THE LAST SOUL STREETS OF RAGE SERIES
THE LAST SOUL STREETS OF RAGE WINDOWS

My siblings and I with our wonderful Grandmother on Singer Island in the early 90вЂ™s. I have many treasured childhood memories of playing the original Streets of Rage (as well as quite a few other games) at my grandmotherвЂ™s house on the beautiful Singer Island in Palm Beach: I want this game, NOW!ДЄnd who else to get me the game of my dreams than my wonderful grandmother. Fire? Huge guys with boomerangs? A hot chick in a red mini-skirt? An angry black dude who looks bad ass? ItвЂ™s over. The one in the magazine that I spent months staring at looked something like this: IвЂ™ve always loved the word вЂњRageвЂќ plus, I was pissed off at being bullied, so what better way to deal with it than by beating up virtual bullies in a video game! It beats the hell out of shooting up your school! Who says video games cause school shootings? I say they prevent them!ДЄnd if the name of the game wasnвЂ™t good enough, the screen shot was even better. I saw the title вЂњStreets of RageвЂќ and вЂњSega GenesisвЂќ and thought immediately that the game was for me.

Near the front of the magazine was a nice little вЂњpreviewвЂќ section with what was generally a one page layout and a single screen shot of the games they were previewing. I canвЂ™t remember exactly what magazine I was reading at the time but this was 1991 so it was most likely either EGM or Gamepro. To drown out this hell, I would frequently engage myself in reading gaming mags (because homework just wasnвЂ™tвЂ™t my thing).

THE LAST SOUL STREETS OF RAGE WINDOWS

There was one particular 8th grade brute that frequently threw my text books out the windows of the bus or made fun of me in ways IвЂ™d rather not remember. I discovered Streets of Rage while sitting on the bus in 6th grade. DonвЂ™t pity me though, because I had Streets of Rage to help me out.

I was bullied a bit and was a zit faced, dandruff laden, colored socks wearing pasty, skinny white kid with a bowl hair cut and self esteem issues (gee I wonder why?). IвЂ™ve talked about my middle school experiences before and anyone who knows me well enough will tell you that I had a rough time of it. My memories of Streets of Rage began in middle school. Me and Wifey, or should I say, Axel and Blaze. Not to mention a special moment for Streets of Rage as well. And it has stuck out in my memory ever since as a special moment between us. So, when I asked her one day early on in our relationship if she had played any video games, this above conversation was the result. And while we have many, many things in common, (Sc-Fi, Star Trek, Star Wars, Fantasy, Botany, Scuba Diving, the Ocean, etc.) video games were not one of those things.

It was exciting for me because my wife was not a gamer and at that point, she had basically shown indifference towards my favorite hobby. But as far as I can remember, it was our first real conversation about a video game. Let me point something out here, this conversation happened early on in our relationship, well before my wife and I were married (probably around 05-06). Zack: вЂњSeriously?!?! ME TOO! I LOVE YOU!вЂќ Wife: вЂњYES! STREETS OF RAGE! I LOVE THAT GAME!вЂќ Zack: вЂњAre you talking about Blaze from Streets of Rage?вЂќ Wife: вЂњI think that she was dressed in red and was really bad ass.вЂќ ItвЂ™s that female fighter stereotype thing.вЂќ Zack: вЂњOk, you have to give me something to go on here other than the fact that вЂshe kicksвЂ™. Zack: вЂњWhat about Sonya from Mortal Kombat? SheвЂ™s dressed in green and kills you with a fiery kiss.вЂќ Zack: вЂњAre you talking about Chun Li from Street Fighter 2? SheвЂ™s got really long legs and has a blue dress and she kicks A LOT.вЂќ Zack: вЂњCan you give me a little more information about her?вЂќ Zack: вЂњShe kicks? What do you mean by, she kicks?вЂќ

THE LAST SOUL STREETS OF RAGE SERIES

The Completist The Completist Presents: The Streets of Rage Series вЂ“ Part 1

The last soul streets of rage