The early 1990s featured a number of hot-blooded, high-octane action games, all in the overall “beat-em-up” genre of side-scrollers. The so-called “golden age” of this genre actually began in 1987 with the arrival of Double Dragon, which was quickly followed by the likes of River City Ransom, Final Fight, Batman Returns, and many others. One particular standout, though, was Sega’s Streets of Rage, which arrived in 1991.

Three young ex-police officers – Adam Hunter, Axel Stone, and Blaze Fielding – are the playable character options in the game’s story, which follows them through their attempt to take down a large crime syndicate that’s taken over their city. Bashing their way through wave after wave of henchmen, they attempt to restore peace to the city. However, there was an alternate ending, in which the player could actually become the new head crime lord instead.

Like other games in the genre, Streets of Rage had players squaring off against enemies that would come in from both sides of the screen, and eventually facing off against a boss at the end of the level. The game also allowed players to pick up and use weapons, such as knives and pipes, to use against their opponents.

The game was directed by Noriyoshi Ohba, who worked on a number of other major games for Sega, including Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Super Shinobi, Clockwork Knight, and Sakura Wars. The music for the game was composed by Yuzo Koshiro, who has since gone on to become one of the major games with regards to video game soundtracks. Koshiro’s portfolio even prior to Streets of Rage was pretty comprehensive, including soundtracks on such games as Ys, Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished, ActRaiser, and many others. While his work in the RPG genre continues to be extensive, he has also contributed to other games such as Shenmue, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and even Super Smash Bros. His work on Streets of Rage, though, remains some of his best-remembered.

Streets of Rage proved to be hugely popular, and saw a number of ports to systems including the Game Gear, Windows, and even the Nintendo 3DS. It has so far seen two sequels, though after nearly 25 years, it’s finally getting a third, in the form of Streets of Rage 4.