The first Streets of Rage 4 gameplay trailer is a serious blast from the past

The retro-brawler Streets of Rage 4 was announced last August, and initial impression were good: A "late '80s punk rock aesthetic" as viewed through a '90s brawler that existed only in fantasy, we said in our September preview, with "a ton of beauty and promise." Now it's time for the rest of us to see it in action.   

The reveal trailer contained a brief flash of in-game brawling but this is the first full-on gameplay trailer to be released, and even though I was never a serious fan of the beat-em-up genre there's some pretty heavy waves of nostalgia coming off of it. The hand-drawn animations have come a long way from the series' early '90s origins, but the action looks very true to form. 

There's still no release date set, nor any information about what platforms it will be on, but there's a website with a press kit you can poke at over at streets4rage.com

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.