PixlBit

Final Lesson

You’d think I’d let the last game I spoke of in my RetroSummer2013 would be a fitting end to another summer series of retro gaming. Yet oddly I couldn’t let that stand. It’s not that Chrono Trigger is an excellent way to end the summer, but there is one other game that fits that staple for me. Given any other summer Chrono Trigger would’ve been the final lesson. But circumstances and timing have come to pass that has compelled me to speak of one more game before I personally but this retro summer to a close. I started this RetroSummer2013 with a beat’ em up so it’s only fitting I end it with another one. It’s a game that any sega fan would be familiar with. A game series that mostly saw its start on the Sega Genesis, a game series that can stand among other famous beat’em ups like Final Fight, Golden Axe and Double Dragon. A game series that’s earned much love for not only its gameplay style but also its soundtrack, that game of course is Streets of Rage.

This game might seem like an odd choice for a summer title but for me this game fits perfectly as an “inbetween” game that borders on the line between a summer game and fall game. For me that’s mostly because of the first time when I played this game. It was another one of those “back to school” game titles I tried out after a hard time being back in school. It didn’t quite feel like the end of summer nor felt like the beginning of fall. This game to me seemed to bridge the gap between the two, creating a gaming environment that fit both the seasons at the same time. To me playing a game that’s setting for the beat’em up was a “corrupt, crime riddled city” seemed to fit my young ideal of those west coast cities that seem to experience in a perpetual summer season setting. Who can deny the feeling one gets when they happen to walk those city streets during the summer and yet oddly walk those same streets and feel the sting of a fall breeze blow thru? It wasn’t until I frequented the cities I lived nearby; along with moving to the east coast did I realize that the same could be said for all cities as well.

 

For better or worse, Streets of Rage was the game that gave me the impression that that was what cities were like. Places where no one wanted to live and had to deal with the scourge of crime and corrupt officials. It was a romanticizing of city living and genres for me when you got to play three ex-cops that decided to take matters into their own hands.  It felt so extreme, so desperate, so cliché that three individuals could literally clean up the city streets in one day (play through). This was during a time when all I knew of cities was from TV and movies with this game being my first interactive venue since I was too young to walk these “mean streets” myself. Kids nowadays can play/interact with actual virtual cities that pale in comparison to what was offered in games like Streets of Rage, yet for me it was enough to teleport me to those incorrect notions of what city life was like.

I remember playing this game with all of this running thru my head as I played level after lever as Blaze Fielding. Every stage felt like a fight to not just finish the game but to fight off the coming of the end of summer. A fight to hold onto what was left of the summer I enjoyed. The heat of battle, the struggle to survive, the moment of madness that kept things going no matter that the end was nigh. Every stage the game had to offer felt like a sliver of summer that would come and go. During all of this fall was here seasonally yet Streets of Rage made it feel like it was fighting to keep its dominance.

 

It’s that feeling I get when that particular moment of summer makes itself known to me. Not the end of summer but the fight to the end of summer. That’s what I feel when I have the urge to play this Genesis classic. Back then the only way I had to play this game was on my genesis. To this day I still have this game, though the original genesis I used was traded in a long time ago. For that could be seen as a personal sin given how the model 1 genesis had a better sound chip (along with a stereo headphone jack) than the model 2. But now I could have any choice in playing this game on virtually any system offered. This game is offered on current consoles either as a digital download or in complication collections with other Sega titles. In the past I’ve used complications to enjoy various other retro summer titles. Old Skool has never been easier to enjoy during this time in gaming. Yet for this game I find myself playing it on format that even surprises me.

 

As mentioned before I do have the original genesis cart but this year I find myself playing Streets of Rage in a version I never thought I’d try. Back when I did my last MyBuys blog I mentioned that I purchased Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective for the Sega CD. Yet I neglected at the time to show what was on the back of that Sega CD Case. If I had one would’ve seen that that particular game was actually a dual disc pack-in. On the flipside of Sherlock Holmes it contains the Sega Classics Arcade Collection 4-in-1, which among the four games, Streets of Rage being among them. You’d think if I was a purist I’d go with the sega genesis cart, I’d go with the game that I’ve played since the beginning. But unlike the cart this Sega CD version seems to have all that was originally offered with the sega cart version. There is no change in how the game plays, the music is still the same and there is no pause in between soundtrack looping (that I noticed). By all accounts and purposes this game plays just like the original, so then why would I rather play this than the cart. The answer to that is simple: the voice overs are done in CD quality. Like previous sega titles the sound bites for character voices were not all the best. This is no way a disrespecting of the sound chip that the genesis has for Streets of Rage’s soundtrack is one of the most memorable.

Sega fans know where I’m coming from on this one, with the spoken dialogue sounding more screechy than natural. The Sega CD version fixes this making the characters having better sound bites. For me this is no make or break reason to not wanting to play the original genesis version, it just makes the game just a step better than the original. Something I’m never thought I’d say when it came to this game. Thankfully the original soundtrack was left untouched. Though I’m sure some would’ve preferred a new arrangement of the original soundtrack to Streets of Rage (like what was done with Final Fight CD), I thought the developers of this port made the right choice in not fixing that was not broken when it came to the music.

 

Which leads me to the final reason why this game is a fitting end to my retro summer this year: The music, oh my the music. Words cannot describe the sheer enjoyment one can get when listening to this music while playing this game. There is nothing I can say that can help describe how this game’s music fits a summer theme so well. How could it not given the soundtracks influences from techno, electronic and house music. Even a mix of contemporary R&B and hip hop can be noticed. For some this music can fit any seasonal mood but for me it makes a better fit for a summer, be it at the beginning of the game or at the game’s ending. That being said if there was any doubt that this game could be considered a proper ending type game for the summer, all that one needs to do is listen to the music during the “good ending” credits of Streets or Rage.

It just seems to fit the mood perfectly to an end of not just the game, but to the summer as well. I could almost see myself standing somewhere in the city, on a bridge overlooking the city skyline as the sun sets over the city. Seeing the dying of the light to make room for the coming cold, the coming night, the coming darkness, yet despite all of this it was a relaxing, fitting end for all that came to be that was summer. Streets of Rage helps me rage one last time, rage against the dying of the light. A fitting end to this year’s retro summer, don’t you agree?

Class dismissed.

Ta-ta

“N”