Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)

With larger characters, more moves and a better variety of stages, Streets of Rage 2 improves upon its predecessor in every aspect, helping the series transcend its roots as a mere Final Fight clone and into becoming a beat-'em-up classic in its own right. Yuzo Koshiro once again composed the soundtrack.

Regional Lockout
US cartridges halt at an error notice on Japanese and European machines, disabling official access to its Japanese mode Bare Knuckle 2, but a correctly-timed region change after the Sega logo fades will bypass the lockout.

Regional Differences
Blaze's flying kick was slightly more risqué in the Japanese and European versions.

When you see Mr. X in the last level, he's smoking a cigar in the Japanese version. This was removed from all of the other versions.

Skate is called "Sammy" in Bare Knuckle II.

Streets of Rage 2's "Duel" mode is known as "Battling" in Bare Knuckle II.

The Japanese and European versions use the Roman numeral II in their logos. The US version just uses a regular 2.

Extra options


Hold A + B on the second controller and select the Options menu to add two extra skill levels, a setting for up to 9 lives instead of 5, and a level select.

Unused track
Track 09 in the game's sound test, titled "Little Money Avenue" on the official soundtrack, is not used in the game proper.