Like many, I've been playing a lot of Castle Crashers in the last couple of weeks and it has me thinking about other 2D brawler games I've enjoyed over the years. When these games were popular, I played every one I could get my hands on. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, The Simpsons arcade game, Double Dragon and the landmark, cult classic River City Ransom were all considerations for this week's RetRose Tinted.

I settled on Streets of Rage 2 because I probably played it more than any other game of its type. It was a pack-in title for a Sega Genesis bundle when my neighbor across the street decided to step out of the 8-Bit era. We played it constantly, to the point where we knew every level backwards and forwards and had completed it with every character many times. To this day, I can still recall the locations of nearly every hidden 1up and weapon.

It's been a while since I really gave it serious play, however. I picked the game up for Virtual Console when it was released some time ago, gave it a short run-through and then moved on to other things. Join me after the jump as I take a closer look back at what I remember as one of the finest examples of the 2D brawler genre.

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In case you hadn't noticed it while downloading Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Streets or Rage 2 has also gone up on Xbox Live Arcade today. Best week ever? If you're including the Bomberman DLC, then sure, why not.

Streets of Rage 2 has online and offline multiplayer (up to two players) and of course, high-def graphics. So, if you have 400 Microsoft Points and want to replay this classic beat 'em up or are in serious need of some achievement points, Streets of Rage 2 is here for you ... and your money.

[Via CronosBlade's cblog] 

The independent game developers at Bombergames have released their re-imagining of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive classic, Streets of Rage.

Streets of Rage Remake for Windows was built from the ground up to pay homage to the original series. There are dozens of reasons why any fan of old-school style beat 'em ups should stop reading this immediately and go download the game before Sega calls out the legal hounds. We're talking redrawn sprites; remixes of the original '90s cornball soundtrack; eight playable characters (with two secret unlockables); customizable sprites; and more. You'll even notice multiple unlockables, including a two-player volleyball mode.

I would have alerted everyone to this sooner, but I just spent and hour and forty-five minutes of my day sucker-punching punks, kangaroos, and dudes on jet packs. The team has done a tremendous job bringing this project to life and with classic gameplay like this, plus a slew of unlockables, don't be surprised if you find this on a few of the Destructoid team's upcoming Games of the Week. It sure as hell beats Urban Champion ... and it's $5 cheaper.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat an entire cooked turkey I found inside of this wooden crate I rabbit punched earlier; I'm feeling a bit under the weather.

Thought I'd wrap up Friday by giving you a homebrew to try this weekend. "Beats of Rage" is based on the 16-bit Genesis game Streets of Rage, Sega's then answer to Final Fight. Off topic - I remember Sega trying to pass off this game as having more moves than Final Fight when it was really just slightly different sprites when you button-pound: still pointing the LAME finger at ya! Ok back to this -- it's S.O.R. remastered completely with the graphics come from NeoGeo's King of Fighters (a Street Fighter 2 clone most of us have long blocked out). The project is extremely polished and the gameplay is totally solid retro bliss - and best of all it's a sweet, free download for choice of PC, Dreamcast, PSP, PS2, XBOX & more consoles! Check out screenshots and download it here PSP + 360 builds are apparently also in the works - check out the forums to see their other projects and updates