Uploaded August 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Streets of Rage 2 is one of my all-time favourite games, it’s one of those titles that I can happily come back to and replay over and over again. It is the best of the SOR trilogy. Originally released in 1992 in the US for the Genesis and 1993 for the Mega Drive in the rest of the world, it also received different ports to the Master System and Game Gear as well as being available in various Sega compilation packs.
Just like the other games in the series, this is a 1-2 player scrolling beat em up which sees Blaze Fielding and Axel Rose having to defeat the returning Mr. X and his evil organisation who have captured Adam Hunter. But joining them this time is Skate (Adam’s younger brother) who is the fastest fighter and Max who big and strong, but lacks speed. Whilst the game only has one ending this time around it’s longer and better in every single way over the original Streets of Rage.
Graphically the game is a distinct improvement on the original with bigger, more detailed sprites and plenty of nice little effects scattered throughout each level such as the rain on level 1, the fog effects in the caverns and the falling elevator in the stadium. SOR 2 looks fantastic with each level being colourful and very varied from a pirate ship, an arcade (complete with Bare Knuckle machines) before finishing up in Mr. X’s mansion. It also has a brilliant soundtrack from Yuzo Koshiro.
Game play wise it is very similar to the first game – which is no bad thing, with a three button attack system, A for the special move, B for attack and C for jumping. The special attack no longer sees the police turn up and blow up the place, instead each fighter has their own special move which unfortunately takes away some of your life, thus I never bother using it. However each character has another special move which doesn’t take away health, which I would recommend using. For instance my favourite character in this game is Axel Rose, if you press right, right and attack then he does a powerful uppercut – you’ll want to use this as much as possible if you want to beat this game.
Overall Streets of Rage 2 is a Sega Classic, it is a brilliant game that is stupidly fun and I can’t give this enough praise.
If you're interested in seeing more retro or current game videos then feel free to subscribe or check out some of my playlists:
Atari ST: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzF1WNCk2yjFs9SNEZUf6o3
Sega Mega Drive: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzY6iR6W6cRsFRt7zUlgHIE
Sega Master System: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfySbjh71hXweL28cqu-DbR5
Windows PC: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfxkkqPP6dWcSarH94BPrbvr
Streets of Rage 2 is one of my all-time favourite games, it’s one of those titles that I can happily come back to and replay over and over again. It is the best of the SOR trilogy. Originally released in 1992 in the US for the Genesis and 1993 for the Mega Drive in the rest of the world, it also received different ports to the Master System and Game Gear as well as being available in various Sega compilation packs.
Just like the other games in the series, this is a 1-2 player scrolling beat em up which sees Blaze Fielding and Axel Rose having to defeat the returning Mr. X and his evil organisation who have captured Adam Hunter. But joining them this time is Skate (Adam’s younger brother) who is the fastest fighter and Max who big and strong, but lacks speed. Whilst the game only has one ending this time around it’s longer and better in every single way over the original Streets of Rage.
Graphically the game is a distinct improvement on the original with bigger, more detailed sprites and plenty of nice little effects scattered throughout each level such as the rain on level 1, the fog effects in the caverns and the falling elevator in the stadium. SOR 2 looks fantastic with each level being colourful and very varied from a pirate ship, an arcade (complete with Bare Knuckle machines) before finishing up in Mr. X’s mansion. It also has a brilliant soundtrack from Yuzo Koshiro.
Game play wise it is very similar to the first game – which is no bad thing, with a three button attack system, A for the special move, B for attack and C for jumping. The special attack no longer sees the police turn up and blow up the place, instead each fighter has their own special move which unfortunately takes away some of your life, thus I never bother using it. However each character has another special move which doesn’t take away health, which I would recommend using. For instance my favourite character in this game is Axel Rose, if you press right, right and attack then he does a powerful uppercut – you’ll want to use this as much as possible if you want to beat this game.
Overall Streets of Rage 2 is a Sega Classic, it is a brilliant game that is stupidly fun and I can’t give this enough praise.
If you're interested in seeing more retro or current game videos then feel free to subscribe or check out some of my playlists:
Atari ST: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzF1WNCk2yjFs9SNEZUf6o3
Sega Mega Drive: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfzY6iR6W6cRsFRt7zUlgHIE
Sega Master System: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfySbjh71hXweL28cqu-DbR5
Windows PC: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx4xxIIv8AfxkkqPP6dWcSarH94BPrbvr
