To make Streets of Rage 4 authentic, its designer plays 2 games at once

Streets of Rage 4 is real. Publisher DotEmu and developer Lizard Cube are making it right now. Their goal is to build a sequel to Sega’s classic beat-’em-up franchise that feels like the original team made it using today’s technology. That’s something DotEmu has a lot of experience with. To achieve that modern-retro balance, Lizard Cube designer Cyrille Lagarigue is meticulously combing over the original games.

Streets of Rage and its sequels launched on Sega’s Genesis, even though they played like arcade games. They featured multiplayer cooperative action. You would control a hero like Axel or Blaze in a long-form street brawl against punks, muay thai boxers, and other villains. The beat-’em-up genre was well established by this point, but Sega pushed it over the top with striking art and an incredible Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack.