all and even-
tually take a look at part I and part II if you feel for it. This time around were gonna focus on yet another game (surprise) I loved back in the day and one of my favourite games of all time, Enjoy.

Let's kick this one of with a piece of music to get us in the mood, please.

"What was once a happy, peaceful, productive city, full of life and activity, has fallen into the hands of a secret criminal syndicate. The leader of the syndicate has somehow managed to keep his identity a secret. The organization soon absorbed the city government (anyone can be had if the price is right). They even had the metropolitan police force in their back pocket. Looting, random violence and destruction are rampant. No one is safe walking the streets, day or night...

As the chaos continued at full strength, three young police officers tried to establish a special attack unit. They were repeatedly turned down by their superiors, most of who had been bought by the organization or were too afraid to make a stand. One day, when they could no longer stand by and watch their city being demolished, they quit the force!

Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding decided to forego their careers in legal law enforcement and put their lives on the line. They are without weapons, but each possesses great hand-to-hand combat abilities. Take them into the heart of the city and battle the most dangerous wave of bad dudes and chicks ever assembled. Make the city a place where people no longer have to walk the Streets of Rage!"

If you haven't already figured out what game were talking about here is it (definetly) time to wake up and smell the sunshine. What you've just read up there is the plot of my favourite Beat em' up of all time, Streets of Rage for the Mega Drive II (Genesis) and undoubtly one of the games I loved and love the most. A game full of atmosphere.

Streets of Rage (or Bare Knuckle in Asia) was developed by Sega AM7 (Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi etc) and released by Sega themselfes in 1991 as an counter to the Snes version of Final Fight. I got the game a tad later though, along with my Genesis in the mid 90's (don't remember exactly) and was hooked right away. Actually it hooked two of us right away, me and my favourite "gaming partner". An old friend I still bring over to experience the coolest games (Especially Co-op) to this day. We were neighbours back then and when one of us had acquired a new game, we played it together. always. Streets of Rage was one of our favourites. We weren't older than probably 9 - 10 years old and picking up the character we felt suited us the best and taking out a whole town filled with punks, freaks, bosses and what not just felt awesome to us. The game featured 3 playable characters all with their own stats.

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Adam Hunter, a boxer, though a bit more slow than he's two counterparts. Adam is dressed in a yellow tanktop and something that looks like black leather pants. He sorta felt like a counter part to Axel and was my friends favourite character.

Axel Stone, martial arts specialist with blonde hair, blue jeans, white tanktop and a blue headband. And he loves video games! This was my character, don't really know why, just felt cool I guess. You might notice that Axel bears a strong similarity to Final Fight's Cody Travers.

Finally we have Blaze, the only playable female character. Faster than the two others, but also weaker. Dressed in a red tight suit this was eyecandy for two young boys haha. nah, cmon, nobody want's to be the girl : P

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Streets of Rage features one of the, in my opinion, most memorably and best video games soundtracks of all time. What you're (hopefully) listening to at the moment is actually "the theme song for SoR" composed by Yuzo Koshiro (Whom have also worked on some stuff for the new Smash Bros. by the way). The game spanded over 7 levels each with it's own track of music, everysingle one of them being dope.

The game was your 'standard sidescrolling Beat em' up game'. As said did it feature 7 levels, each different in look and ending with a boss. Our guys went to many different locations: From the dirty streets to the beach and even a big outdoor elevator. The levels were fun and varied and featured many different ways to take out the bad guys. Throw them into stuff, beat them with broken bottles, a bat or whatever you could find really added to the fun factor. You could even call the police for backup. They would then drive up in their Police Car and either fire a 'flame Bazooka' or 'Gattling Gun' based on which player you were. These attacks were ofcourse extremely powerful.

Besides your standard moves, which featured kick and hit combos, throws, *jumping knee strikes* etc. could you actually team up with your partner and do some (besides the feminine holds haha) sweet Co-op moves. Playing together in this game was fun and I can't count how many hours we have spent on playin' this game over and over.

Streets of Rage is a gem in my collection and I love playing the game, even this day. While the graphics looks quite bland (especially compared to the two other games in the series) and the game feels a bit dated, does the gameplay still deliver on every aspect. If you're into beat em up's and haven't tried this one, ever or for years..... and own a Wii, I certainly recommend spending the few bucks it costs on the Virtual Console and download the game. And oh, don't forget to bring over one of your good friend's. It sure won't dissapoint : )

- mnbskydoll