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[B-Genius]

Great post, OP! I also recently got SoR2 on 3DS and share your sentiments exactly.
You described the soundtrack and "fever dream" aesthetics of the game perfectly. A true classic.

Here's something interesting: unused art commisioned for the European box art of the game.

Whoever drew this was probably the same dork who did the bald Max and blue denim shorts Blaze on the American box art.

Loving Gary Coleman there as Skate.

 

[oneida]

Stage 6 is brown and green amongst a game with vibrant backgrounds and locales. I'll give it a pass over all the trash level backdrops of SoR3.

poor reasoning
both games have terrific spritework

 

[chaobreaker]

poor reasoning
both games have terrific spritework

Can't deny that. I just prefer the cleaner spritework of 2 more. Can't deal with the excessively detailed sprites of 3.

 

[oneida]

Can't deny that. I just prefer the cleaner spritework of 2 more. Can't deal with the excessively detailed sprites of 3.

That's fine but pretending that one is objectively superior to the other is really silly

3 took a different direction, I think some of the stages look better than anything in 2 personally. The gameplay is a lot faster, there are more action setpieces and everything from weapons to supers got more interesting.

I get why people prefer the simplicity of 2 but if I were to spend hundreds of hours on a Streets of Rage game it would be 3, not 2
even these days I have to play as Skate as everyone else makes the game so slow

 

[chaobreaker]

That's fine but pretending that one is objectively superior to the other is really silly

3 took a different direction, I think some of the stages look better than anything in 2 personally. The gameplay is a lot faster, there are more action setpieces and everything from weapons to supers got more interesting.

I get why people prefer the simplicity of 2 but if I were to spend hundreds of hours on a Streets of Rage game it would be 3, not 2
even these days I have to play as Skate as everyone else makes the game so slow

It's not just simplicity that 2 has, but a more fine-tuned experience compared to 3. Enemies had much better AI in 2 and the smaller variety of moves demanded mastery of the ones you had.

 

[kess]

SOR2 is the more polished game but I still feel like the first game in the series the more iconic of the two - the lift leading to the last stage, with the 16-bit skyline rising in the background is one of the defining moments of Sega gaming. That's not to take away anything from the second game; the bar fight, the carnival, the baseball diamond are some of the best moments on the Genesis

The third game feels ambitious but unfocused, like a lot of games at the edge of console generations.

 

[oneida]

It's not just simplicity that 2 has, but a more fine-tuned experience compared to 3. Enemies had much better AI in 2 and the smaller variety of moves demanded mastery of the ones you had.

How was the AI better?

 

[Charlouie Jonesman]

Bare Knuckle 3 is the best game in the series, (Apart from the music...) while at the same time, Streets of Rage 3 is the worst. They really did the game no favors, when tinkering with the difficulty, color palette and story for the Western localization.

 

[chaobreaker]

How was the AI better?

This just from playing both games very recently but I noticed that enemies were less aggressive in 3 and were more easily punished with grabs when they get knocked down.

 

[blackoak]

Thanks for sharing that interview chaobreaker. I've been kind of busy and haven't been able to do my usual sharing/promotion, so it kind of went under the radar. There's actually yet another interview with the original SoR2 team posted at Famitsu last month. It has Ayano Koshiro, Yuzo Koshiro, Hitoshi Ariga, and some of the 3DS porters I believe. There's some new (and funny) info in there too, distinct from the interview posted at Ancient's blog, so I will try to get to it sometime soon.

I've found a good selection of contemporary Bare Knuckle interviews in my rifling, err, searching through the national diet library these last two weeks, too.

 

[Sapiens]

Can't deny that. I just prefer the cleaner spritework of 2 more. Can't deal with the excessively detailed sprites of 3.

I can appreciate the preference of SoR2 sprites, but man, did they ever put a lot of work into SoR3's sprite work.

In 1994, it was some of the best I ever saw.