Regarding indie titles, the Streets of Rage franchise has left an indelible mark on the side-scrolling, beat-’em-up genre, inspiring many games that were developed after it. Initially developed for the Sega and Sega Genesis consoles, the series’ popularity has more or less forced the developers to port Streets of Rage games to other platforms.
That means you can seek not one but two different approaches to enjoying Streets of Rage 4 on your Chromebook, which is the latest installment in the franchise, released in 2020. In this guide, we’ll explain those methods and how you can successfully get one of the best indie games ever made on ChromeOS. Let’s get started with no further ado.
Street of Rage 4’s best gameplay features
Before we get into the other focal point of this guide, let’s go over some of the most prominent highlights of the indie beat-’em-up so you know what to expect going forward.
Improved fight mechanics
Streets of Rage 4 is a sure-fire representative of best-in-class side-scrolling action and fight mechanics where every registered hit feels satisfying and highly enjoyable. You can perform various attack moves in-game, not to mention throw attacks that can get your opponents off guard and give you more breathing room in tense situations.
The rest of the gameplay involving movement and interaction with the environment is smooth and highly enjoyable, especially when you progress levels and come across different sceneries facilitating the backdrop. We realize how the gameplay matters the most to many, and we’re happy to report that Streets of Rage 4 does brilliantly in that department.
Co-op play
As you progress the story and battle off the waves of enemies, you’ll know that Streets of Rage 4 is best enjoyed with friends, especially those who can handle their own. The game gets increasingly difficult as you reach the more advanced levels, and at one point, you can genuinely start benefitting from a human companion.
However, this does not mean that the title is impossible to beat without a friend by your side. Even more so, the bigger the presence of human cooperators, the more complex the game will get. Right alongside that, it’ll be the fun as well that’ll multiply significantly.
Streets of Rage 4 sports a not-so-steep learning curve but is undoubtedly one game that is easy to learn but hard to master. Keep at it solo or with your loved ones, and you’ll eventually get to the bottom of comprehending the fundamentals of the title.
Hand-drawn visuals
The visual direction that Streets of Rage 4 has been endowed with is only eye candy. You’ll observe hand-drawn comics-inspired art throughout the title, not to mention the vivid FX enhancing the gameplay experience manifold.
One of the developers of the game—Lizardcube—is quite famous for its work on another popular IP, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, producing what it calls “juicy animations” for both the latter and Streets of Rage 4. The overall artistic direction flows fantastically with the side-scrolling action-packed gameplay of the title.
Multiple characters to unlock
In Streets of Rage 4, you’re not made to play with a singular character with repetitive attack combos. Instead, you can choose from multiple playable figures at the start of the game and, later on, unlock more of those to enjoy the game with. A total of 5 characters have been made playable in this rip-roaring side-scroller.
Two of those include Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding, with both being no less than franchise icons. A couple of new faces have been introduced in the game, namely Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia, and more figures that you can unlock by either making advances in the mainline story or working on your campaign score.
Different playable modes
In Streets of Rage 4, there’s more than just the primary story mode to land your punches in. There’s the “Training” section in the game that you can use to your advantage and hone your skills; certainly a must-try for those struggling late in the game. Moreover, you can also test your endless brawling skills in “Arcade” mode.
Enhanced retro additions
The developers have added a tasty treat for those who have been following the Streets of Rage franchise since its inception. You can dive into the retro editions of the characters you play as, making their aesthetic appeal date back to the 90s. Not just that, there are secret “retro” levels to unearth during your storyline playthrough.
The best is implementing the “Retro Pixel graphics” setting mode, which switches up the visuals for you and replaces on-screen elements with nostalgia. That indeed takes us on a trip down memory lane. Last but not least, if you find yourself a music fanatic, there’s the inclusion of high-paced soundtracks to boost your momentum.
Mr. X Nightmare DLC
Last but not least, there is DLC (downloadable content) available for Streets of Rage 4 that you can get into, which also takes players to Wood Oak City. The story of the Mr. X Nightmare expansion is set after the events of the mainline story of Streets of Rage 4.
It sees our favorite protagonists taking part in a unique training program that Dr. Zan creates with the help of AI. But considering the overall stature of the game, this is no ordinary practice. The mode has been created by extracting particular figments of Mr. X’s brain.
Those figments are then, in turn, used to replicate every dangerous scenario and pit Axel, Blaze, and the other playable characters against them. Players can enjoy the added benefit of 3 more playable figures, not to mention the brand-new Survival mode that comes loaded with weekly target-based challenges.
Perhaps, the best part about this DLC is the flexibility of the character customization area that not only concerns aesthetic features but lets you modify the fighting style of your player as well. You can use different move sets for in-game characters as you play along with the extra content. Pretty fun and keeps things from getting redundant.
Playing Streets of Rage 4 on ChromeOS
Streets of Rage 4 is best enjoyed on Chromebooks in several ways. There’s the option to get to grips with the Play Store version of the popular street fighter, or you can also hit up Nvidia GeForce Now and stream the title online. The choice is yours at the end of the day, but we will walk you through both methods so you can know your options.
Option #1. Buying Streets of Rage 4 on your Chromebook’s Play Store
First, it’s worth clarifying beforehand that Streets of Rage 4 is a paid game. On Steam—the world’s most popular PC gaming storefront and video game launcher—the game costs about $24.99. However, if you don’t have a Steam alpha-compatible Chromebook that can run Steam games optimally, don’t fret.
The innate Google Play Store application pre-installed on your Chromebook will help you quickly find a way out of this predicament. Just make sure that the device you’re using supports Google Play in the first place since Chromebooks manufactured before 2018 don’t quite make the cut on this front.
Once cleared, proceed with the following steps and learn how to get Streets of Rage 4 on your Chromebook. The title costs about $5.99 on Android, so you will have to purchase the game to play it. With that said, let’s check out these installation steps right away.
1. The first step is to open the Google Play Store app on your Chromebook.
Opening the “Google Play Store”
2. Once you’ve opened Play Store, use the in-app search bar to look for the game at hand. Type in “Streets of Rage 4” and press the “Enter” key to the next step.
Searching for Streets of Rage 4 on the Google Play Store
3. You will now immediately arrive at the official app page of Streets of Rage 4. From there, click on the game’s price and follow the on-screen instructions to finalize the purchase. If you’ve set up Google Pay integration, no more than a couple of taps will suffice to wrap up the buyout.
Purchasing Streets of Rage 4 on the Play Store
Good going! You’ve now purchased Streets of Rage 4 successfully on your Chromebook. Fire it up to get right into this mayhem-centric action brawler. Play through it to a reasonable extent, and if you don’t like the overall Android experience of the game, feel free to try out this next option as well.
Streets of Rage 4 on ChromeOS
Option #2. Streaming Streets of Rage 4 through Nvidia GeForce Now
In the world of cloud gaming, several power players reign supreme. One of them, called Google Stadia, ran strong for multiple years until Google binned it in 2022 and was made to join other products resting forever in Google’s graveyard of once-glorious software.
This now leaves us with a handful of other key competitors, with one of them being Nvidia GeForce Now. This is Nvidia’s front-running cloud gaming subscription service, made famous with its appreciable features and an attractive catalog of terrific video game titles.
One of the playable games that you can enjoy on your Chromebook via cloud gaming is Streets of Rage 4. Of course, GeForce Now will act as the mainline medium here to conduct business, and its subscription starts at $9.99 a month or $59.99 per six months. There is another GeForce Now subscription tier to look into, titled “Ultimate,” but it’s pretty costlier.
Head to the official GeForce Now website to get started here and acquaint yourself with its various pricing schemes. Once you’ve decided what to buy, purchase while registering for a new account. However, there’s another important point to consider here.
Streets of Rage 4 cannot play through GeForce Now for free; you must purchase it on Steam and link your Steam account to GeForce Now to start playing effectively. If you already own the game on Steam, there’s not much to worry about. Subscribe to GeForce Now, and you’ll be good to go.
Link your Steam account to GeForce Now by signing into the cloud gaming service with your account, then click the cog-shaped “Settings” icon. Once you’re within the preferences area, click on the “Game Sync” section, and you’ll shortly find Steam’s listing as a supported platform. Click the “link” icon beside it to bring up Steam.
Once done, continue with your Steam credentials, and you’ll soon be able to merge the two accounts. It’s pretty much as simple as that. You can start playing Streets of Rage 4 online now without a hitch.
Linking a Steam account to GeForce Now
The idea now is to head back to your main catalog of games on the GeForce Now home page and look for supported Steam games. Streets of Rage 4 should be present if you hold the digital rights to it, which usually arrive when you purchase a game on any storefront digitally. Click the game tile, and it should launch straight away.
Streets of Rage 4 on GeForce Now
Conclusion
ChromeOS may not be seen as an operating system meant for gaming, but the paradigm is changing sooner or later. In 2023, the top-ranking Chromebook manufacturers of our time are focusing on creating gaming-ready Chromebooks, and Acer has already achieved some semblance of that with its 516 GE.
In this guide, we’ve highlighted a trendy indie title—Streets of Rage 4—and the installation instructions for the game, so you can learn how to play it on ChromeOS. Do comment down below and tell us whether you found this guide helpful on your end. Chrome Ready wishes you happy gaming!
