I promised I was gonna turn over a new leaf. No more being down on the state of the industry. No more peddling of the most negative aspects of video gaming that irk me so. No more raging against all and sundry for their crimes against the Grig.
It was worth a try.
While being a little late to the helm on this story and putting off a potential barrage concerning SSFIV AE due to the fact that I frankly cannot face thinking about it, I simply must address an issue that has had me making a positivity U-turn. I had even considered curbing my proverbial ‘slamming’ (in a Kerrang-stylee!) of serial offenders EA under this new outlook. But what’s the point when we have to contend with offenses of the magnitute that I am about to go into? For I put it to you sir, that there wouldn’t be a court in the land that would convict me for this outburst! In fact, if there was one felon who deserved nothing more than hard jail time, it’s former-friend Sega and their most recent atrocities against gaming!
Having played and enjoyed the fan-made remake of the once mighty Streets of Rage (as documented on this very site), Sega, not content with just abandoning great franchises and desecrating others, now see fit to have the aforementioned game pulled from the online abode that is Bombergames website. A game the quality of which, Sega in it’s current form, could not even dream of let alone bring to fruition. A game continuing a series so deeply abandoned by Sega, that numerous head-honchos didn’t even know that it existed. A game that in fact, does only exist as a remedy to Segas negligence and continued bumbling incompetence, forcing the hand of their ignored fans to prove that with a bit of care and understanding of a series, the dream of creating a brilliant sequel that has so eluded Sega in most of their other franchises, is possible.
Luckily of course, Sega’s lawyers have been on hand and have heroically stepped in to protect us all from the evils of a quality game so as not to sully Sega’s new reputation for trash, halting any damage being done to this key franchise that the company hold so dear to their hearts. What do you mean there hasn’t been a game in the series for 17 years?
Detailed in previous articles, Streets of Rage Remake is a fan made project by the brilliant and dedicated members of Bombergames that deserve to be acknowledged by anyone who has even had a passing interest in the series. For the past 8 years, these stirling fellows have been beavering away on this labour of love so that those of us lucky enough to have enjoyed this series back in it’s hey day could relive those past glories and once again walk the Streets of Rage! I tried the game myself a few years ago when there were only a couple of levels to be played, and while I could see it was going in a good direction, I had no idea the final product would be as good as it has turned out today – and it’s for these very reasons that I am so incensed now!
Where Sega has consistently failed with their franchises, fans are begining to rise up to succeed. The many Sonic fan projects are testament to the efforts people are putting in – the number of which look set to dwarf even the number of times that Sega has promised to ‘get it right this time’, and failed. And that’s a lot! The fan bases are still out there, but these days they’re forced to take matters into their own hands rather than just waiting to be disappointed again. Case in point: Sonic 4. Sega promised that they had listened and gone back to the 2D style of game everyone had longed for. Hope, against everyones better judgement, started to build. The gameplay of the 2D Megadrive/Genesis games was set in stone and new levels and graphical updates were where Sega really needed to focus their efforts. But instead, they changed the staple handling, breaking it beyond recognition and turning it into a shambling sludgefest of half-baked ideas boiling down to, once again, what they thought we should want, rather than what we actually did want. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad game (for the definition of that, look up Sonic ’06. *shudder*), but any quality came more from the vague shreads of what remained of the early games, rather than the truckload of poop that they added.
This alas, is Sega all over, and it was long before the destruction of Shinobi, Golden Axe and Nights that I had realised – while I wanted a Streets of Rage sequel, I didn’t want Sega to make it. Well my compadres of retro-raging, the dream came true with Remake, even if Sega are still managing to spoil it for everyone. But what else can we expect from the Sega of 2011 who can’t even put together decent compilations from a back catalogue containing good games?
The only way this situation could be made any better would be if Sega worked alongside Bombergames in doing them and their game justice, bringing it to the masses officially. Whilest I’d be mildly disappointed in having to give Sega any cut of the cash after their handling of this situation, I’d certainly pay good money for it on XBLA. Don’t tell ’em I said that though.
But you gotta look at it objectively, and fair dues to Sega for ‘protecting’ their IP and preserving the dignity of Streets of Rage for the next fifty times they rerelease it, probably on pocket calculators or those little gizmos in Argos to see if things are in stock. And now that the game is back on Segas radar, I look forward to the inevitable Streets of Rage Kart, Tennis, and of course Wii exclusive Sega Fat Fighters of Rage starring Blaze and Axel as your personal trainers. As a grateful fan, the future of the series in Segas hands is bound to be bright!
Oh by the way, I was being sarcastic.
In conclusion, hunt down Streets of Rage Remake people and see what Sega could only dream of achieving! Do it now!
