Streets of red is a 16-bit side scroller zombie apocalypse beat ‘em up. This game got released for Nintendo Switch. In this game there are 4 protagonists with which you and up to 3 friends can play this game together. The characters are called Kingston, Queenie, Jackson, and Axel each with their own set of abilities and moves.
The game starts off when the streets are suddenly flooded by zombies and the 4 main characters need to get out of here as fast as they can. A mystical red fairy called Ivan gives you special abilities to fight the zombies and in return, he only asks to keep the souls of the slain zombies. Sounds like a killer deal, right? What could possibly go wrong?
At first the game is quite hard since you’re not too familiar with the controls and combos for the moves. But once you get to know them, the game becomes a lot easier. There are a bunch of different types of zombies, from regular guys to fetus throwing lady’s and of course a few cool Bosses to fight. Each zombie has its own strengths and weaknesses and you have to keep them in mind when fighting them because avoiding their attacks will be a big part of every fight.
The fights are kind of wave based. You get to a location beat a couple of waves of zombies and then you get to proceed a bit until the screen stops scrolling again and then you have to fight some more waves. At the end of every one of four stages, you get a fun boss fight. One thing really annoyed me when defeating the bosses though. Whenever you beat a boss and left some money on the floor because you didn’t have the time or space to pick it up. You would lose it. You don’t have to walk to the exit or something like that you just can’t move your character anymore to pick it up after which the level is complete.
The money is very important because the game has destructive save files. Whenever you die you have to pay a sum of money to revive yourself. If you don’t have enough money you can retry. But, only if you have bought a soul token before. If you don’t have a soul token you automatically delete your save file. You have to start over from the beginning. After each level you can also use your money to buy power-ups for your character and sometimes you can buy a soul token. Better keep a few of these on the side if you don’t want to redo all your progress a bunch of times.
So, what is the conclusion? Well, I really liked the game, it was fun to play, and is really well made. But it has a few flaws as well. The voice actor is very weak in the game. Whenever a boss arrives you hear a few sentences by a voice actor. These just sound too much like a guy in a closet with a microphone instead of a beasty boss you have to destroy. The game itself is also a bit short. There are only four main levels and you can complete them fairly quickly. This makes the game less replayable. Of course, you still have the survival mode which is a ton of fun. Also, you get different endings depending on the difficulty level you chose. Overall, it’s a fun game, but in my opinion a bit too short!
