STREETS OF RAGE HISTORY - A MOVIE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY!

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Through 2019 and 2020 I uploaded documentary-style retrospectives covering Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Streets of Rage 3, Streets of Rage Remake and finally Streets of Rage 4. In this video we chronologically look at all of these entries in this feature-length documentary created from the assets of those videos. I hope you enjoy the ride!
Thumbnail Image Illustration Source
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[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

Before I publish this video, I apologise for the slip at the beginning where I say that Double Dragon was developed by Taito rather than Technos, I am aware of the slip and I am sure there are others in such a long piece made from old assets! My wife is currently in hospital where they are trying to induce labor. Sadly, due to COVID-19 restrictions I have not been allowed to visit for the few days she has been there, but fortunately they will let me in the building once her water successfully break. Hopefully, Big Daddy Top Hat is about to become a Daddy again tonight! I hope you enjoy this change of pace as I have been too stressed to make a true new video this weekend. Take care everyone and as always I appreciate your support!

[@makotoyuki345]

Don’t worry about it, and congrats in advance for you and your wife Now stay home and be a family man

[@thecunninlynguist]

Congrats on your new child!

[@mikewayda]

Thanks for the video Top Hat, just started watching and didn't even notice the slip, but I'm very psyched about this vid. Congrats to you and your wife!

[@jamie050585]

Hope everything goes ok !

[@AcornElectron]

Stay safe and keep up the good work fella. Hopefully LD recovers quickly 😉 and all is well with new bambino Top Hat.

[@Lord_Deimos]

I instantly dropped everything I was doing in order to watch this.

[@SOV724]

Me too and that thing was actually playing the SOR remake

[@garethsenglishchannel4094]

*picks up baby*

[@mikeconley6331]

Aye once I seen this title ( I’m a year late) I went right to it .. hands down one of my fav Sega games

[@IanF-FPV]

The history behind this series of beat em ups is so epic. Best yet.

[@kylereece1979]

1991. This game, Terminator 2 and Nirvana's "Nevermind". It wasnt 'till '92 when they hit my mind, but the impact is permanent. The Streets of Rage series is the greatest set of games ever. I dont keep up with new games these days, but this series still hits me every time. I think the third game is very underrated. Its grimy, greasy, grungy. It smacks you in the face if you try to befriend it by luring you into fighting yer way thru the easy setting, only to troll you with a half ending. Its soundtrack is chaotic, disorientating slabs of hardcore techno and strange beats. Its not as easy to get into. But its a worthy, amazing final fight for the Megadrive outings. The second game's multi colored, superdreamed trance tuned addictive action is some of the best gameplay ever had. This is a brilliant story covering the games history. Well done.

[@leonjohnson1824]

Growing up, its was nothing better than whopping ass to a nice soundtrack.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

We're in a bit of a resurgence of the Beat em up genre. I'm here for it.

[@azure8696]

Indeed

[@docsavage4921]

Two worde: Open Bor. Been out for a long time now, and scratches that beat em up itch. Formerly a Streets of Rage parody that was repurposed as an engine for whatever fighting game you can imagine. Plenty of Double Dragon clones, of course. Someone made Marvel character based beat em ups, of course. Then there's the unexpected gems, like a remake of SNES Legend of the Double Dragon, called Return of the Double Dragon, and a sweet Masters of the Universe game (A personal favorite, they nailed the look and feel of the 80's cartoon)

[@RobertPayne556]

Also try River City Girls, and 9 Monkeys Of Shaolin.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@RobertPayne556 River City Girls is fucking hilarious!

[@docsavage4921]

@@RobertPayne556 And Charlie Murder. River City Ransom inspired a lot there, such as upgraded stats.

[@sagittarius420cheefie]

Streets of Rage 2 had the best Sega game soundtrack.

[@Invidente7]

If there's one videogame series that deserve a 90 minute-lenght documentary that is without a doubt Streets Of Rage. I hope you covered those rare sonic the comic series where Axel uses guns!

[@RobertPayne556]

Love that comic. I also liked the Computer Warrior series from the Eagle comics.

[@neilmcdade608]

The entire SoR series, including SoR Remake, has been so important to my life. I've called SoR 2 one of my top 3 games ever since it was 1st released. So many of my friends wasn't aware of the franchise I've loved so much. Thank you for such a deep and intriguing review of its history.

[@orlanzo2621]

This was AMAZING man, a full length documentary on my favorite beat em up series of all time! Excellent work.

[@shikarbabulall3897]

How ever Sega's Streets of Rage has the best music by far!

[@charlieomeara1856]

Your saying the 1st game has the best soundtrack? If so I actually agree!

[@Victory-in-YAHUSHA]

Pretty close. I like the soundtracks of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sparkster and Phantasy Star IV even more.

[@koilamaoh4238]

Sega did produce some interesting sound bits with their games which I enjoyed listening to, compared to SNES(which I barely remember much, only the FinalFantasy series.

[@sagittarius420cheefie]

@@charlieomeara1856 all three Streets of Rage games had decent soundtracks but I personally think that Streets of Rage 2 has the best

[@aubrijenkins2662]

All Sega games in the 90s had the littest soundtracks

[@ChrisEvans66]

Streets of Rage is a Sega classic with outstanding music and non stop beatem up fun. Love it

[@qwqwqwqw99]

I used to love Streets of Rage 2. That roller blade kid got picked so rarely that I almost forgot he was in the game. Im feeling all nostalgic about arcades now. Great content you have here.

[@yabbolabbo9913]

Yeah, I always pick axel and my friends will pick blaze or max, I forgot about him too

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

@@yabbolabbo9913 When me and my cousins played we rarely to never picked Axel. Skate got a lot of play as did Blaze.

[@javaar123]

That’s why representation matters in games because white people don’t use black players lol

[@jacobmorris6357]

I always picked Skate or occasionally Blaze, and my brother picked Axel and occasionally Max.

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

I still love Streets of Rage 3 and own the original hardware and game, it’s the best Mega Drive game by a wide margin.

[@Juice2Fifty]

Man, what an amazing documentary! I’ve been saving this video for a road trip. Thanks for keeping me awake and entertained during my drive. Yeeeeaaaaahhhh!

[@1upLeviathan]

Street of Rage 3 is actually my favorite in the series. I do think Sor2 is the best! The music in Sor3 is my favorite! The gameplay is very fast pace and exhilarating. I saw a translated Bare Knuckle 3 playthrough and Sammy/Skate using profanity surprised me! I wish the western version wasn't censored lol 😆

[@Mahaveez]

Fellow enjoyer of 3's OST here! I was just so unlike anything else I could hear as a kid living in a small hillbilly town, it just drove me wild. Learning that Koshiro made it intentionally inhuman-sounding really justifies the feeling for me. It wasn't comfortable, it was over-the-top. And that's just what pre-teen me needed.

[@rickyandreou]

Props man. Gotta respect the amount of time & effort it must have taken to put this together. It's always nice to see this great & somewhat underappreciated series getting its due. Ibfeel Streets of Rage 2 in particular perfected the great formula established in the original classic.

[@applejackpho3771]

I’m glad you mentioned how both Streets of Rage and Final Fight were hugely inspired by the movie Streets of Fire. Streets of Fire was waaaaay more popular in Japan than the US. Its soundtrack also heavily influenced the soundtrack for the cyberpunk anime “Bubblegum Crisis”. Uncanny how much “Victory” from BGC sounds like “Nowhere Fast” from SoF.

[@dexocube]

I went and watched that film recently because it kept coming up in reference to SoR, fun b-movie

[@RobertPayne556]

Streets Of Fire reminds me of both Akira and Renegade, mainly punks getting flying kicked off of bikes.

[@STP.83]

Streets of Rage 2 was my favorite video game for years, and Streets of Rage 4 is a even better game for me. This franchise is so important in my life, never getting tired of playing Streets of Rage games over and over again.

[@MegaCygnusX1]

Oooh another Top Hat upload and it's a monster! YEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

[@karlmueller1980]

A few months I bought the streets of rage for for myself and I’m loving every minute of it.

[@realjcoop182]

SOR 2 was my fav game growing up and SOR4 is such a great game. I love it.

[@thecunninlynguist]

Epic! Gotta watch this one on the smart TV. One of the best series, ever! So glad we got part 4...and I still hope one day that Sega lets Bomber Games make SoR Remake an official game, so we can play it beyond our computers. Such an amazing fan game..the Sonic Mania of SoR.

[@tiffanyreynolds4520]

Try Sor2x. It's aother recent fan game and it's pretty good. Also, SoRR had an update in December after like 7 years! kzbin.info/www/bejne/b563ZXyXa7d5rZY

[@ThaBossDjFes]

@@tiffanyreynolds4520 what? December of last year??

[@ThaBossDjFes]

@@tiffanyreynolds4520 I thought Sega shut em down??

[@RobertPayne556]

Last version I played was v5.3.

[@ThaBossDjFes]

@@RobertPayne556 awesome! Will check it out! Thanks.

[@TheClassicGameBoy01]

I always wondered how streets of rage was invented I am the same theclassicgameboy01 who watched your what's in the box stream on twitch today I have been watching your videos for a long time and this actually inspired me to make my own retro gaming channel on youtube

[@TheClassicGameBoy01]

I have actually been watching your channel for 2 years now and I started my KZbin channel 9 months ago but I was inspired by your work for a year before I started my KZbin channel

[@LobsterPuncher]

I really like this long format. I know a lot of work went into it too.

[@khyronbradford]

Holy shit this is amazing work! And congrats for the new family member!

[@FelixMuk]

I currently in hospital too so I know your pain. I will watch this once I'm back home though because hospitals aren't exactly the best place to kick back & relax.

[@kashantariq9987]

Amazing work, top hat! You're putting in the time and effort no one even dares of thinking about

[@s4tchm0j0n3s]

Streets of Rage 2 was my absolute favourite growing up. I remember vividly seeing it previewed on Bad Influence. I remember going away on a week long school trip and remember the excitement on the bus trip home knowing that it was waiting for me when I got back. I also remember the crushing disappointment of SoR3. It just didn't "feel" the same. Not least of all the soundtrack. Something just didn't feel right with it. Flash forward to now, and maybe it's because I could only play it solo, but SoR4 felt like a slog. I applaud the art style, especially the small lighting touches, but it felt like a chore to play through. Maybe because at times it relied on cheapness. Maybe as I said it's because I could only play it on my own, but it just didn't gel with me the way I wanted it to nor hoped it would. It tickled my nostalgia but it didn't excite it. If I were given the option to play through 4 or 2 again, even solo, 2 would still get my vote hands down.

[@hbk441]

I have found the same, nothing comes close to SOR2. the soundtrack was just on another level and still sounds absolutely fantastic. But it's everything the character design, the feel, the enemies.

[@GVGINU]

Congrats on the baby Top Hat. But I have to call you out for saying the sprites in SOR3 are exactly the same as SOR2. The sprites in 3 are far more detailed.

[@ChrisLT]

I already watched these as they released, but hell, I'm snowed in and I'll watch this whole thing!

[@CapoeiraBoricuaAyala]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Excellent work, mate!

[@AmazingSpider-Man]

Final Fight 3 is pretty much "Guy and Haggar meet Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding"

[@charlien6123]

Sonic movie kicks ass so we need sega streets of rage movie

[@QstormtheGod]

Streets of fire

[@patrickrutherford5553]

Love this channel! It’s the best place to come to hear fully thorough information and excitement about my favorite games. Been loving this channel for a while but dived back in because of the release of double dragon gaiden! It was awesome to hear how the game developers used your channel to inform them about how to create the new game! Totally awesome

[@zane_slade]

This is like a gift I don't deserve.

[@Fern672]

WhooaaaAa!!! Awesome

[@MrShadloo]

Ayeee, that's my artwork in the thumbnail, I love it!

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

Oh really! Awesome illustrative work!

[@MrShadloo]

@@TopHatGamingManChannel Thanks man, and great video my dude

[@sagittarius420cheefie]

That's cool

[@ikazuchioni]

Thank you for this gift Top Hat Gaming Man. I will watch it fully.

[@grantwileyesq.5962]

Streets Of Rage 2 is like Mario 3 in a way. Both being a perfect culmination of their genre!

[@davidbarge2699]

Wow! This was very well done! This was my favorite game on the Sega. Brings back such good memories. Thank you!

[@burymebreathing]

i love streets of rage. love your content on these games.

[@Snake-eyez97]

Im still patiently waiting on dlc characters or levels

[@orlanzo2621]

It's coming!

[@matiasjauhojarvi9551]

Amazing video. I like to listen to these kind of videos while working. It's great to learn the making of great games.

[@twiceonsundays]

Thanks for this vid! Been a life long SOR fan, so this is gold to me👍

[@scorponicdragonm.p.t.]

I love this channel and the research that goes into each upload. ✌🏾

[@sonicwma0105]

Congratulations on the baby

[@audi1982]

I'm glad you appreciate SO3 and I'm seeing more people appreciate it nowadays. SOR1 to SOR2 was a revolution but SOR2 to SOR3 was an evolution. I liken 2 to 3 much like Street Fighter Alpha 2 to Alpha 3. The music moved away from the smooth beats of SOR2 and this suits the SOR3's themes - darker and more gritty than previous games. The gameplay evolved from SOR2, characters are faster and more agile. They can run, roll and combos were faster. As a result the enemies and AI were cranked up in response. The character's new moves were incorporated into the stages bulldozer bonus stage, the timed stage etc adding much needed variety. SOR3 could have been a rehash (Golden Axe 2) or a mediocre sequel (Golden Axe 3) but SOR3 was a true sequel and should be appreciated for evolving the series and pushing the envelope hardware and gameplay wise.

[@jonrevere7446]

Thank you for this,I love it!

[@ExtraordinaryBoris]

I love your videos Tophat v.v Much success and revenue to you in the coming months. They help me fall asleep. such a relaxing voice

[@ginovavienne7581]

Love this, very well bloody done mate.

[@jaywrightesq.7730]

I love how BDTH just describes the characters as a regular kid would, not with the overly convoluted PC adjectives that some adults would use these days; A black guy, a white guy and a girl. Simple! 😅

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

I am commenting to ensure the algorithm notices, you're channel deserves a bigger push in recommendations.

[@TopHatGamingManChannel]

Yeah I agree, the moment I started doing live streams for 2 months my reach has been severely damaged, with them now cancelled I hope my reach one day returns :(

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

@@TopHatGamingManChannel Cheers for the direct reply. Sorry to hear the algorithm has damaged your draw, because your content deserves more views (especially something like this with so much work put into it).

[@anthonysloan2620]

Already liked and put on my platlist for later! Love the serious, loved the game. Gonna cook something slight and relax.

[@Tyler.O]

EXCELLENT REVIEW; thank you for the nostalgia trip on one of the BEST childhood games EVER. I had no idea there was a new one. +sub

[@PeterDarker92]

SOR2’s soundtrack was ahead of it’s time.

[@creativecatproductions]

I respect what it took to make this. Hats off to you Mr Top Hat

[@devonrichardson44]

Holy crap didn't know there was a movie

[@bluewolf8873]

This was awesome content

[@docsavage4921]

5.2 of the Remake was released recently, featuring WIDESCREEN *dun dun dunnnn!* Considering their website is actively supporting and updating the game, unlike other fan games such as Pokemon Uranium getting support from out of sight, I'd guess Sega has either changed their mind about changing their mind. Or they simply no longer care enough to shut them down. I'll say this about fan games: No one wanted Megablocks. Everyone wanted Legos. I love the Remake for what it is. I still plan on getting Streets of Rage 4 at some point (Just waiting on a sale, or whether I decide giving my credit card to Microsoft for the 1 buck demo of Xbox Game Pass is worth the risk that cancellation may be a huge hassle, involving talks with a help desk that speaks broken english).

[@ismailtroxler1]

Dr. Zan is a cyborg. Streets of Rage 3 brings back great memories!

[@Kay_Drechsler]

Awesome video about one of my favorite video games of all time.

[@AcornElectron]

Hopefully goes well for you. Good luck today! Don’t fret about us too much fella, priorities!

[@townlinetim876]

Great video. I really enjoyed it.

[@JikiJustinnn]

i was a real sega gen and a megadrive fan and street of rage,golden axe series were my first beat em up games even now i play sor4 and sor remake it gave me alot of vibes then newer games like sof 6 and other kind of new games, the pixel sprites were so good and music feels majestic i feel like we needed a street of rage 5(on my opinion)

[@TheGrossUncle]

Once the Streets of Rage 2 segment starts, a FLOOD of nostalgia hits...thanks for the video!

[@SuperHns]

the beauty is that SOR2 inspired and influenced Final Fight 3, FF2 was not that great.

[@cashordeals3672]

Bro if they have a streets of rage movie animated by the people that did 4 i would watch it

[@kadosho02]

Same same. The animation is fantastic. The flow, passion, and energy is awesome throughout. Those trailers made the wait & hype worth it

[@cashordeals3672]

@@kadosho02 indeed

[@charlien6123]

Live action movie or anime movie sega needs another sega movie

[@gisone79]

Incredible job!!!

[@Corey91666]

SoR 4 is an excellent sequel. I am glad we got it. I think sor 2 has better stages at times but the gameplay improvement is the outstanding feature of sor 4 to me.

[@gungriffen]

Just sold me Streets of Rage 4! I had it on my Steam Wishlist but went ahead and bought it at full price. Great video.

[@xafronicajones]

ur AWESOME mate! goodluck to u

[@hbq3000]

You know what they say when it comes to ign reviews " You can't spell ignorant without IGN"

[@mdjcsmith]

Would love to see some of these characters pop up again. Maybe even in Virtua Fighter

[@Jburneyjr]

Even thought I watched the original of each, wanted to watch the full story together. Great content.

[@getondese]

Best video of ALL TIME!!! Time..time..time

[@frankbluford2708]

It's Awesome to run into this. In highschool I made a hobby comic called Rookie. I had Blaze cameo ner the end of the comic with your signature combo and flip and her screen nuke.

[@IanWitts]

Amazing documentary! One minor thing (because I'm a retro gaming nerd), those bikers in Streets of Rage 2 aren't a first for the genre. The insanely good Target Renegade had them on the Spectrum back in 1988. 🤓

[@maziio646]

Fantastic video. now its time to play SOR 4 again

[@df1phantom]

"jack...with the knife" ahhh I see what they did there 😂

[@CZARCALIFORNIA]

This deserves 1M views

[@NobesBLO13]

And subs.

[@robinhatherall6779]

Awesome review. Can you please think about covering The Takeover?

[@stewietk]

Absolute tears of joy, I owe it to the love I have to Streets of Rage 2 , to purchase number 4 and also the travel of information I never knew SoR 3 existed

[@mikeyfn-a6684]

Christ this is a work of love. Hats off to ya mate! Oi! 🍻

[@darianstaruk237]

I remember renting SoR3 and losing interest in it after 1 day because of its difficulty. Conversely, my brothers and I would replay SoR2 for hundred and hundreds of hours. It was only the Sega Classics collection and the ability to rewind that got me interested in making another attempt at SoR3 (but I genuinely did not have fun playing it through).

[@daveharttify]

There's a recent update to remake, natively widescreen now

[@milankajan8492]

Achtuallllllly......... I like Ur work :)

[@G.G.___162]

Sega CD had its own port of the original Final Fight with all 3 characters & multi-player & everything the SNES version was missing (just for the record) But anyways, very well done full length documentary! I look forward to more of these!

[@docsavage4921]

Streets of Rage Remake is priceless for the fact of a playable Mr.X alone. The concept of bringing an automatic weapon to a street fight is HILARIOUS. Plus, the AI Buddy system lets you bring Shiva along, AI Buddies are one concept 4 should think about adding in.

[@Qtipz123]

Looks like SoR didn't hit its stride until SoR 2, but come on can we give a round of applause to Final Fight being the pioneer in Beat em ups.

[@docsavage4921]

Yeah, 1 looks simple, but its got that "it factor". Mostly because of the music, and pumping boss theme.

[@clancydowrca]

Yeah SOR2 is far superior!

[@paxhumana2015]

@Qtipz123, actually, that distinction should go to Spartan X/Kung-Fu/Kung-Fu Master.

[@stewietk]

Thank you so much 💕🤙🏾

[@daprodigy9529]

wicked video ...

[@JoeyJ0J0]

Streets of rage may be my favorite beat em up series, not a bad game in the bunch, even 3 was good despite some issues and bad localization

[@mykr0324]

Best beat em up series in my eyes. Alien storm is up there aswell. They just felt more fleshed out than others.

[@Ronnie06spartan]

Hope you do a review of the DLC soon

[@techromancer8387]

Please brother.....🐲 Double Dragon 🐲 deserves this amount of attention and consideration!!! Thank you so much for another heart-felt video!! 🙏🆙💯

[@cuiff62]

The most impressive thing about streets of rage 4 is that they tested the game with the analog stick XD

[@crissy4346]

Ahhhh Streets of Rage, and Golden Axe... My first arcade favorite. I previously loved Paperboy, and Frogger, but I was obsessed with Golden Axe. Of course the Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat came along, and the rest is history.

[@marlin1846]

streets of rage3 will also be my favourite title

[@gentleken7864]

As someone who grew up playing Final Fight in an arcade in the 80s and subsequently playing Double Dragon on my Amiga 600 I can say that Streets of Rage 1 and 2 were a seminal part of my growing up. Loved the first Streets of Rage on my Mega Drive. But Street of Rage 2 at that time was next level. The characters, the moves, the music too. Motohiro Kawashima and Yuzo Koshiro were behind an amazing soundtrack to the game. Expander being my particular favourite. I never played Streets of Rage 3 as it came out when I was a little older. But on my PS4 now, I bought the Megadrive Classics and that had all the Streets of Rage games on it and I after playing SOR 3 I found it to be a little boring and a little too hard and not really a upgrade on 2. Then I downloaded 4 and thought it was ace. The moves, the characters and also the fact that if there is a melee with a load of different baddies, there were certain moves that would get you decked by one character. In 1 and 2, you could walk diagonally and grab pretty much every one. There were moves that worked on everyone. But in 4 they got rid of that, which made you more careful about what moves you could use in certain situations. It kind of brought the game into the new generation of games, but not forgetting where 1, and especially 2 had come from.

[@Muddyres]

Wow sega genesis and I are the same age this is a meticulously made love letter and it has bought me so much joy and nostalgia