Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe from Secret Base and Ratloop Asia is a fun roguelike beat ’em up on PlayStation 4 you should definitely check out. Find out why in our Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe review!
Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe is a pixel art roguelike beat ’em up, so if you’re a fan of classics such as Double Dragon or Streets of Rage, and are also into roguelike releases with permadeath, then you’re in for a treat!
The game has three difficulty settings so that players of all skill levels can get to enjoy it: Casual in which you can’t get in-game achievements since it’s the lowest difficulty setting of the lot (something I don’t agree with since it penalizes players for selecting a difficulty to match their skill set); Classic which is the regular difficulty setting; and the final difficulty option for those who want to go deep into the roguelike side of the equation.
You have four playable characters to choose from, with two more you can unlock as you play the game. There’s a good variety of goofy looking characters, with one having a dog, another having a shovel for a weapon, a girl in a mech, some though guys, and more. All character control the same, but each one has different abilities, making each character feel unique as you play the game.
Each stage has a series of levels that get longer and longer as you progress. This being a roguelike, I was expecting randomly generated content for each of my runs, but it turns out the levels are not procedurally generated, making this one a bit more of a “choose your own adventure” type of scenario since you can take different paths for your run, thus keeping things fresh.
The game expects you to use your special attacks to finish off enemies, as the rewards are far greater when doing this since you get a bigger money pay out than if you just use regular attacks – melee combat only gives you a few coins! Special attacks, on the other hand, give you bags of coins, and more if you kill several enemies simultaneously.
You can upgrade your characters by increasing their attack, health, and other stats, thus increasing their odds of surviving the game. You can also earn Soul Tokens which grant you continues after a game over, but you should reserve these for emergencies since it might be better to use your coins to bring your character back up to speed after a game over – but if you’re out of coins, then that’s the perfect time for a Soul Token! Why is this important? Because if you run out of money and have no save tokens… the game will force you to delete your save file! Crazy, I know, but that is what pushes this into hardcore roguelike territory!
The game has multiple endings, which have to be earned on various difficulties, not counting Casual mode. This makes it so there’s plenty of replayability in the game, along with the variety of characters, upgrades and in-game achievements you can aim for, not to mention the two unlockable characters and being able to play the game in co-op. There’s definitely a lot to do in this one!
Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe is a game that is easy to recommend on Nintendo Switch. There’s plenty of content, a nice variety of characters with different abilities and playing styles, several difficulty levels (even if I don’t agree in how the game keeps you from getting any in-game achievements if playing in Casual), and, above all, it’s a fun experience. Go download this one today!
Disclaimer
This Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Secret Base.
