Raging Justice Reviews
Has Raging Justice lived up to my expectations? Mostly, yes.
If you're looking for something substantive or something that doesn't have vexing controls and frustrating moments, this doesn't deliver that. What you see is what you get. No more no less.
Overall, Raging Justice doesn’t bring anything new to the table really – but doesn’t do anything wrong either. If you’re looking for a decent timesink for a few hours with enough nostalgia to keep your inner child grinning, then this is for you – but don’t expect it to last much longer than that, with very little to keep you playing post the main game. Maybe there would be more joy to be had if I’d played the game with a friend in co-op, but I wouldn’t know…since I don’t have friends.
Raging Justice takes what you love about classic brawlers and marries it with current day sensibilities. With multiple difficulty levels and settings, leaderboards, and extra stage challenges, there’s more to this game than meets the eye. While it doesn’t do anything revolutionary for the genre, it’s still a great deal of fun and well worth your $15.
As a throwback to an arcade favourite, Raging Justice does a decent enough job to provide you with the short and shallow candy fix that made the genre appealing in the first place. It may be ugly in design, in a 90s 3D model pre-rendered kind of way, but it does have a plasticine charm to it all to make it visually stand out.
If some side scrolling beat-em-up action is what you are craving, then Raging Justice will provide you with what you need. It is a good looking and fun way to pass the time and take out some aggression, and if you are finding the difficulty a bit too much for yourself, you can always bring in a friend to help you pound some thugs.
As a massive Streets of Rage 2 fan (still my favourite game of all time) I have been looking forward to play Raging Justice from the second I learned of its existence. Now while I can’t say that this knocks SoR2 of the top spot (the nostalgia alone meant it never had a chance), what Raging Justice does do is bring the forgotten genre into the modern day and it does it well. With the addition of challenges and the GoodCop/BadCop system, MakinGames have added longevity to a game that is short by design (as most brawlers were). There are some annoyances such as those mentioned previously, along with some collision detection issues involving a steel girder that manages to hit you whether or not you’re actually under it when it comes down. Also some of the boss fights feel needlessly drawn out due to the small window given to inflict damage during the gameplay loop (boss is vulnerable for a short time, boss becomes invulnerable during his attacks, boss calls for gang of regular enemies then sits in the corner, invulnerable again, while you take them out, repeat). These niggles aside, Raging Justice is just pure fun. It harkens back to the classics that inspired it while adding enough to give it it’s own identity. Its simple gameplay combined with its challenges and leaderboards give it the “one more go” factor that will keep genres fans coming back for more. Even for those who haven’t played this type of game, there’s plenty of fun to be had. As my non gaming wife put it, after we played through the campaign, “it’s repetitive but addictive” and who am I to argue with her?
Raging Justice a decent game for refreshing memories of the beat 'em up, but offers little depth in the long run.
Raging Justice is alright, it has modern visuals mixed with mechanics that have not aged well.
Raging Justice is a blast from the past. It's very entertaining and fun to play with friends. It only takes about an hour or two to beat, depending on the difficulty level. The number of enemies to conquer in single player can be overwhelming and frustrating. But if you are a fan of the genre, then I definitely think you should try it out.
Raging Justice harkens back to the side scrolling beat-em ups of old such as Streets of Rage and Final Fight whilst brandishing sprite animations in vein of the Original Mortal Kombat series
There are enough surprises and moments of goofy fun (enemies need to beware of the lawnmower) that Raging Justice manages to both honor and at least marginally improve on the many genre classics that came before it. That said, consider when you’re going in what you’re looking to get out of it. The more of a genre fan you are and looking forward to matching up against your friends on the leaderboards the better a purchase it will be. If you’re just out to “beat it” and move on it may be a bit more iffy, though if you’ve got a friend to lay the smack down with that could also skew more to the positive on that added fun factor alone. Raging Justice very clearly was created with a specific objective in mind, and for the most part it seems to have hit that mark in spades. How wide an audience that makes it ideal for is a fair question.
Overall, Raging Justice is a lackluster delivery of a beat ’em up game. It looks like a beat ’em up and sort of plays like one, but it carries over the mistakes of the past and even ramps them up in some cases. If you’re really into beat ’em ups and are frothing at the mouth for a new game in the long-abandoned genre, then go ahead. Otherwise, steer clear and save yourself the disappointment, since there are ways to go about replaying old classics and, at the end of the day, those are all you’ll really need.
There’s plenty of fun to be had if you turn off your nostalgia goggles, but there’s little denying Raging Justice doesn’t do an awful lot else to escape from that particular shadow.