Beats of Rage is an enjoyable arcade side-scroller in the tradition of Capcom’s Final Fight and the Sega Genesis Streets of Rage. Like these aforementioned games, Beats of Rage allows you to choose from one of three fighters (one man and two women) and proceed through a number of seedy-looking locales taking on hordes of enemy bad guys. For a freeware game, Beats of Rage has impressive graphics, sound, and music, and the animation is very fluid. Anyone who has played and enjoyed Final Fight or Streets of Rage will find themselves right at home with Beats of Rage, which looks and plays exactly like these two older titles.
Beats of Rage is an enjoyable arcade side-scroller in the tradition of Capcom’s Final Fight and the Sega Genesis Streets of Rage. Like these aforementioned games, Beats of Rage allows you to choose from one of three fighters (one man and two women) and proceed through a number of seedy-looking locales taking on hordes of enemy bad guys. For a freeware game, Beats of Rage has impressive graphics, sound, and music, and the animation is very fluid. Anyone who has played and enjoyed Final Fight or Streets of Rage will find themselves right at home with Beats of Rage, which looks and plays exactly like these two older titles.
The one disappointing thing that I found with Beats of Rage is that,
unlike the Capcom and Sega classics, there were no weapons to pick up and use. So there is no knife chucking, no cracking baddies over the head with wooden clubs, etc. This is disappointing, because some of these baddies do come armed, and I was smashed over the head with a lead pipe on more than one occasion. But with this gripe aside, I have to say that the game-play and graphics impressed me. Beats of Rage really does measure up with some of these older classics, and it is all that much more impressive that this game was developed and released as freeware.
Combinations are executed by rapidly pressing the attack button to unleash a chain of devastating strikes on your opponents. Also available are jump attacks, a “rage” attack that knocks all opponents nearby down (and saps your power bar) and grab attacks, which allows you to either trash your opponent in a clinch, or hurl him into onrushing attackers. The three fighters all have unique advantages and disadvantages. For example, the man is a hulking giant, whose attacks are ultra powerful, but who moves like a slow, lumbering dinosaur.
The two women also have unique qualities. One of them is super quick with long chain attacks (but inflicts less damage), the other seems to be a well-balanced cross between the other fighters. This is consistent with the other fighters from Final Fight and Streets of Rage, and you will find the goons and bosses you fight to fit this bill too (including the ridiculous names of some of the baddies you fight).
All in all, Beats of Rage is a fun clone of earlier classic games from Capcom and SNK, and anyone who enjoyed these classics will certainly feel right at home with this one. Recommended!
