Streets of Rage 4: Anniversary Edition - PS4
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Completed 9th August 2026
I played and enjoyed Streets of Rage 4 when it was first released in 2020, which was before I started recording the games I had completed or retired on the How Long To Beat website.
I do not buy many DLCs for games, but ever since the DLC was released for Streets of Rage 4 I have wanted to play the it for a while, I just never bit the bullet and purchased it. Now, I suddenly felt was the time to finally dive into the DLC provided in the Anniversary Edition of the game, so I bought on copy of the Anniversary Edition on the PS4 because I heard that the DLC was on the disc and not only available as a download.
The DLC included 3 new characters to play as and offered a survival mode where new moves can be unlocked for the extra characters and the characters included in the base game.
Well, the Anniversary Edition was delivered through the post and I am sad to say that my same data from my original copy is not compatible with the Anniversary Edition. I do not know if this is because my original copy is the Limited Run American version whereas the Anniversary Edition is a European copy - maybe regional differences mean the saves are not compatible. I did read somewhere that the Anniversary Edition and standard edition are treated as different products, so the saves would not be compatible. By this logic even with the same region the saves are likely not compatible.
I was hoping my saves would transfer to the Anniversary Edition as in the standard edition I have unlocked all the characters of the base game and I was hoping that I would be able to dive into the survival mode and unlock extra moves for the characters I had already unlocked.
So then I thought I will likely just purchase the DLC from the store and so I did, but I never even thought that because I was purchasing it from a European account it would not work with an American physical copy and of course it would not download the DLC.
After trying to log into my PlayStation account on the PC - it would not log in, but I eventually managed to log in on a 3rd browser after trying on 2. Thankfully, I managed to request a refund and it will hopefully go through.
Well, after all that it looks like I will have to unlock all the characters again if I want to fully take advantage of the DLC, hey it is a fun game and I do not mind playing through again - I had three characters that I had not played through the story mode to do anyway!
2nd August 2026
I started playing the Anniversary Edition today, and rather than start the DLC straight away, to remind myself of the mechanics of the game I started the story mode with one of the base characters that I had not completed the in the story mode.
I played and completed the story mode with Axel, story mode does not take too long and probably takes approximately 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. At the end of the story completion I managed to unlock the Streets of Rage 1 pixel version of Axel.
While not bad to play, Axel, is quite slow and not as fun as some of the other characters - I remember the last time I played the base game and I was more a fan of playing as Blaze, just like the retro titles, she is fast and has some great kick moves.
I think the music for the Streets of Rage 4 is incredible, I even sometimes find myself listening to it during sessions in the gym, but the developers also added in a retro option for the audio. This means that you can play the story mode and listen to the classic Yuzo Koshiro, which is great as an alternative when playing the story mode multiple times with different characters - there, surprisingly, is even the odd 8 bit track from the Game Gear games!
After completing the story mode with Axel I started some of the DLC, specifically, the survival mode. The survival mode is a randomly generated each time you play it and the more and more you play it you have the opportunity to unlock new moves for each character and can use the new moves in other modes such as story mode.
I am not normally a fan of randomised games, but the survival mode in Streets of Rage 4 Anniversary Edition is amazingly fun. The further your character survives you can unlock perks that will help you as survival mode goes further - and you only have one life in the mode.
Perks include, abilities such as lighting or fire added to certain moves, increased jumps and increased defence. On this day I also played as Adam in one level on the story mode. Adam is the 2nd base character of 3 that I have not completed story mode with, so I hope to complete story mode with him the next time I play the game. Then after that I plan to beat story mode with the 3 character that came with the DLC.
Another cool factor to survival mode for long time fans of the series is that some of the randomised battles will take place locations from the Mega Drive era and the graphics will be displayed in a retro style. For example you could be fighting characters in an arena from Streets of Rage 2, whilst fighting enemies from Streets of Rage 3 as a Streets of Rage 1 pixelated character with the classic soundtrack from the retro games playing in the background - it really does authentically feel like you are in the classic games for a moment in time.
4th August 2026
These past few days I have been playing a lot of survival mode and I have been unlocking extra moves for some of the characters. I still have yet to beat the story mode with Adam, but I have played a quick few levels and I am now on stage 8.
I have unlocked all of the Streets of Rage 1 characters and have unlocked their extra moves by playing as them in survival mode. (The Streets of Rage 1 characters only have one move you can unlock while most of the other characters have four unlockable moves). I also unlocked one of the pixelated Streets of Rage 2 characters, Max, and I have unlocked one of his moves through playing as him in survival mode.
5th August 2026
Today I finished playing story mode as Adam and I only have one of the base characters left to complete in story mode - then I will have the 3 DLC characters left to play as in story mode.
6th August 2026
I unlocked the final Streets of Rage 2 character and the Streets of Rage 3 version of Axel. I also completed story mode with Floyd.
9th August 2026
These past few days I have been enjoying playing through a lot of survival mode and have unlocked a number of moves for each character. I have also beaten story mode with all the DLC and base characters.
I have unlocked all the characters of the game including Roo who can only be unlocked by entering a cheat code.
I have also been playing some levels in the Mania difficulty, and while I am admittedly not amazing at the game, I have had an absolute blast with Mania as this mode adds in more enemies, which makes defeating them all more satisfying.
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| The moves I have unlocked in survival mode for each character so far. |
I now consider Streets of Rage 4 Anniversary Edition as a completion, because I have beaten the game with all the available characters and I have unlocked all the hidden characters. I will occasionally come back to the game and play a quick round of survival mode and try and unlock all the hidden moves eventually - but for now I am finished with the title.