After a strong reception with last year’s release, there were still remained a few unanswered questions about the potential future of Streets of Rage 4. In our review, we opined that both Max and Shiva’s complete animation overhaul in boss form implied a potential appearance as playable characters. That expectation was eventually qualified when publisher Dotemu revealed Mr. X Nightmare, a new DLC that would feature a special Survival mode and three new characters. New Streets of Rage character Estel Aguirre was the first name mentioned, but fans knew that Max and Shiva had to make a proper apperance, and the new DLC delivers all these fresh faces in spades.
As with the original release of Streets of Rage 4, no single aspect of this DLC feels like a rushed afterthought. The three new characters are all delightful to play, fairly differentiated, and meaningfully updated. Estel and Max are both heavy brawlers, with Estel’s Blitz moves allowing her some brutal horizontal spacing opportunities, and Max is the crowd-control favorite he’s always been. Shiva’s quick-but-methodical style separates him from other quicker combatants, and he retains his wall-jump ability, opening up even more juggle potential as enemies are pummeled against the sides of the map.
What’s potentially even more impactful than these characters is the Survival mode, which an earlier trailer teased as bearing some sort of roguelike design. This is indeed true, with up to four local players able to battle through randomized arenas filled with an impressive variation of enemies, bosses, hazards, and items to grab. After beating each level, a permanent upgrade can be added en route to the next, which only amplifies Streets of Rage 4’s combo-led scoring potential; bonus jumps, elemental upgrades to abilities, AI companions, and stat buffs all combine and stack upon each other, ensuring that every route through (probable) defeat adds another twist or layer to the playthrough.
It’s the kind of game mode which builds on the proven strengths of Streets of Rage 4’s combat but also adds some satisfying chaos. New weapons have been added to Mr. X Nightmare, including the trumpeted swordfish, what seems to be a durian fruit, and quite a few others, all of which will populate each randomized Survival mode area. Individual levels in this mode include motifs from the original game with brand new artwork, low-resolution arenas based on scenes from earlier titles, as well as a wide selection of bosses which seemingly span the full series. Later levels introduce multiple bosses at once, including ghost duplicates of the heroes that are especially crafty, as these fights weren’t to be found in any previous Streets of Rage game. It's a mode which will put veterans through their paces but also lead to some interesting character builds.
A new mode and three new characters would have been enough to secure the value of the DLC, but there’s also new moves for every playable character - even the lower-resolution members of the gang. Leveling up through Survival mode unlocks alternate specials, blitz attacks, and so on, all of which can then be utilized in the other gameplay modes. This means brand new animations have been incorporated into the complete Streets of Rage 4 roster, with some even presenting new voice lines, and learning which exact loadout of moves a player prefers should effectively breathe new life into the game as a whole.
It will also take a while, and players can expect a considerable number of hours to max out move-sets for even just their favorite characters. When combined with the quality-of-life post-launch updates the game has seen, this is Streets of Rage 4's best and most confident version of itself. Ages ago, when Castle Crashers hit Xbox Live, fans were happy to just pay out for a few new character and weapon skins, but the Mr. X Nightmare DLC appears to have been treated with the same level of care as the original game. Anyone who’s been looking for a better reason to go back to Streets of Rage 4 than just crawling up the leaderboards should jump on this DLC release, and the Survival mode’s 2-player online capability provides a great excuse to bring a friend along for the ride.
Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare DLC releases on July 15. A digital PC code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.