Saturday, November 27th 1993. I had become bored of Last Battle: Fist of the North Star and Shadow of the Beast. They were poorly-chosen Xmas presents a few months earlier and I wanted to swap them for something more worthy. I only owned said games for twelve weeks though it felt like eternity back then, but something more worthy was about to come.
I traded the games at a trading barrow in Falkirk shopping mall. The games I got in return were Golden Axe and Streets of Rage. Upon returning home I jammed in SoR and my mind was blown, first by the funky soundtrack and second by action. Here was a beat-em-up worthy of the arcade that was finally available on home consoles. As a kid, I loved this game. I played it a zillion times during Spring 1993. I used to play Axel or Blaze and whoever was Player 2 would be Adam and no matter how often we played it we never seemed to get bored. Then Streets of Rage 2 came out, and we quickly forgot that this one even existed.
You play as ex-cops Axel Stone, Adam or Blaze Fielding, who have quit the force in order to take on the bad guys in their own way. There are eight levels to work through in a run-down and corrupt city led by the evil Mr X. Beating up all the bad guys and the end-of-level boss is much fun, and the screen progression gives the game panel-to-panel comic book vibe. Level 4 (The Bridge) was my fave because you could chuck baddies down the holes into oblivion, and if you timed it right you could do the same on the elevator level, which was very satisfying. You even have the chance to become Mr. X's right hand man at the end of the game (at a price). This leads to the 'bad ending' in which you become the the boss of the syndicate. Exactly how this is possible is a mystery since you destroyed the syndicate on your way to Mr. X, but never mind.
Streets of Rage also has truly fantastic music. The composer Yuzo Koshiro did absolute miracles with the limited technology of the time. They are ALL standout tunes and classics in their own right, and fans will likely already own the vinyl soundtrack.
I am a proud owner of SoR, but when you also own Sor2 it does sort of render this one obsolete. The graphics are a little choppy too, but it is still one of the finer side-scrolling beat-em-ups ever made, and a bittersweet reminded of childhood lost in the storms of time.
Pros:
Average graphics but nice backgrounds represented in a comic-book like panel progression that fits the tone of the game.
Great tunes.
Easy to get into and hard to put down.
Cons:
Vastly inferior to the infinitely more complex Streets of Rage 2.
Poor enemy AI. Baddies often walk away from you instead of engaging in combat. This is especially infuriating with the Level 5 boss twins.
Lack of combo moves.
Lack of decent weapons.
Bad guy models are repeated far too often.