I will keep this short so that older players such as myself will understand where I am coming from.
The combat is totally different than the original Streets of Rage games. The npcs in the game have this invincibility that your special can't break. Even lower tier enemies can break your special abilities. This is extremely annoying and makes you feel weaker than the average street thug in the game.
I do not play on casual or normal modes as I am a veteran player(20 years). The animation isn't bad but I'm not a big fan of the cartoon design. The sound is ok and the controls seem a little laggy or clunky. There isn't a dodge or run function for the main characters which is a big turnoff. This was a very poor choice from a designer standpoint. I feel the game went backwards instead of forward from it's predecessors. Playing this game on hard is extremely unbalanced. It does feel like the game was rushed because of this and poor design choices. All of the other reviewers such as Digital Foundry explains that this game is wonderful and great. Obviously they haven't put much time in the original games to know that it's wonderful.