Streets of Fury EX Demo

Fighting games have not evolved an awful lot over the decades, mainly because they happened to stumble upon the perfect formula a long time ago. All you need in order to provide the players with a fun time are enemies, combos, and the possibility to randomly mash all the buttons for a win. Hence, people decided that it’s not even necessary for the genre to evolve to 3D graphics engines, because everyone would still enjoy the games even so.

Streets of Fury EX is a retro beat ‘em up in which you have to practically kick and punch everything that crosses your path, in order to reach the end of the path and take it from the top when the next stage begins. Naturally, the textures have much higher resolutions and the animations are a lot smoother, but even so, the game feels exactly how Double Dragon did over two decades ago.

In essence, the action takes place in Paris, where the city has been overrun with gangs sometime in the future. To deal with the sudden surge of crime and violence, the French government call the street fighters of America to their help. There’s no reason to ask questions like “Why?” or “How?”, because you won’t have to wonder about such small potatoes when a whole city is crawling with wrongdoers.

“Fury” is much more than just a cool-sounding word that looks rad when it is used in a game’s name, but it is also a gameplay mechanic. Hence, as your character manages to punch bad guys and not die in the process, he builds up fury, which can then be unleashed in the form of devastating attacks. Speaking of which, the combos can be executed using the century-old method of pressing the correct buttons in a specific order.

Naturally, no fighting game would be complete without the traditional boss fights, which are just as difficult and exciting here as well. The bosses are actually gang leaders and you get to face against them after you manage to clear an entire portion of the city, so you have to work your way to them. The game is that much more enjoyable when played with up to three other friends, thanks to the co-op functionality.

All things considered, Streets of Fury EX is nothing more than a retro classic brought back to life using modern technology, although you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell just by looking. Hence, if you are a fan of the genre and you do not mind a bit of humor, this is certainly a game that’s worth a spot in your library.