Genre: Brawler
Developer: Dotemu
Publisher: Dotemu

The Super Turbo "HD Remix" Yahoo Flash game graphics style feels like a million years ago, a distant nightmare-- and yet from "Rayman Legends" to "Monster Boy", it still haunts the industry, in need of a ghost buster or two to vanquish its ectoplasmic loathsomeness. Its latest demonic possession has taken place, the victim this time being Sega's much beloved "Streets of Rage" series. The real-time lighting, smooth framerate even on Nintendo's meager hardware, and "Street Fighter Alpha 2"-esque reflective puddles betray some underlying technical chops-- but it's not enough.

Another visage from the past marks his ghoulish stamp on this effort: none other than childhood pianist and teenage video game music wizard extraordinaire, Yuzo Koshiro himself. Like the spirit of a samurai who stuck a knife in his belly as the industry burned around him, he's back-- and this reviewer for one would have never even noticed, so forgettable is this mostly French-composed soundtrack. In truly blasphemous fashion, there is even dubstep and orchestra in a pair of the tracks: those should have been bare-knuckled right out of town on a bus as the game underwent final review.

If there is one holy shibboleth that the series has stood stalwart by from day one, it's in the area of its trademark gameplay. In the options, behold: a setting to restore the Genesis button scheme-- and it's off to the races. True, the punches and kicks don't create the same sense of impact as the apex brawler of all-time, "Streets of Rage 2"-- but it's not too bad. This time around, enemies can even be juggled in mid-air, even off the walls! But what's with the bombardment of enemies? As if to panic-rebalance things, the stage designers started throwing out food items like a jack-knifed "Lunds" truck.

If this isn't the brawler-equivalent to "Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove!", then it's nothing: it's got art so pretentious it'd make Jonathan Blow blush crimson; it gets player movement right but botches much of its outlying design; and it throws bones at disgruntled old fogeys by including unlockable characters from series entries of yore. But why throw the bone, and not the whole skeleton: why oh why not follow the path of "Sonic Mania"-- the one Sega re-imagining which got things right, in all of its "more of the exact same", Hi-Bit glory? As resurrections of lurid and cadaverous childhood memories go, this latest "Streets of Rage" is in need of an exorcism.