2020 saw quite a few series being resurrected, their decaying corpses being dug up, dusted off, jammed into some new clothes and shoved out of the door. Crash Bandicoot came back to a great reception and Desperados emerged after years and years of hibernation, just two prime examples. But for me the best comeback after a lengthy absence in 2020 was Streets of Rage 4, the first game in the series since Streets of Rage 3 way, way back in 1994.

The mark of Streets of Rage 4’s brilliance is that after I beat it, I went back and beat it again and again on multiple difficulties with different characters. I just wanted to keep playing it, and even now I still fire it up from time to time in order to play a level or three.

Yes, the fact that Streets of Rage 4 essentially plays like the original games despite being released in 2020 is absolutely a legitimate criticism. But, and this is important, I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S HAIRY ARSE! Seriously, the simple act of going from left to right (and sometimes right to left) while punching, kicking and throwing bad guys feels so damn good that I don’t care if it hasn’t changed much. There’s a perfect purity to the gameplay that would have been ruined by adding anything else to it.

Despite the simplicity there’s genuine depth there, too. You can get good at Streets of Rage 4, and I spent a while trying to work on my skills and nab those high scores. Normally, I don’t bother chasing high-scores and better level rankings in games, but because Streets of Rage 4 feels so satisfying to play I was happy to replay levels and work on getting S-ranks and chasing down Achievements.

Now that Streets of Rage 4 has cemented itself as one of the best games of the year and the developers have proven they know how to make a classic Streets game, I can’t wait to see what happens in Streets of Rage 5.