For gamers of a certain vintage, there’s one title that is perhaps piquing the interest above all forthcoming in 2020 – Streets of Rage 4.
And, for fans of the iconic Sega Mega Drive side-scrolling beat ’em up, the development team has revealed the nostalgia levels are being dialled up to the max ahead of the official release date.
We’ve learned there’ll 12 unlockable characters from previous titles, bringing the overall number of playable characters to 17. The likes of Max, Skate and Zan will even be rendered in their original 16-bit pixel art, rather than the hand-drawn characters that’ll sit within the main game.
As a bonus, the legacy pixel characters will be accompanied by actions specific to the original games, showcased in a new trailer which you can see below.
In a listing on the Steam Store, the dev’ team comprising of Dotemu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush write: “The brand-new trailer showcases some of Streets of Rage 4’s tributes to the original trilogy with unlockable pixel art characters coming from the whole series with abilities unique to their respective games like calling the police or sprint and roll through environments just like Streets of Rage 3.”
If that wasn’t enough, gamers will be able to switch to the legendary original soundtracks from the first two Streets of Rage games, which were composed by the great Yuzo Koshiro. Those soundtracks have been beneficiaries of hard-to-come-by vinyl reissues courtesy of the fine folks at Mondo, so it’s great to see them getting some more love in the new game.
Elsewhere today, the development teams played down reports the game could be released imminently, following a Nintendo Switch Online listing that pegged the release as April 23.
Dotemu wrote on Twitter: “We are aware that some of you have seen a release date leaked this afternoon. Right now we cannot confirm it yet and apologize for the confusion. We will keep you updated officially as soon as possible and thank you for your patience.”
The price for the game, which will be available for PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch was confirmed though. It’ll cost $24.99, with the UK price yet to be announced. Dotemu also confirmed “SOR4 OST will be available day-one on all digital platforms. And vinyl is also on the way (coming this summer).”
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
