Adam Hunter is noticeably slower but stronger than the other characters. There are three playable characters in the game. In round 8, the special attack can't be used. The player is given one special attack per life or per level, with power-ups shaped like police cars giving another. In Streets of Rage, the special attack is assistance from a police car which will pull up at the level's left and fire explosives, taking health from all enemies. As in contemporary games Double Dragon and Final Fight, weapons can be picked up, and these include bottles and drainpipes. Unlike its sequels, none of the enemies are named within the game (only in the Japanese version's manual) and only the bosses have life gauges. With the exception of round 7, there is a boss battle at the end of every round with a disproportionately large enemy. The player must defeat each opponent to progress through eight locations, known as rounds. Similar to the game Golden Axe which was released two years prior by Sega, enemies walk onto the screen from both sides as well as occasionally appearing from other locations. The game was again made available as part of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection in 2009 on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

In 2007, the game was released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America and Europe, and in 2009 it was released for the iOS via the App Store. The game was also converted over to Sega's Game Gear, Sega CD and Master System. It is the first installment of the Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage series which was followed by Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3. Streets of Rage is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released by Sega in 1991 for the Sega Genesis. Hiroaki Chino, Momonga Momo, Little Sun, Seishi Atsumiya, Rascal Fuku‑Chan, Nandemo, Udi This game can be played also in a version for SMS. The following emulators are available for this game:

Fusion sega emulator gamepad