snakeboy wrote:VideoGameCritic wrote:It's funny, I think I actually prefer Streets of Rage 1 over 2. Maybe it's the music or the characters, I dunno.
I prefer SOR1 also, and a big reason for me is the shorter levels. The levels in SOR2 are a tad too long for my taste. (One of the pleasant surprises for me of SOR4 is the fact the levels are surprisingly brief. For whatever reason I thought they would end up making huge levels that would drag on for way too long, but they're pretty much the perfect length).
I think you can attribute SOR2's levels feeling long for the lack of variety throughout SOR2. The level design is completely flat, if you were to have the same visuals in every stage of SOR2, you'd definitely see that 80-90% of the game's layouts are interchangeable, and it really doesn't help that most characters feel slow. The only thing that changes are the enemies (which isn't nothing since they have different behaviours, but layout is just as important IMO).
The biggest "trap"/hazards to spice up the level design it has is a conveyor belt section near the end, and that doesn't really change much.
SOR1 has pits in the bridge stage, crushers, and an elevator stage in which you can throw every enemy off the level.
SOR3 has cars, motorcycles, trains, pits, sideway elevators, a bulldozer section, two time limit sections... It has LOTS of stuff. Not to mention the gameplay has improved immensely in complexity.
SOR4's pretty much equal if not even crazier than SOR3 in hazards (there's a stage where you fight on top of a bullet train!) and improved even further in gameplay with the inclusion of juggles.
SOR2 is just downright dull and boring by comparison. You could argue that SOR3 & 4 have too many gimmicks, but SOR2 just doesn't have enough. It's to the point where even a "who cares" BTA like the first Sailor Moon game on SNES is competitive with SOR2 in quality just because the former aped the latter well enough. (and it arguably has more going on in the levels, even if it's not a lot). The soundtrack & visuals are what carry SOR2 hard and what push it over Sailor Moon, but as far as gameplay and depth goes, it's weirdly close.