January 17, 2022
Streets of Rage 2, known as Bare Knuckle II In Japan, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up video game published by Sega in 1992 for the Mega Drive/Genesis. A sequel to Streets of Rage (1991), the characters Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding return while the game also introduces two new characters: Max "Thunder" Hatchet, and Eddie "Skate" Hunter, the younger brother of Adam Hunter from the first game.
Streets of Rage 2 was developed by an ad hoc team of several companies: Sega, Ancient, Shout! Designworks, MNM Software and H.I.C.
Ancient's Ayano Koshiro was the lead graphic designer and one of the game design planners, while her brother Yuzo Koshiro composed the music. The game was programmed by the same team as the original.
Upon release, Streets of Rage 2 received critical acclaim and topped sales charts for months. The game is commonly regarded as the best entry in the series, the best beat 'em up game for the Sega Genesis, and is considered one of the greatest video games of it's time.