SoRR 5.1 Options & Recommendations

edit: updated for SoRR 5.1

This is a thread I've been meaning to make for a while. Streets of Rage Remake has a ton of gameplay, visual and graphical settings so it can be a bit bewildering for a new player to know what settings do or what's recommended in order to have the best game experience. In several cases, the default options aren't as good for game balance, or simply aren't as much fun. I know personally I spent a huge amount of time fiddling with the settings just to get them to a point where I felt like I got the best game experience possible, so this is essentially an overview of all the menu options as of version 5.1, and my personal recommendations. I'm also looking forward to seeing what other setups people use and if there's anyone who has any drastically different setup recommendations than my own for the best Streets of Rage Remake.

Game defaults are listed with an asterisk (*) and the recommended setting is listed in BOLD font (not all options have a recommendation, some are purely cosmetic settings and don't affect gameplay). Generally speaking, the recommended options make the game play the fastest possible so it feels balanced against Streets of Rage Remake's much tougher and faster enemy AI, particularly at Very Hard and Mania (where enemies are much faster than in SoR2 for instance).



Game Options



Level - Easy/Normal*/Hard/Very Hard/Mania

Harder difficulties increase enemy aggression, speed. You'll see enemies grab health items at higher difficulties than Normal. No recommendation here; just play at whatever difficulty you feel comfortable with.

Lives - 0/1/2/3*/4/5

How many lives you start with. You start with this many lives when you use a continue too, so setting this to 5 will give you a ton of extra resources if you use continues. Use what you feel comfortable with, I like to keep it at the default for the sake of challenge.

Damage Between Players - Yes*/No

Hitting team members only does 1/8th the damage it normally does to enemies, so team damage isn't actually that big of a deal. Even with a CPU partner, I prefer to leave it to Yes, because when it's set to No, you cannot grab your partner at all, which means it's impossible to use team attacks/throws, both of which can actually be pretty useful. This is more of a player preference, though, so pick whichever you like.

Star Moves - B Button*/X Button

When you do a Blitz (running attack, double tap forward + Attack) in B Button type (SoR3 behaviour), you use whatever level of stars you've earned as your Blitz. The Special Combo button always causes your character to stop moving (even if you were running) and gives you a second to input a set of directions to execute a command input for a star Blitz, allowing you to use star Blitzes you haven't earned yet. Using star Blitzes from a standstill isn't always as effective as running at the enemy and using them though.

X Button is an input type new to the Remake that makes it so you have the choice of using either your 0 star Blitz or your current star level Blitz at all times! If you run and hit Attack, it'll always use your 0 star, but you also have the option now to run and hit the Special Combo button instead of attack, and it'll always use your current star level as the blitz. This means you can have 3 stars and pick and choose whether to use your 0 star or your 3 star at any time as your Blitz. When you're standing still or at a walk, pressing the Special Combo button still works as normal: you stop moving and get a second to input a star Blitz via directional inputs.

No contest here, X Button is the clear winner. It gives you the option to use either your 0 star Blitz or your current star meter Blitz, which is helpful for characters like Max and Rudra who have great crowd rush 0 star blitzes, but their 3 star blitzes have more delay and aren't as spammable. I'm not sure why it's not the default, and the game manual unfortunately doesn't mention the bit about being able to use either your 0 star or your current star Blitz, only that the attack button always does your 0 star blitz...

Weapon Type - SoR3/SoR2*/SoR1

SoR3 has a weapon meter that depletes each time you hit an enemy with a weapon, with weapon drain being even greater when you use special attacks (like Shiva's Forward Special when carrying a sword). If you already have a weapon and you attack while standing on another weapon, you will swing your weapon; you won't grab the weapon below you, unlike other types. This is actually pretty handy, but the weapon health generally means weapons last for almost no time at all, especially if you use them for the really good character specials (Elle's special and blitz when carrying a knife or sword respectively, Shiva's sword special, etc).

SoR1 & 2 styles don't have health bars on weapons. If you stand over another weapon while holding one you will switch out weapons.

SoR1 & 3 let you grab enemies while holding a weapon, if you grab an enemy in SoR2 type, you let go of any weapon you're carrying.

SoR1 does not let you drop weapons for some reason. You cannot throw weapons at all either, unlike SoR2 and 3 types (you simply use a back attack instead). Also, knives always get thrown when you attack with them, you can't use a normal stab attack with a knife it seems. The not being able to throw/drop weapons gets to be annoying if you accidentally pick up a weapon with a character that sucks at using that weapon.

SoR2 is ideal if you like using weapons. Dropping weapons on a grab is a fair exchange for being able to use weapons without breakage and spam their specials/blitzes. SoR3 lets you grab enemies while carrying a weapon without dropping it, but weapons have health meters and tend to break easily. I don't like not being able to drop/throw weapons so I don't use SoR1.

Meter Type - Both*/Gauge/Timer

When set to Timer, it works SoR2 style (defensive specials cost a small amount of health on a hit, offensive specials always cost a bit of health even if they don't hit) and has a time limit in stages that kills you if it hits 0. Gauge uses the SoR3 Gauge with no life loss for a special when the bar is full, and a large amount of health lost if the bar is empty, to make special use more strategic and less about spamming defensive specials. There's also no time limit in Gauge type. Both uses a time limit with a gauge so your specials are free when it's full, but you need to worry about the timer in levels.

I personally like Gauge type. This isn't an arcade game that needs to make money and so needs a timer system to ensure gamers have to keep moving or spend more money. The time limit feels very restrictive at certain points, especially with Mania mode's larger number of enemies and you don't need to feel rushed by an artifical timer to enjoy yourself. It's also quite annoying to die for no reason other than the number hitting 00 - heck, I can think of arcade beat 'em ups where time is never an issue, and yet in SoRR, the SoR2 route Stage 7 elevator will almost certainly kill you if you play with a timer and manage not to get killed by loss of health (which resets the time). You'll run out of time before you get to the robots if you beat that section without getting killed (which is unlikely given its difficulty, I know).

If you play without a gauge at all in Timer type, the specials cost health mechanic doesn't work well for SoR3 characters and characters with weak offensive specials (Rudra, Mr. X) that are designed to be extensively used repeatedly. It ends up being a waste of health. SoR3 replaced the timer with the gauge for a reason. Play with a Gauge only; ditch the time limit.

Combo Type - SoR3*/SoR2

SoR2 adds massive delay before you can move again after a punch and doesn't do a full punch combo unless you hit an enemy with the first hit. Having such lag on your moves isn't very fun, especially when the enemies are way faster than they were in SoR2. The Remake is a far quicker paced game, and so SoR3 is way better due to being able to move again much faster after using a punch. It also causes you to do a full attack combo if you're punching and not hitting anything. When punching enemies in order to try and start a grab, you usually want to hit with the first couple punches as they're quick and long range without knocking the enemy down, so SoR3 type means you can't just mash the punch button and wait for enemies to walk into your jabs, so there's a bit more finesse involved. Ultimately, the huge hit delay before you can move again when you stop punching in SoR2 type means that SoR3 type is the far more enjoyable setting, especially in the faster, higher difficulty modes.

The way SoR3 type executes a full punch combo when you're mashing the attack button can actually be helpful on occasion though (like if you're using Adam and the enemy sits just outside of his jab range as you're attacking, he'll eventually use his kick that has great range and might score a hit).

Jump Type - SoR3*/SoR2/SoR1

SoR1 lets you change direction in midair, SoR3 does not change what direction you face if you move backwards, SoR2 jumping is realistic, but stiff. SoR3 lets you control your position during a kick while still facing the enemy, SoR1 is harder to control this way but lets you change direction to kick an enemy if they approach in mid-jump. This happens rarely and I find always facing the way I initially jump is more helpful for jump kicking, so go with SoR3 type. SoR3 type also lets you control exactly where your jump kicks hit more precisely instead of forcing you into a fixed jump distance.

Death Type - SoR*/Remake

SoR uses the series' classic death recovery, where you reappear dropping down from the top of the screen as all enemies get knocked down (without taking damage) giving you a bit of space to reposition yourself as you respawn (on higher difficulties enemies recover much faster though). Any onscreen enemies that only activate when you approach them will be knocked down and will become 'active' in attacking you (like the kickboxers in the Secret Cave, they only become aggressive when you get close or knock them down/attack them). This isn't usually an issue as these kinds of enemies are rare, but it's worth noting. If you had any special meter stocked up, it's reset back to empty when you respawn.

Remake type is a bit different. If you die and your character is lying on the ground, your character simply stands back up after flashing momentarily and without any sort of enemy knockback. The benefit is that your special meter is not reset when you respawn, so if you died with a full special gauge, it's ready to be used as you respawn. Note that if you respawn from using a continue or you respawn from a death where you died by falling into a pit offscreen, your character will jump back onscreen and knock all enemies down like SoR type (and with your special meter reset to empty). Note that there's apparently a bug on the older version of the game (5.0) where dying in Remake type wouldn't reset the time meter if your Meter Type was set to Both or Timer, but this is fixed as of 5.0a/5.1. Don't use Remake type if you're playing the older 5.0.

Remake feels a bit more natural, like your lives are extra life bars you have saved up. The special meter preservation is very helpful, although not so much if you died right after using a special! On lower difficulties, you get more breathing room using SoR type because enemies take longer to stand up, but on Mania, even with all enemies knocked down in SoR type, you don't get much of a chance to grab anyone as they stand, especially if you respawn far away.

I still prefer SoR type because I like having a consistent death animation/behaviour across the whole series, but now that I've learned about the special meter not being depleted on Remake death type (with the exception of dying offscreen), I think I'd recommend Remake type now as the 'easier' setting of the two. It's not the classic behaviour, but it won't knock down enemies as you respawn and that can be helpful if you don't want to interrupt a partner's combo in co-op mode, and the preservation of any special meter you had means that if you really need breathing room, you can usually use a defensive special as you respawn anyways! This isn't a huge deal regardless of what setting you use, though, and is mostly cosmetic as it doesn't have a huge impact on how the game plays either way.

Use Guns - Yes*/No

If it's turned off, it removes all handguns/uzis/rocket launcher weapons you can normally pick up and use. The guns are a fun addition, not to mention a fairly rare one, so why not take advantage of 'em?



Video Options



Game Speed - 60 FPS*/50 FPS/Full Speed

60 FPS is the normal game speed, 50 FPS makes it run at the speed it would have on a european Sega Genesis (ick) and Full Speed removes frame rate limiting (not sure why you'd want to do so as it makes the game run far too fast to be playable).

Graphic Mode - Normal*/2X Normal/2XScale/HQ2X/Scanlines

Normal uses the default screen resolution, 2X Normal is simply doubled screen resolution (makes a difference if you're playing windowed).

The other options are just frankly ugly graphic filters that add horrible looking smoothing to the upscaled pixel art, and should be avoided. Scanlines is 2X Normal with dark scanlines to add a sort of effect like you're playing on a CRT... not too good looking, though.

Display - Window*/Full Screen

Self-explanatory options, playing in Full Screen obviously will look nicer.

VSync - No*/Yes

Affects screen vertical sync. Having it turned on apparently causes framerate issues for some people, and there's not enough horizontal movement in the game for it to be noticeable when it's turned off anyways. It also might increase input lag having it on as VSync does in some games, so I recommend leaving it off.

Frameskip - Auto*/1

Leave it at Auto and the game will run at a smooth 60 FPS for you. You'll only need to fiddle with this if the game is running on a really slow machine, in which case frameskipping makes it look choppy. No reason to touch it.

Visual Effects - SoR*/Remake

Affects what graphics are used for the hit 'explosion' that appears when you punch/kick/hit an enemy. SoR just uses the simpler circular hit effect on enemies, Remake uses flashier explosions and adds an additional graphical shockwave when enemies hit the ground from being thrown or slammed. I think the Remake graphics look nice, a bit flashier, but neither one affects gameplay, so use whichever one you prefer.

Shadows - Reflected*/Rounded/SoR

Changes what graphics are used for player/enemy shadows. Reflected uses more complex shadows that are shaped based on the light source in the level (for instance, compare your shadow in the Disco vs the Amusement Park). Rounded shows a circular shadow vaguely shaped like the player/enemy, and SoR tries to emulate the look of the shadows from the original games. Rounded and SoR type both look much simpler, but make it easy to see where the enemy is (particularly for Jets), but Reflected shadows look a lot nicer overall. I like the look of Reflected's updated shadows, but this is purely a cosmetic option.

Blood - Yes*/No

Yes has the blood and gore (dismemberment when killing an enemy with a knife or sword!) that's been added to the remake, No censors the blood effects. Might want to turn it off if you're playing with young children, but there's not much blood normally at any rate (only on cutting weapons or bullet attacks).

Display FPS - No*/Yes

Self-explanatory. If you want to know if the game is running smoothly I suppose you could turn it on.

Transparencies - 25%*/50%

From the game manual:

   25%: 64 transparency grades, default value
   50%: 128 transparency grades. 8MB of additional RAM are required for this option, as well as restarting the game

I haven't noticed a serious improvement or change in the transparency effects (like in the reflections of windows, etc) after setting this to 50%, but you might, and it doesn't seem to negatively affect the game in any way. 8MB is a tiny amount of RAM nowadays. Just remember to restart the game for the setting to take effect.



Audio Options



BGM, SE & Voice

These are the sound test options for the game. Use left/right to select the background music, sound effect or voice track, press jump or start to play it.

BGM Source - OST*/None

If you want to turn the background music off, just set this to none. It may have intended originally to let you setup a custom background source like a playlist, but it's a redundant option right now since you can also set the background music volume.

BGM Volume (90% default) & SE Volume (99% default)

Self-explanatory. You can set them to 0% or 99% in ten percent increments (why it caps at 99% instead of 100%, I don't know).

Ambient Sound - Yes*/No

Affects whether certain stages have background noise, like the sound of rain falling in the alley used for Survival Stage 1. Oddly, setting this to No won't disable all ambient sound effects (you'll still hear the lightning when it flashes in the Back Alley).

Last Breath - SoR1*/SoR2

Changes the timing for when enemies use their death scream effect. SoR1 style makes it so they yell the moment their lifebar hits 0 when hitting them, which behaves like SoR1/SoR3. SoR2 makes it so they only scream when they hit the ground and start flashing. In both settings, throws that kill will cause enemies to scream their death cry just before they actually hit the ground (it's like the game checks whether a throw will kill before they actually get damaged by hitting the ground).

SoR1 gets you quicker auditory confirmation of when an enemy's been finished off. But if you like to hear them scream only when they're flashing on the ground which is how SoR2/3 did things, then use SoR2.

Voice Type - BK3*/SoR3

For SoR3 characters, changes whether to use their original Bare Knuckle III sound effects or to use the redubbed (and renamed) sounds, which cause Axel to say "Bare Knuckle" when using Grand Upper, Blaze says weird stuff like "Go Fire"(??) and "Power Shield"(??) when using Kikoushou and Hishousouzan, and Shiva's Final Crash gets renamed to... I have no idea what he's saying. The english redubbed voices are icky and unnecessarily changed attack names.

SE Type - Combined*/SoR2/SoR3

Changes what sound effects are used for when punches and attacks connect, etc. Combined uses the original sound effects from the game each character's from, whereas SoR2 and SoR3 only use the hit sound effects from whichever game you choose. Combined is nice for nostalgia's sake, so each character gets the attacking sound effects you'd expect.



Controls



Nothing much to say here, except that when using a pad like an XBox 360 controller, you may not get to change your controls for Up/Down/Left/Right movement. Also note that in the character select screen, whatever is set as Special always acts as a palette change button, and whatever is set to Police (even when Police Specials are turned off) changes characters between SoR1/SoR2/SoR3 types (when you're selecting a character that has those alternate types and you've unlocked them in the shop).



Miscellaneous



Language - English*/Espanol

Self-explanatory. Oddly, if you change this language option, the game immediately boots you out of the Miscellaneous menu and changes the language.

Game Title - SoR*/BK

Purely cosmetic; makes the title screen say either Streets of Rage Remake or Bare Knuckle Remake, depending on your preference.

Song Titles - Yes*/No

When you enter a stage you'll see the title for the song being used in the OST if it's set to Yes.

Stage Opening - Fast Fade*/SoR/Scanlines/Theatre

Changes the visual effect used when entering a new stage/screen. SoR type uses the closest authentic fade-in speed to SoR2 and 3, but you may like the look of the others.

Camera Type - SoR2*/SoR3

An important gameplay option, this changes whether the screen scrolls forward at a slower speed when you're at the edge (SoR2) or whether the screen always tries to scroll as fast as you can move (SoR3). SoR3 type has some fairly serious bugs associated with it in version 5.0, apparently 5.0a fixed some (or all) of them, but I usually leave this set to SoR2 type anyways. The slower gradual scrolling is better in Mania so that if you're thrown you won't necessarily have the screen go immediately where you are (which can result in enemies being activated sooner than intended).

SoR3 Exceptions - Yes*/No

When this is set to Yes, several important things occur:

If you're holding on to an enemy and you use your forward + attack to knee someone a couple times, if that hits another enemy as they approach you will let go immediately. This can be good because grab attacks are slow and letting go will help you deal with the enemy that's approached, but it can be bad when you actually want to hit other enemies with the grab move (Shiva's grab punches are good for this).

SoR1 characters can do that weird SoR1 specific thing where you can mash left and right to change direction in the middle of your basic punch combo, which can let you hit enemies on either side with the same punch. This is a bit silly, frankly.

Most importantly, with this set to yes, you cannot run diagonally. If you're in a run and you press up or down, you will immediately revert to walking speed. This is very, very bad and makes it extremely difficult to run to safety through enemies. Diagonal running is also unbelievably helpful for grabbing enemies in higher difficulties like Mania. Playing without the ability to run diagonally feels like a severe handicap against the game's fast enemies, so for that reason I strongly recommend you change this setting to No!

Collision Type - SoR3*/SoR2

An unusual graphical option than changes where those little explosions that show when you hit an enemy appear. SoR3 type makes it so the explosions are always centered on the enemy's hitbox, SoR2 type makes it so the explosions occur as far away from your character as possible so it always looks like the edge of the hitbox is where it's hitting.

To see this best, pick SoR3 Blaze, use her offensive special Kikoushou at close range to an enemy. It has enormous range, and when using SoR2 type the explosions happen well on the other side of the enemy in midair. SoR2 type looks a bit silly with attacks that have long hitboxes as they'll sometimes seem to hit in midair, but it's helpful for poking at enemy's with stuff like Roo's back attack, as you'll always know where exactly you're hitting on the enemy, based on where the explosion graphic appears.

SoR3 looks more natural though, and won't make those hit explosions appear in the middle of the air far from the enemy you're hitting! I'll post a few screenshots comparing them (red box outlines where the hit explosions occur).

SoR3 collision type:



SoR2 collision type:





Enable Police - Yes*/No

With this set to yes, you get a once per life special move you can use in most stages that pauses the action and takes off over half a lifebar from all onscreen enemies. The attack depends on the character or the stage you're playing (you'll either get a police car or helicopter, or in later/indoors levels, no ability to use a police special). If you have a police special saved when you beat a level, you get an additional point bonus for having kept it (only if the level allowed for police specials when you beat it).

Elle, Rudra, Ash, Mr. X and Shiva all have alternate, always-available specials. They do not summon a police car or helicopter and instead use an attack specific to whichever character you're playing. Elle, Rudra and Ash's specials all appear to do the same damage (just over half a lifebar) whereas Mr. X and SoR2/SoR3 Shiva's police specials deal no damage whatsoever - instead, they spend their police special and use a taunt that does nothing to the enemy (and wastes the police special so you won't get an end-of-stage bonus).

Keep it on and even if you don't want to use them for the sake of challenge you can get the extra points at the end of levels. They're not that game breaking, and you're more than welcome to play without using Police Specials if you want the game to be more difficult. If set to No, the Police Special becomes a context sensitive button (I don't know exactly how this button functions when set to No, the Manual isn't very specific either).

Enable Run and Roll - BKIII*/SoR3/No

Setting this to No turns off the ability to roll up and down by double tapping up or down, and disables the ability to run for most characters (SoR2 and SoR3 Skate can both still run with this set to No). The default is BKIII's shorter roll distance, but you can set it to the longer SoR3 distance which I think is one of the few if any thing SoR3 tweaked for the better over BKIII. You don't have any real invulnerability when rolling, and the SoR3 roll is just as fast, meaning you move faster in the same timeframe, making it a better dodge. The BKIII roll is just small enough that you might not actually roll out of the way of some wide attacks in time, hence I recommend SoR3 rolling distance.

Pause Delay - Combined*/Remake/SoR2/SoR3

Possibly the most important gameplay option you can change. This affects how much delay there is after every time you hit an enemy, and drastically changes how slow or fast characters can attack. Rudra for instance uses SoR2 speed hit delay by default, which makes her practically unplayable in Mania.

Combined uses the default for each character, so depending on which character you use, the hit delay will be slower (SoR2 characters, Rudra) or faster (SoR3 characters).

Remake, SoR2 and SoR3 type set all characters to one fixed pause delay. SoR2 is slow, laggy pause delay, SoR3 uses a very fast recovery pause delay, and Remake uses a balance between the two.

I strongly, strongly recommend you use SoR3 pause delay. The game's enemies simply feel balanced around having speed at your disposal, especially at higher difficulties. I used to use Combined pause delay to make the SoR2 characters feel 'different' from their SoR3 counterparts, but even with extra strength, Mania's enemies are so fast that SoR2 or Remake speed pause delays are just too slow - your characters feel burdened and easily hit out of their combos. SoR3 pause delay may make some characters feel much stronger than you'd expect (SoR2 Axel, SoR2 Blaze), but without it they're almost unplayable at high difficulties because the SoR2 pause delay is such a liability.

SoR3 pause delay is the fastest option and the one that makes characters feel the most 'natural' against the Remake's faster enemy AI. SoR2 characters are still distinct from SoR3 characters, as even though they're stronger than their SoR3 counterparts, SoR3 characters have Offensive Special invulnerability back in version 5.0a/5.1, so that keeps the SoR3 characters competitive with their SoR2 types. SoR3 Blaze for instance is widely considered to be her best type out of the three even with the reduced damage compared to SoR2 thanks to extra speed she has. Set it to SoR3 pause delay and never look back. The faster pace is a natural evolution for the series and beat 'em ups in general).

I've made the same topic few months after v5.0 cames out in a french forum, but my english was not good enough to translate it correctly and I'm really glad someone takes time to do it on this board!

My recommandations about settings were not as strict/sharpen as yours, and in example:

Spoiler:

Now, I will add inputs that were in my original french post that is not in your great FAQ. Feel free to add in your 1st post if you want. No judgement here, only statement.

Level - Easy/Normal*/Hard/Very Hard/Mania
in v5.0/v5.0a => Enemy get steal food ability from Hard to Mania
in v5.0a => Enemy get extra speed from V.Hard to Mania
in v5.0 => Enemy have full speed in any difficulty (only their pattern are differents)

Weapon Type - SoR3*/SoR2/SoR1
Whatever your Weapon Type Settings, a weapon disappear after 3 drops.
SoR1 Weapon Type = Final Fight 1 Weapon Type.
Cody throw knife when far and stab when close. Exactly the same in SoR1 Weapon Type. Range is the key.

VSync - No*/Yes
Requierement for activating VSync with no glitch:
If you play on 60 hrtz screen with 60 FPS, you can go safely.
Beware, most screen nowdays have much higher frame rate, but you can paramater this with the correct driver.

Last Breath - SoR1*/SoR2
While using SoR2 type, the sound is connected to your points additions in your score meter.
While using SoR1 type, the sound is connected to enemy life bar depletion.
Nothing realistic here, just depend on the info you are looking for.

PS:

Display - Window*/Full Screen

Self-explanatory options, playing in Full Screen obviously will look nicer.

I'm not really sure with that statement, full screen stretch everything. I use 2xscale window, but taste are what they are.

I agree that for some characters, their 0 star blitz (hello Rudra) may be preferable, and Max's 2 and 3 star blitzes are certainly less impressive than his 0/1 stars, so if you're fond of keeping one static blitz for the character you're playing you'll prefer star blitzes to be linked to the special button only.

The changes from difficulty modes is very helpful, I wasn't sure exactly what AI settings were changed in the latest update between modes.

BigDarsh wrote:I'm not really sure with that statement, full screen stretch everything. I use 2xscale window, but taste are what they are.

Technically, full screen doesn't do any 'stretching' on the original image itself. Playing windowed at 2xNormal (640x480, no filtering) resolution will display at the exact same resolution as when full screen. The difference between full screen and window is whether or not the game window encompasses the entire monitor or not, as in whether or not it is zoomed in, but there's no actual stretching of the original aspect ratio (4:3) involved when at fullscreen. Stretching in graphics implies that you're taking an image and changing its aspect ratio, like if you were to display the game at fullscreen at 640x480 on a 16:9 widescreen monitor, it would have to stretch the graphics horizontally to fill the entire monitor, whereas zooming in an image implies that the image is displayed larger, but kept at the same aspect ratio. The game manual refers to the graphic filters as zooming 200%, because that's what they do, they don't stretch the game out of its original aspect ratio of 4:3.

For instance, here's a picture of an NES emulator that stretches the original image to fit the wider aspect ratio of a phone. And compare to the original aspect ratio of the same game. The clouds and mario look squished and longer horizontally in the phone emulator because they've been stretched to a new aspect ratio as opposed to zoomed in.

Has anyone noticed enemies breaking open boxes in v5.0a? I saw that all the time in Mania in v5.0, where enemies would run to the top of the screen specifically to punch open a box (!!) whereas in v5.0a they seem to behave more normally (they'll steal food if they can see it, but won't actively go after boxes to open them, they'll only break open a box if they attack you and you happen to be next to a box).

Thank you for the information, I should try fullscreen if there is no stretching!

I want to come back on a recommandation you made that i don't really understand:

SoR Death vs Remake Death:
SoR Death: trigger enemy + deplete your gauge + can make you spawn on a pit/hole
Remake: do not trigger enemy + do not deplete your special gauge + no spawn pit trap

I will not recommand anything, but it seems Remake is just way better no?

Edit:
Just remember about something that wasn't in your first post:
SoR1 Weapon Type = Final Fight 1 Weapon Type.
Cody throw knife when far and stab when close. Exactly the same in SoR1 Weapon Type. Range is the key.

If you're on a widescreen monitor, your monitor may try to stretch the game to fit the entire window (which looks ugly) but monitors and graphics cards can be setup to always maintain an aspect ratio (and use borders if necessary). I know I got my Nvidia card setup to use black borders when I'm playing a non-widescreen game at fullscreen.

I didn't notice Remake death type doesn't deplete your gauge. But since when does SoR setting make you spawn on a pit or a hole? Is this a known bug, are there any video examples or a way to produce this? You always appear to respawn at the last place you were touching the ground, and I've not been able to make this get me killed/hit on a respawn. For instance, in the Bamboo Gardens, if you're killed and knocked onto one of the spike traps, it'll activate as your corpse lands on it so it'll already have attacked by the time you respawn, and won't hit you. I've tried several times on Stage 2, Scene 4 (Among Buildings) to get a respawn in SoR type to kill me by spawning me in a pit, with no success. I've never seen it happen before, but is it possible this is a bug that was fixed in this version?

I do not use the correct word to define what I want to say, so I apologize for this. When you use SoR Death type, you can respawn very close to a hole (not on the pit itselft) and make you in a much tougher situation to get back on your fight. You still benefit I-Frame to try to move on a better spot but sometimes, you are just doomed.

I have to say that if you play Co-op, the fact that every mooks get knocked down when your partner is respawning can be troublesome while you were fighting some opponents.

Oh, then yes, I agree, Remake is probably better as if you die next to a pit you'll more likely have some special meter to recover with. I notice that even on Remake setting, when you use a continue it has your character drop down SoR style (which activates enemies), so Remake only affects what happens if you die when you're already onscreen, not when you respawn via a continue. You also get the 'all enemies knocked down' effect if you die when you're offscreen (jumping into a pit) because you respawn by dropping down SoR style. There's not too many cases where enemy activation after you die is a huge risk (because few stages have enemies around standing onscreen), but I didn't notice the special bar thing before... and if you're playing co-op with Remake Death Type dying won't interrupt your partner if they are in the middle of a combo.

Hmm. I've always valued the enemy knockdown effect but I am seriously trying out Remake type now. It really is annoying dying with a full special meter only to respawn empty, so that's a very nice change. :DThe downside is that Remake doesn't give you an opportunity to grab an enemy like in SoR type where you can usually grab an enemy as they're standing up when you respawn.

Actually, after doing some testing I see that any death that causes you to respawn via the drop down effect (being knocked off a bridge) takes away any meter you have... so Remake type is a bit inconsistent in the mechanics. You'll have your special meter at whatever it was at when you died if your body is on the ground, but if you died being knocked into a pit or bridge, you'll respawn SoR style without any special. Remake type is also worse if you die while your special meter is low or near empty, as you respawn without the breathing room effect of enemies getting knocked down. Sadly, on Mania enemies stand up so quickly you won't get much if any breathing room. The benefit Remake type offers of having your special meter stay at what it was when you died is nice, even if it won't apply if you died right after using a special.

I'll edit my original post to reflect the special meter mechanic. I think I agree that Remake feels more natural, like your lives are extra health bars and won't cause all enemies to be knocked away, which isn't so helpful on Mania anyways where a lot will recover by the time you land on the ground or may be knocked too far to get to in time for a grab. Though SoR type is more consistent about death behaviour, the special meter not being reset in Remake is quite handy, so my recommendation's changed there. I think that it's not an option that has too big of an impact on the gameplay compared to Pause Delay or Combo Type, so nobody would fault you for picking one Death Type over the other.

I'm really happy with your analysis with death type. My point was not about being nitpicky or contradict your recommandation, but it felt a bit too "one sided" for some stuff like Blitz, or Death Type or Last Breath.

What I mean is that you have some degree of customisation in this game (thanks a lot to Bombegames for this BTW) and your first post seems to getting rid of them in a bit too much simplistic way.

However, I like sharing knowledge, and I like people who share their knowledge/POV, so this is a very enjoyable discussion to me.

When I first came onto this new site from the old one, that was the first time I was hearing that there's now a version 5.0a for SoRR, as opposed to the regular version 5.0. However, I wonder if it's really worth it to try and switch over (I haven't yet) due to hearing in different places on this site that 5.0a has some problems, including corrupted files and whatnot. I am very hesitant to switch over if that is the case, plus what if I lose a lot of what I've built in 5.0? (unless I can simply transfer my save-game file to 5.0a). Can anyone clarify for me, please?

First: You don't lose anything. You can either replace v5.0 by v5.0a or keep both version (I have both version on my cpu). You can also copy your savefile from v5.0 to v5.0a (so no need to unlock everything from the scratch).

Second: The only corrupted file you may find in the v5.0a archives are music that you can copy/paste from the v5.0 folder or download from a link on the internet

Third: v5.0a fix a lot of glitchs, buff playable characters and tweak the A.I. The game is now easier from easy to hard mode than v5.0. Reguarding V.Hard/Mania, I have no opinion, some people say it's easier some people say it's different since mook are more agressive, but Bosses like Abadede are now less dangerous.

All in all give it a try, since it is safe and personally, depending on the mod I want to play, I use v5.0 or v5.0a so I can create the game experience I expect.

Shadow Fist King wrote:However, I wonder if it's really worth it to try and switch over (I haven't yet)

You should. The newest version is essentially just a rebalancing patch with major bugfixes. The zip file has a couple of the music files corrupt, but that's an easy fix (just copy the music files from the old version into the music folder for the new one) and the savegame files for the old version are compatible with the new version (just move your savegame folder over, and any custom pallettes/mods you have, easy as pie).

There's really no reason not to switch to 5.0a as literally everything is better about it.

Okay, except the version naming. I'm not sure why they needed to add an 'a' to it when the whole point of using a decimal for program versions is to denote major version revisions with the whole number and minor updates with decimals, so it would have made more sense for a mainly bugfix update to be named 5.1, not tack an 'a' onto 5.0, but that's just me being nitpicky...

Also I've noticed a bit of an exploit in SoR1/2 weapon type. With no weapon breaking, you can spam stuff like Blaze's knife special or Shiva's sword special, both of which give invulnerability and make enemies keep away. Granted, you can screw up and lose the weapon quite easily by being knocked down (or grabbing/being grabbed in SoR2 type), but could possibly be considered a side effect of having weapon abilities without any weapon meter...

"B Button is the way to go. The characters benefit greatly from improved blitzes except maybe someone like Rudra whom you might prefer the 0 star version over the others. Some characters like Elle have a slightly better 2 star over a 3 star, but her 3 star is still better than her 0 star, and in X Button setting, the only way you can use the upgraded Blitzes is with the command inputs. Inputting the commands requires you to stand still, so even with quick execution it's not as effective as running at the enemy and attack. Don't bother changing this from the default, the earning stars mechanic is fun and rewards you for doing well and not dying often."

Not true: When you use the X-Button, you can still do your running 1, 2, or 3 stars blitzes. It's just that the B-Button always does the 0 star one. Very useful for every characters. For example, with Max, sometimes I want to do a running slide, sometimes a running tackle.

For the rest, I usually chose the more advanced or "remake" options, except for one exception where I might be in the minority: I like SOR2's jumps. For the way I play, I need to keep my jumps' momentum, and I don't care much for moving all around in the air like Super Mario or Mega Man.

Okay, I'll download v5.0a into a separate folder from v5.0 and compare the two. But I will be very frank (right now I'm not in a mood to sugarcoat anything), if I'm not impressed by the difference between the two and it turns out I prefer 5.0, then bye-bye, 5.0a.

You know, you are in democraty here, you can play what you want, how you want  

PS: I tried full screen setup with 1024x768 60hrtz resolution, on a 4:3 monitor and the game looks really cool indeed.

Crash Dummie wrote:
Not true: When you use the X-Button, you can still do your running 1, 2, or 3 stars blitzes. It's just that the B-Button always does the 0 star one. Very useful for every characters. For example, with Max, sometimes I want to do a running slide, sometimes a running tackle.

Thanks for posting this, saves me the effort

Something really freaking useful about X-blitzes -- enemies don't react to your directional input during those. If you are playing as Axel and want to do a blitz-0 on Goldie (Very Hard/Mania difficulty), they will kick you immediately if you run at them. But if you do a blitz-1 from stand-still position using X, you'll nail them with it.

The "standstill X-blitz-1" trick works amazingly well in general. I would recommend anyone to give it a shot against enemies that normally give you trouble. Its increased range means you can profit from more invincibility frames compared to running forward and then doing a blitz-0.

Want proof? Try this: play Axel (any version) and when you meet Electra (sor2 version), just stand still until she positions herself for a whip-strike. Wait until she starts the attack animation. Now try closing the distance by doing a running blitz-0 Grand Upper. She'll probably zap you before you're in range for the blitz-0 -- or if you blitz too early, it'll whiff and you still get fried. Now try this: let her position herself for another whip-strike, wait till she starts the attack animation and then do an X-blitz1 from standstill. Even if she does manage to strike, you're completely invulnerable to her attack during your X-blitz.

Another advantage of this tactic is that enemies on your rear will not chase after you before you do the blitz attack. If you start running for a blitz-0 they will give chase and catch up during your attack. If you do a standstill Xblitz-1, they will only start chasing you when you do the actual blitz, which moves you forward a good distance. Unless you are hitting multiple enemies simultaneously, you'll be able to recover before they catch up.

Absolutely, while doing    your character enter running mode before performing a blitz by inputing the  button. The running mode only last few frames but long enough to make the AI chnage his behavior link to the "running state" you triggered.

When you do X,   , you don't enter running mode since the second directionnal input trigger the blitz so the AI bevahior is not altered.

Oh wow, I never tried hitting the Special Combo button while running in X-Button mode I guess.

The Game Manual wrote:X BUTTON: The Forward+Forward+B combination always executes the initial movement while the rest can be normally executed using the X button combinations

You'd think it'd have the REALLY helpful bit added about how with X-Button type, if you're running pressing the Attack button always does your 0 star but you can also use whatever star level you're at by hitting the Special Combo button when running. For some reason I thought it halted your movement and waited for a command input like in B-Button setting, SoR3 style. If you press the Special Combo while standing or walking it'll let you input a star blitz as a command, but I didn't realize it let you execute either your 0 star or your current star level when you're in a run depending on whether you press Attack or Special Combo.

Thanks guys. See, this is why I made this thread. I've since edited my original post; this option is clearly WAY better than the default of B-Button type. Why the hell even make it an option when X-Button is the best of both worlds?

You know, you are in democraty here, you can play what you want, how you want

What I want is to play the game in a way that feels fun and balanced without having to fiddle with the game settings to change the defaults. It's probably because I'm more used to games that are designed and balanced around their default settings, or have a Score Attack style mode that always sets the game to defaults (so everyone on the scoreboard has played under the same settings). I'm not used to games that throw a ton of options to play around with which can feel a bit overwhelming, although it is really nice to tweak the little options like sound effects, special meter type, etc. A lot of detail went into the options settings and it really shows.

To make the higher difficulty modes in SoRR feel balanced and fun you have to mess with the pause delay so Rudra and the other slow characters don't suck, haha. I appreciate they wanted the option to make tweak it to 'feel' however you like to the point of it being slowed down like SoR2 if you wanted, but really, the Remake a different game. The enemy AI behaves quite differently at higher modes (it seems meant for SoR3 speeds, which is why SoR3 Pause Delay feels best), and if I wanted to play SoR2 I could just play that instead! I like the modern tweaks because they feel fresh while still retaining the fun of classic SoR gameplay.

if I'm not impressed by the difference between the two and it turns out I prefer 5.0

Since when could someone like more bugs? Really, that's mostly what what the patch addressed. This isn't like the change from 4.0 to 5.0, it's still the same game engine, characters, levels, etc.

Exactly, the patch was more for addressing the 101 bugs than anything else.

Charco wrote:Exactly, the patch was more for addressing the 101 bugs than anything else.

Right now I'm wondering whether one of those 101 bugs being fixed was meant to weaken Abadede as a boss; I've downloaded and am using 5.0a, and I just tested it out to see what it was like, and I just expressed my view on a separate thread, but will share it again here: I think Abadede in 5.0 was much better as a boss than how I see him here in 5.0a. This time around, I didn't even have to use the food in the crates to save myself (I was on the SOR2 path), and only sparingly did Abadede flex himself to hit me. And NOT ONCE did he do his rush attack. Under 5.0 I found him to be challenging, and consequently FUN to fight...here, he's just...blargh. A real letdown.

On the other hand, Elle has gotten slightly stronger, and the Ravens don't block as much now. But the damn ninjas are still a pain in the ass.

My personal review for 5.0a? 2.5 out of 5; if not for Abadede being so drastically weakened, I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

So you are giving 5.0a a low score because of a boss that was (thankfully) lowered difficulty wise? Meanwhile there were a ton of other issues (some being huge glitches) that were looked at and corrected. Wow....

Abadede really shouldn't have been as strong as he was in was in 5.0. Difficulty wise he would've fit more towards the end of the game rather than at stage 3/4, especially as a mini-boss. He was way too difficult that early on in the game and with him being weakened the game feels a lot more balanced now. He now acts more like he does in SOR2 which is a good thing.

I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way about 5.0a Abadede; maybe, maybe not. But I still feel as though I fought a generic mook and not a boss. I guess for the next mod I make, I'll try putting Abadede at one of the higher levels to see if I can at least get back that sense of "challenge" that I got from him in 5.0.

And I don't know if you saw what I said re Elle and the Ravens; those are two GOOD things about 5.0a. If you want me to list another, it's that R. Bear is not as much of a douche to fight now. But Abadede, to me, looks strong, and therefore is supposed to BE strong to go with it.

Something I just noticed that's been bugging me - Streets of Rage Remake's lives setting actually gives you that many extra lives, whereas other games in the series, the options menu lives setting gives you exactly that many lives (so a setting of 5 would be 4 + your current life). If you want to have the same number of extra lives by default that you do in the other games in the series, you need to actually change the setting from 3 to 2. Edited the original post to reflect this.

It was thanks to reading this that I finally realized that my previous pause delay setting made certain character's attacks a little sluggish. Being a Rudra player here, switching it to SoR3 makes her just as speedy as her boss appearance, which helps me a ton (still wish she could clone herself while being playable, but that's just me expressing my dreams).

I will admit that before reading this, I didn't even understand what half of what the options meant, hence being limited without even knowing it. But playing on these settings for a couple of days now, I can say that it's definitely the best.

Yeah, it's nice that the game gives you a lot of options, but it's a lot of settings to offer, and knowing what they do really helps. I thought the X-button blitz setting for a long time was just to let characters always use their 0-star... I never tried hitting the Special Combo button in a run. Getting access to your 0 star or your star level blitz anytime is really handy.

And yeah, I don't know why Rudra's default pause delay under Combined is SoR2 speed. It's a bit odd. SoR3 speed feels more fluid and simply fun (not to mention more balanced/fair against how fast the enemies on Mania are). You should go back and record another survival run with Rudra, I'm sure you can easily manage A or even S rank under SoR3 pause delay and SoR3 combo type.

Shadow Fist King wrote:If you want me to list another, it's that R. Bear is not as much of a douche to fight now. But Abadede, to me, looks strong, and therefore is supposed to BE strong to go with it.

Bear is actually tougher in 5.0a...before then you could easily trick him into doing his jump attack (meaning any toon could beat him reliably), now he's a lot more unpredictable.