Forgive the lack of a decent intro. I'm here to look at Streets of Rage 2 romhacks, so let's get to them.
River City Girls... of Rage
Misako, Kyoko, Riki, and Kunio team up to crush Mr. X schemes once and for all. You're guaranteed a great time no matter which character you choose. Misako has a rolling dash that's perfect for bullying bosses. Kyoko's parry can smash pretty much everyone, including those damn Galsia's with knives. If you need oppressive strings and a long-distance attack, then Kunio is your man. Finally, there's Riki. He gets to follow up his piledrivers with air combos. That is so freaking awesome! Each character also has a full suite of techniques that weren't in vanilla SOR2, like a universal 8-way run and the ability to juggle. As far as the opposition is concerned, numerous major foes were replaced by bosses from River City Girls. It's a nice addition.
Clearly, this was a product of love. I'm especially fond of how several of the moves do multiple hits at a time. They add impact to every blow, and it's all so satisfying. The integration of the River City Crew is seamless, and none of them feel weak or underutilized. Poor Donovan though. Jumping attacks are so good here that his normally flawless uppercut tends to get squashed. Enemies tend to have a tougher time in general. They're basically combo practice when launched next to a wall. Professionals might want to bump the difficulty up to Hardest or Mania. Otherwise, enemies will die long before gamers can land some nasty combos.
Even if you're like me and never spent serious time with the River City Girls saga, this hack is still totally worth checking out. There is a little weirdness in the final stage. When you arrive at Mr. X's lair, you'll notice that he's not in his chair. In fact, he won't appear until after "Shiva" and several minions are defeated. Just something to keep in mind.
It's fair to point out that Streets of Rage 2 was at least partially inspired by Street Fighter 2. In this interview, Ayano Koshiro mentions that there was a Street Fighter 2 cabinet at Ancient, and several matches turned into brainstorming sessions. Considering how one influenced another, a hack that places SF2 characters in SOR2 just makes sense. However, this one is very basic. Max, Axel, Blaze, and Skate are swapped out for Zangief, Balrog, M. Bison, and Cammy. My guess is that Axel's moves were easier to adapt to Balrog than Ryu. Bit strange seeing M. Bison instead of Chun-Li in Blaze's spot though, especially since both ladies share a "fireball".
Besides the different sprites, there's only one feature that sets this hack apart. Cammy & Balrog are overwhelmingly strong with weapons. Somehow, the guy wearing boxing gloves can wield a pipe with such ferocity that swings do three hits instead of one. Cammy is also a pipe-pro but give her a knife and she becomes queen of infinite stabs. Trying to hold onto (overpowered) weapons as often as possible could be a neat little challenge.
Streets of Rage 2 - Doreamon
You know you're going to be in for a time when the introduction states "It's going to be a very difficult task to defeat the boss of the crime." Also, the hack outright bars entry to the options menu. Don't like playing on the Mania setting with 9 lives? Too bad. It's not like the big stack of extra bodies will help much, because this is a kusoge-hard Streets of Rage 2 hack. Enemies are as fast and aggressive as you'd expect, but team up in ways that are beyond cruel. For example, the second boss is two Jets... and an Electra. Anyone familiar with high-level SOR2 knows that Electra is an anti-air fiend. Pairing her with a couple of bosses that are mostly fought with jump-kicks? That's evil incarnate.
This probably wouldn't be a huge deal if Doreamon's crew was anywhere near capable, but... nope. They're replicas of the SOR2 crew, but with worse range and specials. Nobody gets any cool down-attacks that hit 6 times or juggle combos. Without fun stuff to exploit the opposition, the hapless heroes are bound to get overwhelmed. The greatest gamers (or users of save-states) could see some decent progress, but everyone else will be wiped out by the fourth or fifth stage.
Also, anyone who dares challenge this hack will be treated to earsplittingly absurd remixes of classic tunes. It's a designed to be a fever dream, a "what-if?" that never should've happened. Locking players out of the options menu (and thus the sound test and stage select) was a conscious decision to force them through the entirety of the madness. Frankly, I don't see the point. There's some creativity on display, but fighting overtuned battles with underpowered characters is not fun. I'd rather just check youtube and see if somebody else suffered through it.
SOR2 - Sonic Wars
I'm going to cut to the chase. Sonic is the star of Sonic Wars. He's like Axel with a spin-dash. On my first attempt, I made the mistake of using Shadow. Shadow takes Shiva's spot in this hack, which means he has an infinite jab, an infinite grab, as well as specials that don't cost health to use. This sounds overpowered until you take into account his pitiful reach. Seriously, the ultimate lifeform has a hell of a time hitting anything with stubby limbs. His forward-special is completely useless. None of the other characters fare much better. Knuckles, Amy, and Tails don't get any unique attributes or overpowered tech to build strategies around. Just pick Sonic, seriously. Having the best dash-attack and the ability to close distance quickly allows him to ignore the life-eating traps that populate SOR2's late-game.
While this hack is by the same creator as SOR2 Doreamon, the music hasn't been remixed into oblivion. Difficulty is set to normal & 3 lives. It sounds fair, but keep in mind that the hack is based on a version that seems to tweak enemy AI response time. A bad guy (or badnik) will perform a move the instant they're within range. Anyone besides Sonic is going to suffer against Electra, Boxer, and several others. Also, since every Galsia & Donovan is a robot, their reach is just as lousy as the heroes. Trying to fight human combatants is where the problems start to arise. All in all, this is a pretty amusing hack.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... of Rage
To be continued....
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