Swlabr Day

"Don't you mean Labor Day?"
Eh, not really. Although I have no idea what a "swlabr" is, or how to pronounce it.

Two important bits of news. The first is that it's been leaked that an SNK character will soon be available as downloadable content for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Since we're all pretty sure it's going to be Terry Bogard, I'll move on to the next bit of news. Sega showed off a playable demo of Streets of Rage 4 at PAX, and aside from the slim selection of playable characters (you're giving us more than three, right...?) and the not-so-slim Axel Stone, it looks like a fine sequel to a series of fighting games that's been kept on ice for far too long.

The gameplay has been kept faithful to the original trilogy, with one key difference. You may recall that special moves cost you a small bit of health in Streets of Rage 2, while they could be performed without penalty in Streets of Rage 3 if you waited for a bar at the top of the screen to charge first. Streets of Rage 4 regulates the use of special moves with a risk/reward system that works like this.

Here's newcomer Cherry Hunter (daughter of frequent SOR no-show Adam Hunter) laying waste to enemies with her guitar. Using special moves doesn't cost you health per se, but it does change a portion of the bar green. She's performed a lot of specials in a short amount of time, so most of that bar has turned green. This is ill-advised, as you'll soon discover. 

Cherry can turn that green energy back to yellow by punching enemies, but if she gets hit, it drops off the health bar and can't be recovered. This forces the player to use special moves cautiously, preferably in situations where they're not surrounded. After all, it only takes one sneaky bastard approaching from behind to turn a whole lot of potential health into a whole lot of nothin'. Seasoned Streets of Rage players already know that there's nothing the Donovans and Yellow Signals love more than stabbing you in the back while you're distracted, so don't get careless!