Man, I still remember enjoying playing the original Streets of Rage and Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis when I was a kid. Ever since the side-scrolling brawler debuted in 1991, many gamers have been enthralled with the simple setup and near-flawless execution of fighting a gang of mutant freaks on the mean streets. After all, you can only trust your fists, who wouldn’t find that kind of thing appealing in some dark way?
It has been so long since the last game in the franchise came out, that many gamers have somehow never even heard of Streets of Rage. But now that the fourth game is coming out soon, that’s about to change. And to get people hyped, the developers of the new game were on hand during the Indie World Showcase Nintendo put on today to show off the sequel. LizardCube and DotEmu introduced the latest trailer for Streets of Rage 4.
The new trailer brings back a fighter as a playable character who hasn’t been seen since the 1991 original. The blonde and muscle-bound brawler Adam Hunter is back to help clean up the streets. This brings the total count of characters to the game thus far to four, including Axel, Blaze, and the newly introduced Cherry. And judging from the art from the trailer above, there looks to be room for one more playable character in the roster.
The new game adds in new faces, and revives some old ones. Each fighter in Streets of Rage 4 is either a new or old fighter born again from some point in the franchise. To go along with the new good guys, there’s tons of new enemy designs too, as well as some throwbacks to the retro designs. We’ve seen other game elements in other footage released of Streets of Rage 4, including footage showing the fighters in action.
The original composers have also returned to work on the sequel, adding more nostalgia.
Streets of Rage 4 is set to release on Nintendo Switch, as well as Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. No exact release date has been confirmed, but everyone is hoping for a 2020 release.
