Streets of Rage 2 sneaks on to XBLA today

Most pleasant surprise on XBLA in a while. It's really interesting to see how awesome XBLA has been since about a month after Greg Canessa and that other XBLA honcho "left"/were told to GTFO back around February. I'll gladly grab both this and the HD Puzzle Fighter.

Nice downloads indeed.

Though for a very long time, I wanted SEGA to re-release/remake the STREETS OF RAGE trilogy... but after seeing how bad the recent Sonic games were(the 'ADVANCE' series being the last decent ones); let alone recent but small amount of "quality" beat'em up games actually make me glad they just left it as is.

Awesome. I might have to get Streets of Rage, a true arcade classic. The ease of the Achievements points will make or break this purchase.

The price is right on this, 400MSP. Ill be getting both of these today also.

Wow yeah, I absolutely loved Streets of Rage. They were at the top of my favorite list as a 2 player side-scroller during the height of the Genesis. I'll be grabbin' dis'.

Ah, Streets of Rage 2! Much of my youth was spent beating perps to a pulp with friends over this game.
Truly an excellent retro gem!

I too, wish they would release the trilogy somewhere... but.... would it get screwed up? Ex. some of the Sega Ages mess, Final Fight: Streetwise, etc.

great to find out about Streets of Rage 2...I had many fond memories and played it again from start to finish during a GameTap trial. Unlike other 16-bit games that I tried playing again (Ecco the Dolphin, Eternal Champions) it held up very well. Though I beat this game many years ago, sign me up to play it all over again. Between the 360 and the Wii I'm rebuilding my classic collection.

Here's some tips for the SOR newbs:

1. If you play as anyone other than Blaze, don't bother using the knife.
2. Max can attack in both directions with the pipe or sword
3. Attack+jump does a back attack
4. You can hold attack down for 2 seconds, then release, for a powerful hit
5. If you get grabbed by an enenmy, just use your normal special. Yes, you will lose life, but at least you take down the bad guy. You would have lost life anyway when he hit you.
6. If you get thrown, hit UP+Jump right as you land, you will land on your feet and take no damage.
7. Although Skate is weak, his FWD+SPECIAL attack does a LOT of damage and is easy to aim. Use it a couple times in a row to destroy tough bosses.
8. There are two different jump attacks: one where you just hit attack, and one where you hit DOWN+ATTACK. They can hit different kinds of enemies so try it out. For instance, the down attack knocks guys off motorcycles.
9. Never ever pick up a grenade.
10. Skate: Grab an enemey, then hit jump. When you are directly over the enemy in your vault, hit attack. You will throw the enemy in the direction you are moving. This kicks ass for crowd control.

Hope these tips help!

I really loved Streets of Rage 2, but it doesn't strike me as a game that will have aged well.

A truly wonderful side-scrolling beat-'em-up. I know we have brawlers in 3D these days, but none of them seem to capture the fun and intensity of these earlier games. Few are implemented with workable and tight controls; even with the relatively limited number of moves available in SoR2, it was (is!) a tight, fun, and engaging experience.

If you're too young to remember this game or have not had the privilege to try it, please give it a shot either on XBLA or VC -- you won't regret it.

Now...when is River City Ransom coming out? :D

River City Ransom?!.

*Mimic Homer drool,River City Ransom,ahhhh

That would be Nuking awesome!.

Best. Beat-em-up. Ever.

It's remarkable actually how well the game has held up.

this articles title sould have been "Street Date" asleep at the wheel or what?

Aw man, this is an awesome surprise! Definitely not expecting to see this one on XBLA today!

Anyone remember that game DJ Boy? man that was fun sh*t..

So very disappointing that Puzzle Fighter HD doesn't include an upgrade to the fighter sprites... they look like they just threw a cheesy filter over them and called it a day.

"Truly an excellent retro gem!"

Agree

Yeah, time to get my old puzzle fighter friends back for some colored gem ass kicking. We played the crap out of our PSone on that game. SPF2THDR!