Streets of Rage 4 is a pixel-free blast from the past

Streets of Rage 4 is a pixel-free blast from the past

Streets of Rage 4 is an upcoming side-scrolling beat'em up that draws heavily on its predecessors from the '90s. It brings back some of the same characters, the same music and art styles. The only thing missing is the pixellation, as these hand-drawn graphics are beautiful and crisp, despite adhering to the same sort of aesthetic as the original trilogy.

The original Streets of Rage was Sega's answer to popular beat'em ups like Double Dragon and it delivered tremendously. The tight controls, mix of weapon and hand-to hand combat, pumping soundtrack and great graphics for the day, meant that Streets of Rage was a huge hit. The sequels expanded on the original concept with new characters, abilities and enemies, making Streets of Rage one of the most popular franchises on the original Genesis.

There's not been anything since outside of fan projects. Streets of Rage 4, however, is fully Sega endorsed and published. It's being developed by Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games and Dotemu, a trio of experienced indie developers. The new gameplay trailer shows it in action with the same fluid, exciting combat we always loved about Streets of Rage.

No release date for Streets of Rage 4 has yet been released, nor details on what platforms we can expect it to debut on, but we're betting on a console and PC wide launch later this year.

Which character would you be most interested in playing?