Shacknews Top 10 Games of the Year 2020

#10 Game of the Year 2020 - Streets of Rage 4

What an incredible year it was for games. There were strong contenders all about and it was no easy task to narrow it down to ten. But among so many graphically innovative titles and genre-defining games, Streets of Rage 4 stayed on folks' radar. And how could it not? This game is a once-in-a-generation brawler love letter masterpiece. It's got it all: Amazing hand-drawn sprites, an incredibly distinct art style, fantastic fighting mechanics on par with actual fighting games, secrets out the wazoo, and challenge systems that make it a blast to to pursue high scores and harder difficulties. It's also got a banger original soundtrack from top to bottom that incorporates classic franchise tunes into new electronica beats.

Streets of Rage 4 is both a modern masterpiece and relic of a bygone time. It's hard to imagine anyone will put this much tender loving care into another brawler for a long time, but if anyone does, we hope they treat their craft with as much passion, talent, and respect as DotEmu, Guard Crush Games, and Lizardcube poured into SoR4. We would also happily accept more Streets of Rage 4 in the form of Max Thunder, Estel, Shiva, and Roo DLC, please and thank you.

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.