The Versus series returns for the first time in 2021 with a different kind of matchup. While the most common comparison when setting 16-brawlers side-by-side for the Nintendo and Sega brands, it's generally Final Fight vs Streets of Rage. I feel even if you do entry by entry analysis, Streets of Rage outclasses the Super Nintendo offerings. Even the arguably lackluster Streets of Rage 3, which came very late in the Mega Drive's lifespan, still is a more desirable play than the best Final Fight (in my humble opinion). So in order to really add some flair to this, Retro Reboot Vs is going to pit another retro brawling juggernaut into the ring with the Heroes in a Half-Shell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time against the God-tier bare knuckle requiem of the deadly battle, Streets of Rage 2.
Streets of Rage 2 was released in 1992 and developed by Sega, in association with Ancient Corp, a studio founded by chiptune composition master Yuzo Koshiro and released exclusively on the Sega Genesis. A direct sequel to the original, Streets of Rage 2 takes place a year later and is a significant improvement over the first in every capacity. The graphics are brighter, sharper, and more detailed. The controls tighter and improved upon, the music remains absolutely legendary to this day. Streets of Rage 2's replay value is among the finest in the genre, with intense boss fights and memorable stages. If Double Dragon laid down the groundwork for the quintessential brawler game, the Streets of Rage series crafted it to a fine art. The base build of Streets of Rage 2 was the very platform the independently developed game Paprium from Watermelon Games placed its foundation upon.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time was originally released in arcades by Konami in 1991 and would see its way onto Nintendo's gray and purple box powerhouse in 1992. A little modified from its arcade original, Turtles In Time proved to be an incredible port to the 16-bit console, especially since there never was a true port of the original TMNT Arcade Game until many years later. With its large, imposing sprites, great controls, intense co-op play, and awesome music, there's much to be satisfied with Turtles In Time. It came with some changes from its arcade counterpart, stages like Neon Night Riders and Sewer Surfin' were in some ways bonus stages. Bebop and Rocksteady and Tokah and Razar pretty much swapped places as bosses, as B&R were moved from the Technodrome to the pirate ship stage, Skull & Crossbones. The Rat King was also added as a boss in Sewer Surfin, I guess just to give Rat King something to do. And Shredder transforms into Kevin Nash in the final fight. The additions and changes give Turtles In Time its own distinct flavor, and probably in a few ways makes it more desirable to play.
GAMEPLAY
Both games excel in the controls department, facilitating both the simplistic nature of the beat'em up genre while providing enough satisfying special attack variety and a plethora of enemies to whoop on throughout your play. This comes from the distinct feats of each game's playable characters. In Turtles In Time, Leo, Mike, Raph, and Donnie each have distinct traits. Donatello has the longest range and hits the hardest, but has the slowest footspeed. Leo has good range, speed, and can deal reasonable damage. Mikey has short range, but his mobility and and power are solid, I think he's probably the best overall option (I am biased, Mikey is and always has been my favorite Turtle). Raph has naturally dinky attack range, but he's lightning quick. They have unique combos, throws, four different means of jumping attacks to hit airborne enemies and damage output.
I feel Streets of Rage 2 has the edge in this department, Axel, Max, Blaze, and Skate's feats are spread to provide a different flavor. Axel is a decent striker with adequate speed. Blaze has pretty average overall skills with no glaring weaknesses. Max is a total powerhouse who lumbers around very slow, and Skate is Rage's resident speedster and acrobat. Each character has two signature attacks that have inputs. This gives Sega's beat-down exhibition a little more of a flavor that resembles a fighting game. Grappling is also quite versatile, as you can switch holding/prone positions from the front or back, delivering a slam that can wipe out enemies behind you. Whereas some brawlers like Rushing Beat and Final Fight balances out character traits among three playable personas, Streets of Rage 2's roster feels slightly more distinct between simply choosing Average Guy, Fast Female Fighter, and Giant Who Suplexes. Advantage: STREETS OF RAGE 2
GRAPHICS
The Genesis may be an older piece of hardware than the beefier SNES, but as time went on, devs learned how to get pretty creative with Sega's hardware. That being said, Turtles In Time just bursts with color. Some frames of animation may be missing from the SNES port, but the use of the Mode 7 visuals are very abundant. In Neon Night Riders, the track takes a head-on Z-axis as Foot Soldiers careen towards you to wipe out. TMNT completely captures the look of the 1987 cartoon, along with the ability to toggle the graphics to resemble their comic book iterations or animation. With that feature switched on, the Turtles are without their pupils and the tone of their skin is darker. I think for its time, that's a pretty cool feature that likely would have been downloadable content were it released today.
Streets of Rage 2 is a graphical improvement, and doesn't run with any detectable slowdown, it's a smooth 60 frames per second. The Genesis may have had some graphical fidelity, but the console was capable of pushing sprites at a higher megahertz with hardly any lag. Eat that "Blast Processing", everybody, because we kids had no idea what that meant. Streets of Rage 2 has great enemy designs and stages, it does start to get very weird, as you go from battling Y-Signals in the back alleys to heading to the jungle to take out...Xenomorph eggs? Yeah, there's that point in any given brawler game where it takes a turn for the absolute bizarre. Rage 2 looks great, but I'm more in favor of Turtles In Time. Advantage: TMNT: Turtles In Time
SOUNDTRACK
What can said about the music in Streets of Rage 2? It's some of the coolest, most addictive 16-bit compositions I've ever heard in my life. The aforementioned Yuzo Koshiro lent his talents to many games across the PC Engine and Sega Genesis, with titles like the popular Ys series, a hit in Japan, and Sega titles like the Actraiser games and the Shinobi series. The mixes for Streets of Rage 2 blends electronica, including funk, house, breakbeat. It hits that magic number of being incredibly toe-tapping while also setting the blood-pumping mood for the game. There's good video game music, and then there's very ahead of its time.
Turtles In Time's music supervision was handled by Nozo Nakamura, who has worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games from 1989 to 1994, including Tournament Fighters and the NES port of the arcade game and The Manhattan Project. He's also worked on the Simpsons arcade game, and some of his tracks can be heard in Dance Dance Revolution. Turtles In Time has some incredibly catchy stage themes that captures the spirit of the animated program, as well as some arrangements of the arcade games that precede it. It's also hard to start a game, hear "BIG APPLE, 3am!!", and not have some fond memories conjured.
Very close for me, but Streets of Rage 2 is just slightly more iconic. Not taking anything away from Turtles. ADVANTAGE: Streets of Rage 2
For me, personally, Streets Of Rage 2 just feels much better overall. I love Turtles In Time, and invested a great deal of time into it as a child and an adult, it's not easy to waver my feelings on my lifelong adoration of the Turtles franchise and its games. Streets of Rage 2 is a fine example of how to make the greatest brawler game. The gameplay feels much more savvy and grounded, as opposed to Turtles in Time, which by its design, seems to cater a little more towards frantic button mashing. Nothing wrong with that, this is based on a quarter-munching arcade game. But that's probably why Streets of Rage 2 feels a little more polished. Being made exclusively for home console, there's a stronger sense of consideration for character movesets and game functionality.
Well, this is just my humble opinion. What do you think? Be sure to leave a comment, I'd love to hear which the community thinks is better.
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