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New Streets of Rage 4 screenshots. Looks like signature Streets of Rage.

New screenshots via IGN here including a new snippet of the game in action that looks right out of Streets of Rage 1.

fbOckAn.png


5FoKYNl.png


More screens at the link. Game is looking much better. Seems to echo those neon night streets that are signature Streets of Rage much more now. Love these. Thoughts?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Looks so much better in motion though, anyone in doubt should check out gameplay footage, that feels so right even if stills can look off given the art style decision isn't really in the same spirit (that would be like comparing old pixel art masterpiece fighting games like Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter III 3rd Impact to a game like Skullgirls or something I guess, they each do what they do real well).
ing-sor4-gif-1545351826464_1280w.gif
 
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DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
I want to see more of the game in motion before I make a judgment call. The screenshots do seem to capture the stark bright/dark contrasts of the Genesis originals, but in a modern game the action might get drowned out.
 

nkarafo

Member
Dunno what it is that makes these games look unnatural to me. Like 99% of mobile games. They look too clean or something? I always disliked that look ever since adobe flash games on Newgrounds were a thing.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Dunno what it is that makes these games look unnatural to me. Like 99% of mobile games. They look too clean or something? I always disliked that look ever since adobe flash games on Newgrounds were a thing.
I mean, this has actual hand drawn animations and stuff a la Skullgirls rather than cheap skeletal-like animation that doesn't take perspective in account and just moves separate limbs around...

Of course they have in general lower levels of detail because it would take them a year to animate a character's moves if every frame was like a detailed Street Fighter III character in HD.

I can appreciate pixel art and HD hand drawn art just the same as long as it's quality stuff in both cases. This doesn't resemble cheap flash games at all.


Well, the gameplay bits are few here so hopefully we'll see more with the improved backgrounds soon but as far as I can see there's no skeletal animation at all, all solid hand drawn frames for every move.

Either way lets hope it PLAYS great.
 
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Fuz

Member
Dunno what it is that makes these games look unnatural to me. Like 99% of mobile games. They look too clean or something? I always disliked that look ever since adobe flash games on Newgrounds were a thing.
Same.

Don't know how many times I already ranted about this cheap, shitty flash game style in these forums :D
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Should have gotten the mania treatment. Still haven't seen a beat 'm up worth playing after Scott Pilgrim. :(
Check out Fight'N Rage (the filters are optional of course), Mother Russia Bleeds and River City Ransom: Underground among others. None are perfect but neither was Scott Pilgrim to be honest, they're on par.
 
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Gotta see it in motion, but looks good here.
There's a video in the IGN link OP posted.

When we were getting into the 480P and up resolutions, I was really hoping hand drawn animation would take off, and there has been a few great examples like Warioland on the Wii, Cuphead, and a few solid indie titles. This looks 100 times better than the "8-Bit style" art that so many games seem to use. I would like to see more like this. I was just playing Streets 1, 2, and 3 on the Switch, and from the little bits shown I think this captures the same spirit the originals had.
 

Hanon

Banned
It's too warm-colored, sor is more like a dark neon light color,

Other than that, is there confirmation that Yuzo will compose the soundtrack.
 
Check out Fight'N Rage (the filters are optional of course), Mother Russia Bleeds and River City Ransom: Underground among others. None are perfect but neither was Scott Pilgrim to be honest, they're on par.

Oh I've played them all and you're right about Scott Pillgrim too but the only one I replay once a year is still the SoR trilogy.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Oh I've played them all and you're right about Scott Pillgrim too but the only one I replay once a year is still the SoR trilogy.
I can replay stuff like Battle Circuit, Warriors of Fate and Armored Warriors and such but yeah I see where you're coming from.
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
I like it, it is a cool looking game, but the art style of the character looks too too clean... personal preferences and al that...
 

Durask

Member
Tastes differ, I absolutely loathe pixel art.
With 2D games for me it is high resolution or no buy.
Yeah would rather have skeletal flash animations. :messenger_smiling_with_eyes:
 
D

Deleted member 738976

Unconfirmed Member
That beard still looks stupid on Axel.
 
I liked Lizardcube's take on Wonder Boy III, but the more I see of this game, the more I feel their flat, whimsical art style does not fit Streets of Rage. Sadly, I can't get excited for this game.
 

HoodWinked

Member
i think the "thing" that people are seeing when they think it looks bad/flashy is because the disparity between the animation of the sprites and the actual framerate of the game.

when characters move around, it could look as if the sprites are sliding across the play field or maybe they look disconnected from the character's positional movement vs its animation movement.

i changed the framerate of the gif above to reduce the disparity and you'll see sort of better overall cohesion. but the problem with doing this is that then game then has to run at a lower framerate.

(edited gif)
yloA4Tb.gif
 
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Mihos

Member
Still not a fan of the art, but will pick it up either way. I am too much of a fanboy to pass it up.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
i think the "thing" that people are seeing when they think it looks bad/flashy is because the disparity between the animation of the sprites and the actual framerate of the game.

when characters move around, it could look as if the sprites are sliding across the play field or maybe they look disconnected from the character's positional movement vs its animation movement.
That's not it, no, after all the old pixel art 2D games also run at 60fps (usually at least, stuff like Metal Slug are 30 I think, actually some stuff are 60 in Metal Slug, like a waterfall effect used in places, so the engine runs at 60, but even scrolling is done in 30 fps for some reason, a stylistic choice I suppose) but the sprites most definitely never had 60 frames for every second of animation... Or 30 for that matter. Or close to that. And they too have the sliding effect you mention more often than not (though the actual walking/running animation coupled with the character speed can mitigate that, but usually they don't care putting playability first). It would be ludicrous to expect that level of animation detail from any game not using skeletal animation, 2D or 3D.
 
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HoodWinked

Member
That's not it, no, after all the old pixel art 2D games also run at 60fps (usually, stuff like Metal Slug are 30 I think) but the sprites most definitely didn't have 60 frames for every second of animation... Or 30. It would be ludicrous to expect that level of animation detail from any game not using skeletal animation, 2D or 3D.

ya i already know that those games already ran at 60hz but they also ran interlaced and in low resolution on crt displays. the greater the disparity in all of the above factors matter.
 

Fuz

Member
i think the "thing" that people are seeing when they think it looks bad/flashy is because the disparity between the animation of the sprites and the actual framerate of the game.

when characters move around, it could look as if the sprites are sliding across the play field or maybe they look disconnected from the character's positional movement vs its animation movement.

i changed the framerate of the gif above to reduce the disparity and you'll see sort of better overall cohesion. but the problem with doing this is that then game then has to run at a lower framerate.

(edited gif)
yloA4Tb.gif
Oh.
Looks A LOT better in movement.
 
I want to see more of the game in motion before I make a judgment call. The screenshots do seem to capture the stark bright/dark contrasts of the Genesis originals, but in a modern game the action might get drowned out.

Agreed completely. Concerned that it will follow the template too much and will end up being a carbon copy sequel to SoR 1.

I am excited but keeping it in check as it could not animate the way we are used to. I don't mind a change in pace with the mechanics but it will have to feel "right" in terms of flow and movement.

I hope the difficulty matches 2 at least giving us more erratic enemies when you go from Normal to Mania.
 

Vlaphor

Member
Dunno what it is that makes these games look unnatural to me. Like 99% of mobile games. They look too clean or something? I always disliked that look ever since adobe flash games on Newgrounds were a thing.

Thanks to early flash games, when I see Sprite scaling or rotation without pixelization, I think it looks cheap. My first introduction to sprite scaling / rotation was the SNES so that's what I consider real video game graphics
 

DonF

Member
Awesome, this is one of the genres I miss the most. Part of my childhood was that simpson beat em up, xmen, golden axe and battletoads.
 
Awesome, this is one of the genres I miss the most. Part of my childhood was that simpson beat em up, xmen, golden axe and battletoads.
Same here. There were so many great beat 'em up and hack 'n slash games at that time. I miss stuff like Knights of the Round and The Punisher.

The art on this new game looks acceptable to me. If it has a good soundtrack and the gameplay feels right I'll pick it up for sure.
 

Stitch

Member
Thank god it doesn't try to look "retro" like a bazillion other (Indie) games in the last few years.
 

nkarafo

Member
i think the "thing" that people are seeing when they think it looks bad/flashy is because the disparity between the animation of the sprites and the actual framerate of the game.

when characters move around, it could look as if the sprites are sliding across the play field or maybe they look disconnected from the character's positional movement vs its animation movement.

i changed the framerate of the gif above to reduce the disparity and you'll see sort of better overall cohesion. but the problem with doing this is that then game then has to run at a lower framerate.
But this wasn't an issue with classic 16bit games. Almost all of them were 60fps but the animations were not smoother than what this new game has.


Edit: I think the "sprites" look too clean and flat compared to the backgrounds. It's almost like they are using a different art style for each. You can see some pencil lines in the shading of the backgrounds that makes them look like a comic book. Plus, they are a bit more grainy and have more texture/detail. But the sprites are too flat and clean, like a flash/mobile game. Also, the bolt outlines around the sprites are way too fat. Overall, the characters look out of place because of those disparities.

Yeah, it's kind of confusing, artistically.

Edit: Here is SOR 2:

Streets-of-Rage-2-USA-181229-005734.png


The sprites perfectly fit in those backgrounds as the art style is the same. Also, instead of fat, black outlines they have a slim line of whatever colors a sprite has, just a bit darker. The shading overall is better and there are much smaller surfaces with a flat color. Everything looks like it has a bit more depth.

As a bonus, the CRT TV adds those scanlines/pixel matrix that adds a bit of texture, making the whole picture look even less flat.
 
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Soltype

Member
I don't know what's causing it, but you can just tell something is off.They should have went the Sonic Mania route, sprites, fixed point math, the works.
 
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