‘Streets of Rage 4’ iOS Review – The Best Mobile Beat Em Up Ever?
When Streets of Rage 4 ($7.99) came out for Nintendo Switch, I was amazed by how it looked, how it played, and how it sounded. Since then, I've played it more than once on almost every platform, and it's now on the list of games I install on all platforms so I can easily play them when I want to relax, along with Dead Cells, No Man's Sky, and whatever rhythm game I'm playing at the time. Playdigious's announcement that Streets of Rage 4 would be coming to mobile was great, because it gave me another way to play this masterpiece and let me see how this version of the game compares to the console and PC versions, as well as how it runs on Steam Deck. As I have done in my other reviews of mobile ports, I will compare the different versions.
In Streets of Rage 4, you start by choosing one of four characters to play as and starting the story mode. The cutscenes and animations in this story mode are very pretty to look at. Once you finish the story mode, you can use stage select to play any stage again. On normal, a single run through the story should take no more than four hours. But Streets of Rage 4 isn't done yet. It has a boss rush mode, an arcade mode where you only get one credit to finish the level like in an arcade, and more. There's more here if you buy the Mr. X. Nightmare DLC. I'll talk about that soon.
The stages have enemies, items that can help you heal, items that can help you get more points, weapons, and bosses. You can change how the healing items or food you can find work, which is a nice touch. What makes Streets of Rage 4 so good compared to other games in the same genre is that each character has unique skills, unlockables, and other things that make them worth playing through the story mode with. Even though some enemies are harder depending on which character you choose, the team did a great job of making each stage feel new by giving you a different character to play as. I love how the weapons work with your character and the enemies. You can also unlock a lot of throwback characters from the past as you reach certain points in your score. I'm surprised by how much fun it's been to use them.
Streets of Rage 4 for iOS lets you change a lot of the way it looks. Some of these are screen shake (which I turned off), brightness, button prompts (PS4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch), a filter to make the screen look like it has pixels or like a CRT display, and more. You can change the dynamic resolution, which is probably there for devices with less power, but the advanced options really let you play with the graphics. Here, you can use presets or change each setting on its own. On my iPad Pro (2020 model) and iPhone 11, I played with everything set to "ultra" and had no trouble getting 60fps. My first-generation iPhone SE, which has a small screen, is the oldest device I have at home. In some of the testing I did, I had to turn things down to medium or a bit lower to keep 60fps. It's not possible for it to be on Ultra or High. In an earlier build I had, there was a problem with the training mode. That problem has been fixed in the build I have now.
Given Playdigious's past work, I wasn't too worried about how Streets of Rage 4 would look or run on newer devices, but I was a little worried about how to play it. If you play Streets of Rage 4 with touch controls, there is a big analog stick on the left side of the screen and action buttons on the right. You can change where the virtual joystick is and how big it is, as well as where the action buttons are. You can even move the action buttons around and change their order. The controls work well on my phone, but after a few stages, I wasn't having much fun with the virtual controls on my iPad. I like to use a physical controller when I play these games on my iPad. I used my PS5 DualSense controller, which worked perfectly for almost everything except pausing. This small problem should be fixed in a future update, so that both the touch screen and the controller can be used on their own.
If you were wondering if it was worth it to get the Mr. X Nightmare DLC for Streets of Rage 4, the answer is yes. Compared to other platforms, the price of Streets of Rage 4 on mobile is a steal, and that goes for the DLC as well. This DLC adds new playable characters, like Estel, who looks great. It also adds a new survival mode, options for customizing characters, new weapons, and more. It makes a great game into a must-have. I'm guessing that selling it separately is to keep the price of the base game below $9.99, but I would have liked the game to cost $11 or $12 from the start and include the DLC.
If you haven't bought Streets of Rage 4 on any platform and are wondering where to get it, this is one of the few games that is great on everything. The mobile version has a lower price than the console and PC versions, but you can't play with other people online right now. The game runs better on new iOS devices than on Switch, but the Switch version is almost as good. It looks good everywhere. I've also had no trouble playing Steam Deck. In the screenshot below, the characters that can be unlocked are blurred so that new players won't be spoiled.
Playdigious is great at fixing and updating its mobile games, so I hope that the few menu interactions that aren't part of the game will be made easier to use with touch controls. I shouldn't have to use the arrows on the screen to scroll when I can just tap the menu item. If that doesn't happen, I hope the controller support gets a little better so that the PS5 DualSense controller can control the whole game and not just the game and some menus.
Streets of Rage 4 for iOS is a great port, and it costs a fraction of what it does on other platforms. I was surprised by how good it felt to play with touch controls and how well it ran on my iPhone and iPad Pro. I can't say anything about the online multiplayer yet, but Streets of Rage 4 on iOS is the real deal and a must-play if you like side-scrolling beat-em-ups.
If you haven't tried this type of game yet, Streets of Rage 4 is the best way to do so right now. Streets of Rage 4 is by far my favorite beat-em-up, so I'm glad to see it on mobile in such a great way. We hope it does well on mobile like Dead Cells did and brings a whole new group of people to this amazing game. It's hard to believe that it's been a few years since Dotemu's announcement trailer and that the game has done so well on all platforms, with its DLC, and now with an excellent mobile version. I can't wait for the multiplayer update to come out so I can play it online as well.
