05-08-2005, 02:40 PM
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#8
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Of course, the idea of a Sega franchise title such as Streets of Rage appearing on the Playstation was unthinkable, so the first attempts were for Sega's ill-fated Saturn console. Sega clearly were going to update the series; both Shinobi & Golden Axe, Sega's other classic franchises, received Saturn updates (both sadly crap). But instead of trying to develop the sequel in-house Sega tried to purchase the half-completed Fighting Force from Core Design (of Tomb Raider fame) and turn it into Streets of Rage 4. This deal never happened, and Sega apparently gave up on the idea of a Saturn sequel (probably because the sequel would need to be 3D, and the Saturn was woefully underequipped for 3D games). However, the Saturn was a far superior 2D machine to the Playstation and I think Sega could and should have took advantage of this to create a 2D Streets of Rage masterpiece with some stunning animated visuals. Treasure's little-known Saturn classic Guardian Heroes (see screenshot) is an example of what Streets of Rage 4 could have been like.
Another aborted attempt at Streets of Rage 4 was apparently Die Hard Arcade, a 3D Streets of Rage style game released in the arcades on Sega's S-TV system in 1996-7 and later converted to the Saturn. This was rumoured to have been at one stage Streets of Rage 4 before Sega decided against an arcade sequel. This could have a been a good Streets of Rage 4, as it mixed the standard action with elements of Sega's Virtua Fighter, giving the fighters lots of moves and combos.
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The Death of Dreamcast Streets of Rage 4 - 1999
Finally, with a machine capable of handling what was envisaged for the game, development on Streets of Rage 4 by Ancient & Sega started in 1999 for the Dreamcast. A small demo (with tunes from Yuzo Koshiro) was made and shown to Sega. However, executives from Sega of America, unaware of the series' history, shot the idea down on the basis of its genre alone. The side-scrolling beat'em up had rapidly gone out of fashion in the mid-1990s, and attempts to bring the genre into 3D (such as Fighting Force) had been unsuccessful. This meant that Sega were unwilling to commit to a game that in their eyes had little chance of making a good financial return (despite the fact that a Streets of Rage sequel would pretty much sell itself). Take a look at this SegaWeb.com SOR4 article from 1999 for more info.
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X-Box Bound? - March 2001
The story doesn't end there though. With the Dreamcast dying, Sega began changing it's focus to becoming a software only developer, a process that can be seen quite visibly today. It's franchises, previously restricted to Sega machines, are now being updated on other machines - Sonic Advance on GBA and Sonic Adventure 2 on GC being notable examples. With this new focus on software, Streets of Rage 4 may recommence - read this SegaWeb.com interview with Yuzo Koshiro from March 2001. In it, Yuzo says that "now Sega teams are independent we'll replan it and bring it to Hitmaker first. If they're interested in making it for Xbox and make a contract with us, I want to restart the plan". He also talks about some ideas for the game: "I'm thinking about a first-person mode. And needless to say, in 3D. And the game will connect online for multi-play" and "My sister [Ayano Koshiro, Ancient art designer] designed five new characters for SoR4 already".
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http://www.classicgaming.com/soronline/misc_sor4.htm
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