You'll be hard pressed to believe the age of this system with this games awe-inspiring lighting effects and large characters. Special moves tear the screen apart, blinding everything looking in that direction. Though the backgrounds are slightly on the muddy side, the character designs make up for any of these problems.

With your speakers turned up, the soundtrack goes overboard. The techno sounds fit this game SO perfectly, you'll more than likely take a few unwanted hits listening to the included music. The only issue here is the lack of any discernable sound when punching/hitting someone. Everyone knows that a side-scroller is successful because of the sound produced when collapsing a rib-cage, right? Obviously, the designers forgot this part. As such, it's hard to convey the impact of the hits, and the games loses some of the appeal it would of had otherwise.

Controlling any of the four selectable characters is simple enough, but is unique because of it's combo system. Early on, the usual punch, punch, punch, uppercut will work, but later on, forget it. As the game goes on, players will learn/earn new combos and these become a necessity later on. This certainly helps in a genre where repetition generally rears it's ugly head. Fans of multi-player will also be pleased to know that the multi-tap is supported allowing for WWF like battles with three of your friends. And of course, two-players can tackle the main game also.

No, this doesn't make up for the fact that Sega still hasn't updated Streets of Rage, but at least Gekido is a relief. Though you'd be hard pressed to find a large group of people who wouldn't mind a Golden Axe update either (Ed. note: This was not what we had in mind). Anyway, the innovative combo system and multi-player modes make this one a keeper. Just be sure to bring along a friend(s) to get the maximum enjoyment.