Streets of Rage 4 celebrates one year of skull-crackin’ mayhem, Max Thunder coming in Mr. X Nightmare DLC

Happy Slammiversary

[Update: Sometimes it just goes this way. At the exact minute this article went live, Lizardcube announced that Streets of Rage 2‘s star wrestler Max Thunder will be joining the SoR 4 roster as part of the incoming Mr. X Nightmare DLC. Check out the new trailer below. Sorry ’bout my damn luck.]

Today is the first birthday of the fantastic brawler sequel Streets of Rage 4. Yep, that’s 12 whole months of pavement-pounding, nose-breaking, croissant-eating chaos, as Axel, Blaze, Cherry, Floyd, and Adam take matters into their own hands, treading the mean streets of Oak Wood City to liberate the people from the evil machinations of The Y Siblings.

It was such a long wait, but it absolutely paid off. Co-developers Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Lizardcube delivered a gorgeous looking, great sounding, and slickly playing action title, packed with character, style and, most importantly, depth. A worthy successor to the Sega Mega Drive originals, and a fine way for any video game fan to kill a few hours, Streets of Rage 4 is a must-play, and is on track to get a whole lot better.

The development team has released a few short clips taken from the upcoming DLC expansion “Mr. X Nightmare.” Specifically, the footage features our first glimpses of new roster member Estel Aguirre in action. Having spent her life behind the badge of Oak Wood’s law enforcement, Estel has finally seen the error of her ways, and will join our heroes in dishing out a measure of street justice to the city’s nefarious gangs, as well as the crooked cops who turn a blind eye to the plight of the innocent.

Alongside Estel and Max’s arrival, Mr. X’s Nightmare will include the titular survival mode, while a free update for all players will bring alternate character colors, new bone-breaking moves, a “Mania+” difficulty setting, new tunes from Sonic Mania composer Tee Lopes, and a dedicated training mode — offering a special arena for players to perfect their flashy, triple-figure combos.

One year on from its impactful launch, Streets of Rage 4 is showing no signs of retirement. As long as villainy walks the streets, our crew of time-tested vigilantes will always be needed. Time marches on, people age, joints stiffen. But evil never rests, and neither will they.