Motohiro Kawashima Archives - The Greatest Game Music

Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack (Sega Genesis), Motohiro Kawashima / Yuzo Koshiro, 1992

Often enough, sequels to successful games or movies follow a predictable path – repeat the formula that made the first outing a winner, but make sure to tweak and polish your approach. If all goes well, the result is a product that doesn’t innovate, but makes a good thing even better. That’s precisely what happened with Streets of Rage 2. Its predecessor was a strong entry in the very crowded genre of early 90s beat’em ups. It didn’t stand out as a classic, though – but Streets of Rage 2 definitely got there. With nearly flawless gameplay and outstanding visuals, Streets of Rage 2 might well be the greatest beat’em up released for the Sega Genesis – and one of the entire genre’s all-time greats.

Streets of Rage 3 Soundtrack, Motohiro Kawashima / Yuzo Koshiro, 1994

By the time Sega got around to developing Streets of Rage 3, the company faced a bit of a conundrum. Streets of Rage 2 had left its mark on one of the most popular video game genres of the early 90s. It emerged as a true genre classic by making smart, incremental changes to the formula introduced by Streets of Rage. There was precious little left to improve, so where could the developers take the franchise with Streets of Rage 3? The answer: add a few new gameplay mechanics, change the game’s visual style somewhat, but otherwise leave well enough alone. Well, that last point applied to the Japanese version of the game. When ported to the West, the game’s difficulty was significantly cranked up, to the point of unfairness and frustration. Sadly, to this day, Streets of Rage 3 serves as a reminder of how not to localise a game.

[Read more…]