History Fridge / StreetsOfRage

** Mr. X's death at the end of ''3'' had created an EvilPowerVacuum in Woodoak City. The question is who the new boss? [[spoiler:"It turns out to be his twin children who go by the names of Mr Y and Miss Y in ''4''"

** Mr. X's death at the end of ''3'' had created an EvilPowerVacuum in Woodoak City. The question is who the new boss?

** If this doesn't sound so bad, consider that the last three stages involve saving the city from being controlled by the BigBad and his army of robots who look like high-ranking officials, sparing the Chief of Police (who is to be killed so that his robot double can operate with impunity), and (in the [[MultipleEndings Good ending]]) disarming the time bombs scattered throughout the city. Now consider a future of the city in which these life-saving actions are never committed... hell, where the plans of the BigBad are ''assumed to be prevented already'' until it's too late, because the characters have defeated Mr. X's clone. Now go back and read the first part again; all of this horror ensues when you pick Easy Mode, and can be prevented if you can beat the game on Normal... [[NintendoHard which is harder than even the Japanese "Hard" difficulty]].

* Mr. X has a habit of presumably being killed, but then coming back to life. But who's to say that each Mr. X we have seen, is the real one? As ''Streets of Rage 3''/''Bare Knuckle 3'' has shown, Mr. X CAN make a Robot X duplicate of himself as a decoy if he wants to, and after his defeat at the end of ''Streets of Rage 2'', we see that his actual body was so badly damaged from before, that the true Mr X was delegated to just a brain in a jar. But yet Mr. X was beaten in the aftermath of ''Streets of Rage 1'', then turned up again completely fine in ''Streets of Rage 2''. Then it hit me, the Mr. X in ''Streets of Rage 1'' was a Robot X, the one we see in ''Streets of Rage 2'' was the first true Mr. X.

* Mr X has a habit of presumably being killed, but then coming back to life. But who's to say that each Mr X we have seen, is the real one? As Streets Of Rage 3/Bare Knuckle 3 has shown, Mr X CAN make a Robot X duplicate of himself as a decoy if he wants to, and after his defeat at the end of Streets Of Rage 2 we see that his actual body was so badly damaged from before, that the true Mr X was delegated to just a brain in a jar. But yet Mr X was beaten in the aftermath of Streets Of Rage 1, then turned up again completely fine in Streets Of Rage 2. Then it hit me, the Mr X in Streets Of Rage 1 was a Robot X, the one we see in Streets Of Rage 2 was the first true Mr X.

** If this doesn't sound so bad, consider that the last three stages involve saving the city from being controlled by the BigBad and his army of robots who look like high-ranking officials, sparing the Chief of Police (who is to be killed so that his robot double can operate with impunity), and (in the [[MultipleEndings Good ending]]) disarming the time bombs scattered throughout the city. Now consider a future of the city in which these life-saving actions are never committed...hell, where the plans of the BigBad are ''assumed to be prevented already'' until it's too late, because the characters have defeated Mr. X's clone. Now go back and read the first part again; all of this horror ensues when you pick Easy Mode, and can be prevented if you can beat the game on Normal...[[NintendoHard which is harder than even the Japanese "Hard" difficulty]].

* Of course the North American version of ''3'' has a more damning time-out ending than the Japanese version, in spite of many other parts of the game getting rewritten or censored. [[spoiler:"Yeah, a lot of damage happened but at least a war won't happen anymore" sounds [[BittersweetEnding oddly optimistic for a bad ending]] and presumably, MoralGuardians would've gotten upset that the game isn't punishing the player enough for their failure. The new bad ending reinforces that civilians' lives were on the line, a lot of those lives were lost, and as a result the heroes have to live with the consequences of their actions. Parents playing with their kids can then say, "Look, if you become a cop, sometimes people's lives are at stake, and if you mess up badly in such situations like they did, you can't just walk away from that mistake."]]

* Of course the North American version of ''3'' has a more damning time-out ending than the Japanese version, in spite of many other parts of the game getting rewritten or censored. [[spoiler:"Yeah, a lot of damage happened but at least a war won't happen anymore" sounds [[BittersweetEnding oddly optimistic for a bad ending]] and presumably, MoralGuardians would've gotten upset that the game isn't punishing the player enough for their failure. The new bad ending reinforces that civilians' lives were on the line, a lot of those lives were lost, and as a result the heroes have to live with the consequences of their actions.]]

* Of course the North American version of ''3'' has a more damning time-out ending than the Japanese version, in spite of many other parts of the game getting rewritten or censored. [[spoiler:"Yeah, a lot of damage happened but at least a war won't happen anymore" sounds oddly optimistic for a bad ending and presumably, MoralGuardians would've gotten upset that the game isn't punishing the player enough for their failure. The new bad ending cements the fact that civilians' lives were on the line, a lot of those lives were lost, and now the heroes have to live with the consequences of their actions.]]

* Of course the North American version of ''3'' has a more damning time-out ending than the Japanese version. [[spoiler:"Yeah, a lot of damage happened but at least a war won't happen anymore" sounds oddly optimistic for a bad ending and presumably, MoralGuardians would've gotten upset that the game isn't punishing the player enough for their failure. The new bad ending cements the fact that civilians' lives were on the line, a lot of those lives were lost, and now the heroes have to live with the consequences of their actions.]]

!!The original games:

** If this doesn't sound so bad, consider that the last three stages involve saving the city from being controlled by the BigBad and his army of robots who look like high-ranking officials, sparing the Chief of Police (who is to be killed so that his robot double can operate with impunity), and (in the [[MultipleEndings Good ending]]) disarming the time bombs scattered throughout the city. Now consider a future of the city in which these life-saving actions are never committed...hell, where the plans of the BigBad are ''assumed to be prevented already'' until it's too late, because the characters have defeated Mr. X's clone. Now go back and read the first part again; all of this horror ensues when you pick Easy Mode, and can be prevented if you can beat the game on Normal...[[NintendoHard which is harder than even the Japanese "Hard" difficulty]].

!!The fan remake:
[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* The fan remake gives further support to the "Robot Mr X"-theory above, as it features all the levels of SOR1 and SOR2, into SOR1 and SOR2 routes respectively, within the same game. And while the SOR1 stage 8 is treated as a good ending, providing you don't purposely try to do the bad ending gimmick, it's actually the SOR2 stage 8 that's treated as the 'best ending' instead. There is a Robot X route, with remade SOR3 levels, that upon beating it's stage 8 (same as the Robot X battle in SOR3 Stage 5) it's quite obviously a 'try again/unfinished' ending given that Mr X is still alive, but it has the same music as the SOR1 stage 8 ending. I guess the SOR1 route was still a 'try again/unfinished' route so to speak, but since the game characters believe it really was Mr X, it didn't felt unfinished to them, because they thought it was the good ending. But it was the SOR1 game's unfinished route, that led to Streets Of Rage 2 having to be a ''thing'' in the first place. After the SOR2 route though, that's it, the real Mr X's body is damaged.
** Presumably that's why the remake gives you a choice over which round 5 boat you wish to join, the first game's or the second game's. So you can cross to the right route if you chose to start on the first game's one.
** And why the Streets Of Rage 3/Remake routes can actually send you onto the Streets Of Rage 2 route intentionally, but never onto the Streets Of Rage 1 one.

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* The ''Streets of Rage Remake'' has an ingenious difficulty set-up: most of the playable characters are [[TookALevelInBadass noticeably stronger]] than their main game counterparts. The game stays fairly balanced, though, as a good chunk of the enemies have lifebars as long as the player's. All of this means that when you play, the game remains fun while ''still'' being challenging.
* In ''Streets of Rage'', why is the final stage's theme called "The Last Soul"? Because [[ThatOneLevel you'll probably be reduced to your last continue's last continue on it]].

* ''StreetsOfRage 3''[='=]s EasyModeMockery in the North American version--the game cuts you out of the last 3 stages on Easy. [[DifficultyByRegion Easy in the North American version is the equivalent of Normal in the Japanese version.]] '''[[BadExportForYou You get punished for playing on the Japanese version's default difficulty.]]'''

** To support that theory, Streets Of Rage Remake features all the levels of SOR1 and SOR2, into SOR1 and SOR2 routes respectively, within the same game. And while the SOR1 stage 8 is treated as a good ending, providing you don't purposely try to do the bad ending gimmick, it's actually the SOR2 stage 8 that's treated as the 'best ending' instead. There is a Robot X route, with remade SOR3 levels, that upon beating it's stage 8 (same as the Robot X battle in SOR3 Stage 5) it's quite obviously a 'try again/unfinished' ending given that Mr X is still alive, but it has the same music as the SOR1 stage 8 ending. I guess the SOR1 route was still a 'try again/unfinished' route so to speak, but since the game characters believe it really was Mr X, it didn't felt unfinished to them, because they thought it was the good ending. But it was the SOR1 game's unfinished route, that led to Streets Of Rage 2 having to be a ''thing'' in the first place. After the SOR2 route though, that's it, the real Mr X's body is damaged.

* In ''Streets of Rage'', why is the final stage's theme called "The Last Soul"? Because [[ThatOneLevel you'll probably be reduced to your last continue's last continue on it]].

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
* ''StreetsOfRage 3''[='=]s EasyModeMockery in the North American version--the game cuts you out of the last 3 stages on Easy. [[DifficultyByRegion Easy in the North American version is the equivalent of Normal in the Japanese version.]] '''[[BadExportForYou You get punished for playing on the Japanese version's default difficulty.]]'''
** If this doesn't sound so bad, consider that the last three stages involve saving the city from being controlled by the BigBad and his army of robots who look like high-ranking officials, sparing the Chief of Police (who is to be killed so that his robot double can operate with impunity), and (in the [[MultipleEndings Good ending]]) disarming the time bombs scattered throughout the city. Now consider a future of the city in which these life-saving actions are never committed...hell, where the plans of the BigBad are ''assumed to be prevented already'' until it's too late, because the characters have defeated Mr. X's clone. Now go back and read the first part again; all of this horror ensues when you pick Easy Mode, and can be prevented if you can beat the game on Normal...[[NintendoHard which is harder than even the Japanese "Hard" difficulty]].
* The "nude Blaze" mod for ''2'' introduces some of this. An attractive, naked lady being beaten up by thugs for standing up to them: DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Extra Horror points when Blaze has to fight Abadede in the arena.

* The "nude Blaze" mod for ''2'' introduces some of this. An attractive, naked lady being beaten up by thugs for standing up to them: DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Extra Horror points when Blaze has to fight Abadede.

* The "nude Blaze" mod for ''2'' introduces some of this. An attractive, naked lady being beaten up by thugs for standing up to them: DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?

* ''StreetsOfRage 3''[='=]s EasyModeMockery in the North American version--the game cuts you out of the last 3 stages on Easy. [[DifficultyByRegion Easy in the North American version is the equivalent of Normal in the Japanese version.]] '''You get punished for playing on the Japanese version's default difficulty.'''

* To support that theory, Streets Of Rage Remake features all the levels of SOR1 and SOR2, into SOR1 and SOR2 routes respectively, within the same game. And while the SOR1 stage 8 is treated as a good ending, providing you don't purposely try to do the bad ending gimmick, it's actually the SOR2 stage 8 that's treated as the 'best ending' instead. There is a Robot X route, with remade SOR3 levels, that upon beating it's stage 8 (same as the Robot X battle in SOR3 Stage 5) it's quite obviously a 'try again/unfinished' ending given that Mr X is still alive, but it has the same music as the SOR1 stage 8 ending. I guess the SOR1 route was still a 'try again/unfinished' route so to speak, but since the game characters believe it really was Mr X, it didn't felt unfinished to them, because they thought it was the good ending. But it was the SOR1 game's unfinished route, that led to Streets Of Rage 2 having to be a ''thing'' in the first place. After the SOR2 route though, that's it, the real Mr X's body is damaged.
* Presumably that's why the remake gives you a choice over which round 5 boat you wish to join, the first game's or the second game's. So you can cross to the right route if you chose to start on the first game's one.
* And why the Streets Of Rage 3/Remake routes can actually send you onto the Streets Of Rage 2 route intentionally, but never onto the Streets Of Rage 1 one.

* In ''Streets of Rage'', why is the final stage's theme called "The Last Soul"? Because [[ThatOneLevel you'll probably be reduced to your last continue (or last life if you're aiming for a single-credit clear) on it]].

* In ''Streets of Rage'', why is the final stage's theme called "The Last Soul"? Because [[ThatOneLevel you'll probably be reduced to your last life or last continue on it]].

* Presumably that's why the remake gives you a choice over which round 5 boat you wish to join, SOR1 or SOR2. So you can cross to the right route if you chose to start on the SOR1 one.
* And why the SOR3/Remake routes can actually send you onto the SOR2 route intentionally, but never onto the SOR1 one.

* To support that theory, Streets Of Rage Remake features all the levels of SOR1 and SOR2, into SOR1 and SOR2 routes respectively, within the same game. And while the SOR1 stage 8 is treated as a good ending, providing you don't purposely try to do the bad ending gimmick, it's actually the SOR2 stage 8 that's treated as the 'best ending' instead. There is a Robot X route, with remade SOR3 levels, that upon beating it's stage 8 (same as the Robot X battle in SOR3 Stage 5) it's quite obviously a 'try again/unfinished' ending given that Mr X is still alive, but it has the same music as the SOR1 stage 8 ending. I guess the SOR1 route was still a 'try again/unfinished' route so to speak, but since the game characters believe it really was Mr X, it didn't felt unfinished to them, because they thought it was the good ending. But it was the SOR1 game's unfinished route, that led to Streets Of Rage 2 having to be a ''thing'' in the first place. After the SOR2 route, that's it, the real Mr X's body is damaged.

* Mr X has a habit of presumably being killed, but then coming back to life. But who's to say that each Mr X we have seen, is the real one? As Streets Of Rage 3/Bare Knuckle 3 has shown, Mr X CAN make a Robot X duplicate of himself as a decoy if he wants to, and after his defeat at the end of Streets Of Rage 2 [[spoilers: we see that his actual body was so badly damaged from before, that the true Mr X was delegated to just a brain in a jar]]. But yet Mr X was beaten in the aftermath of Streets Of Rage 1, then turned up again completely fine in Streets Of Rage 2. Then it hit me, the Mr X in Streets Of Rage 1 was a Robot X, the one we see in Streets Of Rage 2 was the first true Mr X.

* ''Streets of Rage 3''[='=]s EasyModeMockery in the North American version--the game cuts you out of the last 3 stages on Easy. Easy in the North American version is the equivalent of Normal in the Japanese version. '''You get punished for playing on the Japanese version's default difficulty.'''

* FridgeBrilliance: The ''Streets of Rage Remake'' has an ingenious difficulty set-up: most of the playable characters are [[TookALevelInBadass noticeably stronger]] than their main game counterparts. The game stays fairly balanced, though, as a good chunk of the enemies have lifebars as long as the player's. All of this means that when you play, the game remains fun while ''still'' being challenging.
* FridgeHorror: ''Streets of Rage 3''[='=]s EasyModeMockery in the North American version--the game cuts you out of the last 3 stages on Easy. Easy in the North American version is the equivalent of Normal in the Japanese version. '''You get punished for playing on the Japanese version's default difficulty.'''