My thumbs keep getting in the way of Streets of Rage 4 on mobile

It’s still a classic though

Streets of Rage 4 is arguably the greatest side-scrolling brawler ever made. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Personally, I’m still partial to Ninja Baseball Bat Man, but as somebody who’s sunk more than a dozen hours into cleaning up the streets of Wood Oak City, its greatness is easy to recognize. Not only did SoR4 help revitalize a genre that once dominated the industry, but it also effectively tapped into the beat ‘em up’s roots as the precursor to the modern fighting game genre.

Upon its release in 2020, the game was showered with glowing reviews and strong sales, moving more than two and a half million copies in its first year on the market. In July of last year, Mr. X’s Nightmare DLC launched, adding more playable characters, including muscle mama Estel Aguirre, and new modes aimed at those looking for a true test of their skills.

After releasing on consoles, PC, and even Stadia, the game is making its way to what will likely be its final major platform. Starting today, you can buy Streets of Rage 4 and Mr. X’s Nightmare DLC on iOS and Android.

I’ve been able to go hands-on with Streets of Rage 4 on my Google Pixel 6 for the past week and am impressed by what Dotemu and Playdigious managed to pull off here. This is the authentic Streets of Rage 4 experience. All the extraordinary art, action, and music of the original release have been exquisitely ported to mobile with little or no noticeable concessions. The vibrant streets of Wood Oak City absolutely pop on my Pixel 6 screen, but if you have a weaker mobile device, there is a cache of options you can adjust to make the visuals work for you. As for the gameplay, it is as tight as it’s ever been…if you’re playing with a synced MFi controller. It’s a different story if you’re using the touchscreen inputs.

I want to make it clear the developers did a decent enough job translating the original controls of Streets of Rage 4 to mobile. For the most part, the interface works well. You have buttons to jump, attack, special attack, star attack, back attack, and pick up weapons, food, and money from the ground. The controls are customizable, with options to increase their size, placement, and the gap between the inputs in addition to getting some control over the size and position of the virtual control stick.

However, after about four or five hours of playing with touch controls, I realized I kept running into the same two problems. The first has to do with the reliability of the control stick. Each character’s blitz move requires you to press forward on the control stick twice before hitting the attack button. This worked for me about 60% of the time with the game reliably failing to recognize my inputs in the direst of situations. The second problem is one that a lot of mobile games run into, and that’s your thumbs getting in the way of the action.

Curse these giant, cornfed thumbs

In some genres, like first-person shooters or platformers, it’s easy for the game camera to keep everything centered and away from your thumbs. Streets of Rage 4 is not like that, and if you’ve played on console or PC, you know how common it is to end up in the bottom right or bottom left corner of the screen, right where your thumbs would be covering up the action. Not only does this obscure enemies you’re trying to attack, but it can also blind you to new enemies moseying onto the scene. It definitely put me at a disadvantage midway through the game’s story mode. Once I was able to sync up my Xbox controller to my Pixel, I didn’t look back.

Over the years, the mobile platform has proven itself to be more than capable of handling a wide variety of genres with acceptable sacrifices. And I will say, I have played brawlers on mobile before that were perfectly suited for the platform. Streets of Rage 4 comes pretty damn close to greatness on iOS and Android, but the reality of how this game is played doesn’t exactly gel with the reality of touchscreen controls. If you don’t mind syncing up a controller to your phone or tablet, this is a great and inexpensive way to experience a modern classic.

Streets of Rage 4 will be available starting today on iOS and Android for $8.99. Mr. X’s Nightmare DLC is a separate purchase for $2.99.