Streets of Rage 4 Mr. X Nightmare Review – Grinding Grinding Grinding

Streets of Rage 4 finally has received some DLC in the form of a survival mode and training room, but is it enough for fans of the series who want more? Can Streets of Rage 4 Mr. X Nightmare make you pick that controller back up and take it to the streets again? That’s what we intend to find out.

Game Name: Streets of Rage 4 Mr. X Nightmare DLC
Platform(s):  PC (reviewed), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch
Publisher(s): Dotemu
Developer(s): Guard Crush Games, Lizardcube
Release Date: July 15th, 2021
Price: $7.99

Before we jump into this review, I have to set the record straight as I know there was some confusion about what this DLC is. If you’re looking for another campaign, you’re going to be disappointed as there is none. The story of Streets of Rage 4 was concluded, and you won’t get any continuation of that in this DLC. That said, if you’re all about seeing how far you can get in the newly added Survival Mode, or grinding out new moves and weapons, then you’re in luck.

Can you survive?

The meat and potatoes of Streets of Rage 4 Mr. X Nightmare is the newly added survival mode. Why a survival mode, you ask? Apparently, the developers of the game always wanted to include a survival mode for Streets of Rage 4 but wanted to finish the base game first. That out of the way, they set out to not only finally work on this survival mode but to make it the best they could. Which I think they’ve succeeded in doing.

The survival is simple — pick a character, and off you go as you try and attempt to handle the waves of enemies tossed at you. Oh, before I forget, everything is random. Everything! The levels, the enemies, the bosses you’ll encounter, the power-ups, everything! Along the way, you’ll clear out a level, and then you’ll be presented with several randomized power-ups. Some are great, a few have some sort of compromise, others flat-out suck. But again, everything is randomized, so don’t count on a specific power-up being available. Sadly, the RNG is a huge pain and I’ve encountered runs where the power-ups were terrible, I didn’t get much food, and of course, the enemies because super cheezy. As you can imagine, this gets frustrating, especially if you’re on an otherwise fantastic run. You’ll likely experience these runs as well.

There are two different survival mode options; A random sim and a weekly sim; both of which do the same thing as far as I’m aware.

As for the levels, yes they are randomized, but some also have gimmicks. For example, one stage has a massive hole in the middle, while the outside has electrified ropes that tend to flicker on and off. Great, as you can toss enemies around and off the screen easily. But also not so great as they can do this to you as well. There’s another stage with several wrecking balls that you can use against your enemies and yourself if you’re not careful. It’s all in the name of making your playing sessions harder. Personally, I’ve only made it to stage 20 and there are still more stages after that. There’s also a number of older Streets of Rage stages that have made their way into the DLC in addition to the new stages.

Take it to the Training Room

The survival mode isn’t the only thing added in this DLC, as a robust training room is also included. This training room feels like it was ripped out of a fighting game. Here, you’re able to change how many enemies can spawn, assign infinite star and special moves, the enemies’ health (helpful for creating new combos), and more. Take my heed, do not ignore the training room. While you’re off earning new moves, it’s important to see how those work and how they’ll affect your gameplay. Some moves have the potential to change how characters completely as I’ve learned and spending some time in the training room definitely did me some good figuring things out. In addition to free training, there are also several training room sessions that will teach both new and veteran players a thing or two.

Is Estel playable?

Ever since Streets of Rage 4 was released, players have asked and begged for Estel, the NPC police officer, to be playable in the original game. While that never happened, Estel and Max Thunder, and Shiva, other characters who originally non-playable characters, are now playable. You can pick either of the three and play through the original Streets of Rage 4 game or jump straight into the Streets of Rage 4 Mr. X Nightmare DLC content. Hey, you all asked, and Guard Crush Games and Lizardcube have delivered. If you asked me who the star of the show was, it has to be Shiva. See, unlike the other characters, Shiva is a living weapon, and as such, he can’t use weapons. When you attempt to pick up any weapon, Shiva immediately tosses them in a straight path and at high speed. This makes him dangerous if there are lots of weapons lying around. Estel is an interesting character, and I’m still working on her, but she’s not too bad. Max Thunder, however, I’m not so sure of. We already have Floyd, so Max feels out of place. Of course, if you want to relive those Streets of Rage 2 memories, have at it. Of course, that’s just my opinion — but pick Shiva over those other two characters.

Beats in my head

The music in Streets of Rage 4 is some fantastic stuff; I’m sure we can all agree on that. With this new DLC, there are several brand new tracks that are just as good as the original music, perhaps even better. Sadly, there’s no way to listen to them outside of playing the survival mode. This is where I wish Streets of Rage 4 had a mode where we could listen to the music. Hopefully, a new soundtrack will be released with the new music tracks.

Never-ending Grind

Streets of Rage 4: Mr.x Nightmare is a grind fest; there, I said what needed to be said. You’ll be playing the survival mode repeatedly to unlock the newly added moves, weapon packs, training mode content, and various other content. This is what will keep players coming back, as they attempt to unlock everything. So if grinding out isn’t your cup of tea, I don’t know what to tell you other than avoid this DLC. Even if you’re starving for more Streets of Rage 4 content, because in the end, you may end up being discouraged due to all the grinding. However, if that doesn’t bother, the DLC is worth the asking price.

Overall

This isn’t a bad DLC, not in the least bit. Sadly, I just wanted more than just the survival and training mode. Fans of the series who haven’t put down the controller may enjoy the grindy nature of the content, however, I simply didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would. There simply isn’t enough in my opinion to entice who’s already had enough of the original game. However, given the price, it is worth checking out, just be sure you’re aware of what you’re getting into.

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