The first Streets of Rave feature focused on the music from the first two games in the Streets of Rage series for the Sega Genesis; iconic classics famous for their amazing soundtracks and awesome side scrolling fighting action.
Now Part 2 will focus on the music from two very different games, released more than two decades apart: Streets of Rage 3 and 4.
The music in the first three Streets of Rage games was composed by legendary game musician Yuzo Koshiro.
The game soundtracks mainly consist of, often experimental, chiptune-based electronic dance music, encompassing electronic genres such as electro, house, techno, hardcore, jungle, ambient, breakbeat, gabber, noise, and trance.
If you haven’t heard the music from the first two Streets of Rage games, here are two tracks, one from each game, to give you a sense of what they are like:
STREETS OF RAGE
STREETS OF RAGE 2
The soundtracks for the first two games were not only critically acclaimed but were considered ahead of their time, especially Streets of Rage 2. As advanced as SOR2’s soundtrack was, however, it was nowhere near as experimental or groundbreaking as the third game in the series.
STREETS OF RAGE 3
The third game in the series was quite controversial when it was released, not only because the graphics and gameplay seemed very similar to Streets of Rage 2, but also because of its extremely experimental soundtrack, which sounded nothing like the style of the first two games.
For Streets of Rage 3, composer Yuzo Koshiro pioneered using automatically generated randomized sequences, experimental hardcore “fast-beat techno like jungle” sounds, and trance music elements.
Honestly when I first played the game, the genius of the soundtrack escaped me. Perhaps it got lost behind the sounds of the punches, kicks and various enemy grunts. Or perhaps I was just expecting something similar to the first two games.
Whatever the reason, I was definitely in the hater-camp back in the day. However, listening to the soundtrack now, more than 20 years later and outside of the context of the game, it sounds freaking awesome.
As much as I love the music from the first two games, I honestly can’t imagine cranking the bass and blasting their soundtracks, but the third game is pure hardcore badassery.
Crank the volume and hit play:
STREETS OF RAGE 4
Streets of Rage 4 was released on April 30, 2020, more than 20 years after Streets of Rage 3 was released.
SOR4 was not developed directly by Sega, instead the Streets of Rage franchise was licensed by Dotemu, publisher of the well-received Wonder Boy remake, and they began development on SOR4 in the beginning of 2018.
Since SOR4 was not developed by Sega, regular series composer Yuzo Koshiro was not involved in developing the majority of the soundtrack.
The game’s score was primarily composed by Olivier Deriviere, with additional compositions from guest composers Yuzo Koshiro, Motohiro Kawashima, Yoko Shimomura, Keiji Yamagishi, Harumi Fujita, Das Mörtal, and Groundislava. The soundtrack is structured so that Deriviere wrote the primary themes, while each boss fight’s theme was written by one of the guest composers.
Sit back and enjoy SOR4:
YUZO IN SOR4
Yuzo Koshiro joined the project in June 2019 after playing a demo of the game at BitSummit, an indie game showcase in Japan. He cited fan requests and how well the game was coming along as his reasons for joining.
Ultimately Yuzo Koshiro contributed five tracks to the final game:
- The Main Theme
- Character Select
- They’re Back (stage 1)
- Mrs Y
- Mr Y
Listen to just the five tracks by Yuzo Koshiro:
COMPLETE OSTs
As the preceding playlists are highlights, and not inclusive of ALL the tracks from SOR 3 & 4, if you want to hear the complete soundtracks, check out the following playlists on YouTube:
STREETS OF RAGE 3
STREETS OF RAGE 4
APPLE MUSIC / SPOTIFY
Even better than the playlists available on YouTube (although they are great) are the albums for Streets of Rage 3 and 4 available via Apple Music and Spotify.
APPLE MUSIC
SPOTIFY
Gamatroid 