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, while the one we see in Streets of Rage 2 was the first true Mr. X.
That's not the only explanation, though. It could be that the Mr. X in Streets of Rage 1 was the real one, and that's when his brain was put in a jar, and the Mr X. in Streets of Rage 2 was a robot.
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. "Yeah, a lot of damage happened but at least a war won't happen anymore" sounds oddly optimistic for a bad ending and presumably, Moral Guardians would've gotten upset that the game isn't punishing the player enough for their failure. The new bad ending reinforces that a lot of civilians died 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 have to own up to your failure."
Streets of Rage 4 takes place about 12 to 13 years after the original games. Given Adam Hunter was 23 years old in Streets of Rage and his daughter Cherry is at least a late teen, Adam himself was likely only a teenager when she was born.
It has a double and triple meaning:Who's the last boss? Mr. X. Should one of the players betray the other, kill their partner, and then kill Mr. X, you become the last soul. No one to stop you or stand in your way.
In Streets of Rage 4 Cherry fights far more like Skate than anyone else. When her dad wouldn't teach her how to fight, her Cool Uncle stepped in.
Again, in 4, in the first stage, some of the enemies pop out from manhole covers. This might seem random at first and could probably be brushed off as a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation at first. I mean, why would some guy be hanging out in the sewers and then pop out to fight you? Then you get further in the game and find out the Y Twins’ plan: they’re going to play mind control music throughout the city using speakers they placed in the sewer system. Now it all makes sense! They weren't just hanging out in the sewers, they were probably working on the speakers! Practically confirmed when you actually go through the sewers and see the thriving community of Mooks you have to fight through alongside a menagerie of speakers.
Shiva, in all his appearances, was Mr. X's right-hand man in all of his schemes, and had shown no remorse for his actions. However, in 4, he's since spurned the criminal organization he was once loyal to, as he was not on good terms with the Y Twins, and disliked their methods. While this may seem like a sudden (and hypocritical) about-face for Shiva in the main story, he had legitimate reasons to not rejoin the Syndicate this time around. For starters, while Mr. X ruled the city with an iron fist, he was able to bring people into his fold largely with his charisma and influence alone, while the twins were not only inexperienced and reckless, they simply chose to either bribe people, or forcibly hypnotize them to do their bidding if they refused. Also, in addition to a Heel–Faith Turn prior to 4, the Y Twins were personally responsible for luring all of his students away from his dojo (thus costing him an honest living), and he found out they were abusing animals in the Y Syndicate, which went against his newfound Buddhist teachings. So Shiva has very good reasons not to join the Y Twins, despite his history with their dad.
Max, Shiva, and Estel's reasons for joining the heroes in their training in the Mr. X Nightmare? Max wants to build his mental fortitude so he won't be be easily enthralled like he did under the Y Twins. Estel wants to prepare herself to prevent incidents like the missile strike on the Wood Oak train from ever happening again. Shiva wants to face his past head on to better prepare for future threats and he knows full well that someone else will simply take the Y Twins' place.
If this doesn't sound so bad, consider that the last three stages involve saving the city from being controlled by the Big Bad 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 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 Big Bad 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... which is harder than even the Japanese "Hard" difficulty.
Mr. X's death at the end of 3 had created an Evil Power Vacuum in Woodoak City. The question is who is the new boss? It turns out to be his twin children, who go by the names of Mr. Y and Ms. Y, in 4.
After beating the first level in 4, the heroes are arrested and tossed into a cell, where they wake up in the middle of a large cell, surrounded by gang members. Now, consider the implications when playing as Blaze or Cherry. Or don't. You'll sleep better not knowing.
