[Jason]

The Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap team is making Streets of Rage 4. I remember reading Ayano Koshiro had ideas for a SoR4 in an interview a couple years back, so it's disappointing she, nor anyone from Ancient, seems to be involved. However, I hear good things about the new Wonder Boy, so I'm still hopeful. Axel's got a beard now.

https://www.streets4rage.com/

Something interesting about this whole thing is that Sega is actually not publishing nor developing the game, simply licensing the brand to these companies. I guess this is how Sega operates with its previously defunct franchises, e.g. Shenmue.

This post has been edited by Jason: 27 August 2018 - 10:17 AM

[Dark Sonic]

WHAT?

This is amazing! Streets of Rage 2 was one of the 1st games I ever played, along with Sonic 2 of course. I never got that good at the game but I enjoyed it. Seeing a new one with drawn visuals is a dream.

I am so looking forward to this.

[big smile]

Had this been released a few years before Mania, I'd be over the moon. But now that Mania has shown there's still a market for modern 16-bit games, I'm rather disappointed that they aren't taking that route, particularly as, although the new art style is pretty, it doesn't immediately evoke SoR.

And I also wish Ancient was involved.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

What!? I didn't expect that. Amazing news! I have really fond memories of the Street of Rage games.

[CollectiveWater]

The art and animation in the "Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap" remake are wonderful (they're the best part of the game). So no surprise this looks great when it comes to that.

I've been wondering what Lizardcube were up to since "Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom" (a new spiritual successor to "Wonder Boy") was announced. "Monster Boy" has a similar art style to the "Wonder Boy" remake, but it's being made by an entirely different studio called Game Atelier.

Funnily enough, Yuzo Koshiro is one of several composers working on "Monster Boy," and Tee Lopes composed the song for its trailer. I wonder if either of them have the time to also work on this. Would be cool. I really feel like one or both of them are the only people that could knock it out of the park when it comes to the soundtrack. (Tee has expressed strong interest in working on a new "Streets of Rage" in interviews.)

Music in the trailer is credited to a two-person company called Kirosen, that seems to mostly do advertising music for other companies. My guess is they just did the music for the trailer (a la Hyper Potions doing the music for the "Sonic Mania" trailers) and that the game's composer will be someone else/other people. I'm hoping for Koshiro and/or Tee Lopes. (The two collaborating would be rad, as well.) But if someone else ends up doing the music, I'm of course still highly interested in the game. Hoping all the best for it.

This post has been edited by CollectiveWater: 27 August 2018 - 10:46 AM

[CHRdutch]

Wow, this almost came out of nowhere, not that I'm complaining.

I'm looking forward for this one, I just hope they don't fuck this one up.

[Caniad Bach]

Well consider me hyped. Hopefully they can bring in Yuzo Koshiro for the soundtrack. It's not necessarily a dealbreaker if the soundtrack is still good, but it would go a long way to making this feel like a proper follow up.

Interested to see which other playable characters end up in it, if any. I'm still gonna main my waifu but SoR has always had at least 3 characters to choose from, and 4 player local co-op would be excellent and hopefully fill the void left by Scott Pilgrim's delisting.

Man I'd love to see OutRun and Jet Set Radio brought back.

[BlackHole]

Damn it SEGA, you just want all of my money, don't you?!



EDIT: Wait, does anyone know if there'll be a physical release?

This post has been edited by BlackHole: 27 August 2018 - 11:43 AM

[Ravenfreak]

It's about time we get a SoR 4! Though seeing Axel with a beard threw me off a bit. I hope there's going to be a physical release of the game.

[saintminya]

Please release on the Switch!

[CollectiveWater]

^Haven't seen any confirmation on physical, but it's possible. The "Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap" remake had a limited physical release a couple months after it released, and then 10 months after its release got a broadly distributed physical release. They worked with various different companies to handle physical releases of it in different regions. Maybe they'll try to have one ready out the gate this time, but if not seems highly likely there will be one at some point.

Noticed this on their press kit release: "set to a thumping soundtrack sure to get your blood pumping."

And the credits section at the very bottom has "TBA" for the section which will most likely be the composer (they list the people that are doing the art, programming, game design, etcetera).

So yeah, seems clear that Kirosen are not doing the music for the game, and only did it for the trailer. We'll probably get an announcement of who is doing the music sometime in the next couple months. I wonder if they already have the composer(s) confirmed or not. Like I said, I really think Yuzo Koshiro and/or Tee Lopes are the people best qualified to do the job well. (And a collaboration with them both could be rad.) But of course there's many other composers who could do a good job, as well. We'll find out who it is in due time. Excited to hear some of it. (I'm sure they'll have a trailer or gameplay video with music from the soundtrack prior to release.)

Also, man, the game looks great in motion but that trailer only gives a brief glimpse of the visuals--the high-res screenshots in the press kit are gorgeous to look at and soak in the details. Consider me super on-board with the visuals. (Play or look at footage of the "Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap" remake if you haven't; Ben Fiquet's art and animation are superb. And the person helping him this time with backgrounds, Julian Nguyen You, is a great artist, too.)

This post has been edited by CollectiveWater: 27 August 2018 - 12:33 PM

[mentski]

I'm currently split between "Hooray! The people behind The Dragon's Trap remake are making SoR4", and "Crap. The people behind Streets of Fury are making Streets of Rage 4".

If Guard Crush are working on the mechanics... I'm sorry, but the output I've seen from them so far isn't in the same league.

[Yeow]

Wow, outta nowhere.

I recall Sega expressing interest in bringing back their (classic) IPs but I've noticed that quite a few cases here are Sega loaning the keys to another publisher/developer and telling them “eh, we've sat on the IP for years, and we have zero plans to do anything with it now or in the future...so have fun!”

So far, we have:

- Bayonetta with Platinum/Nintendo (B2/B3)
- Wonder Boy with Lizardcube/DotEmu (Dragon's Trap remake)
- Shenmue with Ys.Net (Shenmue 3)
And now Streets of Rage with Lizardcube/DotEmu again, alongside Crush Card Games. (I do wonder if these guys considered calling Bomber Games, considering they did that SoR Remake that Sega took down.)

On the topic of classic Sega IPs revivals, I also can't forget about Toejam and Earl receiving Back in the Groove very soon; although in that case, HumaNature Games has always owned the IP IIRC.

Hopefully SoR 4 turns out good. It's been one of the most requested sequels to Sega's IPs for years, and it would be a big shame to waste that “4” number on a poor project (*cough*Sonic 4*cough*).

I wonder what classic Sega IP gets brought back from the grave next? Comix Zone and Vectorman would be really cool.... (hint hint)

[LukyHRE]

This was so unexpected, I couldn't believe my eyes when MainMemory retweeted this. I thought it was a fan-made trailer, or something. I am terribly hyped for this after seeing those visuals!

I really hope Tee Lopes to be involved if they can't bring Yuzo Koshiro to do the OST. The musical aspect is very important for a SoR game.

[360]

Emotionally torn between "Holy shit! Streets of Rage 4 finally!" upon seeing the announcement and then "Christ is this actually going to be good though?" upon reading and seeing more about the project. LizardCube have beautiful, beautiful art and that is represented here. The eighties style neon night street screenshot for example looks fantastic and does quite strongly evoke the vibe and memories of Streets of Rage but the other shots are less convincing. Much hinges upon the soundtrack because Yuzo's compositions are a massive reason the previous games are so fondly loved and remembered. He has to be back for this even if he just produces a few tracks. My guess is that they're still working out a deal with him because it's still early or they're saving the announcement (along with more character reveals) for later.

Basically it's a pleasing start but there's not enough shown at the moment to be too excited (understandable given this is just the reveal and ultimately a teaser announcement). Ultimately I'm in a "wait and see" position at the moment. They have my utmost attention particularly having old man Axel do a grand upper at the end of the trailer (they clearly know their shit there) and the gameplay mechanics at first glance do seem to pack the punch and recoil/impact the originals had so it does seem like they're going to deliver on that front. I mean they are outright promising so in the press release. I hope they take their cues from Streets of Rage 3 there because that game had the best gameplay of the series.

So somewhat hyped but waiting to see more. I'll be watching this very closely though. The Streets of Rage trilogy is one of my favourite trilogies of all-time. So basically: please don't fuck this up.

This post has been edited by 360: 27 August 2018 - 01:26 PM