Streets of Rage 4, the revival of the classic beat-em-up, has received a "long-awaited major update" that adds more than 300 tweaks, fixes, and balance changes to the side-scrolling brawler. The update, which was released last Friday (opens in a new tab), brings merciful changes to the game's combo counters, various subtle and not-so-subtle tweaks to the game's characters, and, finally, a co-op partner that can be used like a meatball missile to Now you can throw them at the enemy like a meatball missile. Teamwork makes the dream come true.

You might want to take a moment before rushing to check out the update; according to Dotemu, some players have reported crashes (open in new tab) after the patch, and the developers are "investigating to find a fix ASAP and update the game."

The full patch notes can be found on Steam (opens in new tab). In addition to the ability to throw partners at enemies, players who are thrown can perform special moves.

As for the custom survival mode, only owners of the Mr. X Nightmare DLC for Streets of Rage 4 have access to it; since this is literally the only detail of the changes Dotemu has given us, DLC owners will need to launch the update to figure out what it actually I guess I'll have to do that. In the absence of any other information, I imagine it will add a new dating sim layer to the game.

Besides that, some game balance changes have been made to make it easier to maintain valuable combo counters. There are now more destructible items in the stage, so if an enemy is not nearby, you can destroy them to maintain your combo meter. Similarly, the combo counter now takes half a second to disappear, and a bonus time has been added to switching stages so the meter does not deplete during that time.

This is a heck of an update, and with any luck it will only make the game better. Streets of Rage 4 was released in 2020 and did the impossible, in a sense, by reviving a series that had been dormant for more than 25 years, and doing it so successfully, when PCG's Wes Fenlon wrote a review (open in new tab) of Streets of Rage 4 three years ago, he praised it as a "beautiful homage" to the beloved original game of the 1990s. It's nice to see that three years after its release, it's still getting developers' attention.