There is no way I will be finishing the game on Mania, I can’t even pass the dual robots on stage 1. Between the super armour and the flying poles, it’s ridiculous. Maybe I could throw the poles away. I also tire of the acid/fire duo boss, between the constant slow downs and knock downs from the acid and fire and the grab attacks, I have stopped enjoying that boss. I need a break.
I’m also getting terrible performance online, and I don’t know if it’s my connection or something to do with the net code. For short periods of time the game goes back to being smooth, but then combat returns and bam it’s a stuttery mess. Maybe I would have better luck with Steam’s remote play method, anyone tried that?
That’s the thing with games like this they are faithful in as many aspects as possible. It has 50% more stages than previous games, and any longer would likely make it drag too much. I can’t think of any way of lengthening the game without suffering from fatigue without taking the game away from the “You are as powerful as you’re going to get from the start” way of doing things and moving more towards a verb progression system, but then it wouldn’t be Streets of Rage.