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SEGA, the Japanese developer-publisher giant known in modern times for franchises like Sonic, Persona, and Like A Dragon, revealed their intent to breathe new life into classic franchises. During The Game Awards 2023, SEGA's reveal trailer felt like a lightning round of reveals, announcing new entries into the SEGA classics Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Shinobi, and Streets of Rage franchises.
SEGA Revives Fan-Favorite Classics
“In recent years, Sonic the Hedgehog has forged new paths for SEGA, bringing the franchise to life and reaching new audiences in ways we had only dreamed of in the past. Building off that success, we are digging into our legacy and reimagining several franchises to bring these games to more audiences around the globe,” Co-COO of SEGA Corporation, Shuji Utsumi spoke about the reveal. “[The] announcement is just the start of our initiative. First and foremost, our ambition will be to create great games with memorable characters and worlds. We hope fans of all ages will look towards our future with anticipation as we release these projects in the coming years.”
New titles in each franchise are now in development, with even more classic SEGA franchises teased in the trailer.
Crazy Taxi was initially released for the arcade in 1999 before it hit the Dreamcast a year later. Since then, the original installment has been ported and remade for more modern platforms, most recently the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation of consoles.
The most recent title in the series is Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller which was released in 2002 as an Xbox exclusive, and released for Arcade and Windows in succeeding years.
The Crazy Taxi franchise is widely considered as an arcade classic and was highly praised for its gameplay, soundtrack, and replayability.
Originally released for the SEGA Dreamcast in 2000, Jet Set Radio by Smilebit was critically acclaimed, particularly for being one of the first games with cel-shaded graphics, innovative gameplay, and soundtrack that was prone to becoming earworms for repeat players.
It was one of the titles that defined the Dreamcast as a console, but has since made its way to multiple platforms including iOS, Android, PlayStation 3 and Vita, and PC.
The sequel, Jet Set Radio Future, released in 2002 to similar critical acclaim. It was a re-imagining of the first title with an altered plot and multiplayer gameplay, among other things.
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Golden Axe is a series of side-scrolling, arcade, beat-em-up games from SEGA that began in 1989 for arcade. Due to wide reception, it soon made its way to different home systems including the Sega Genesis and has expanded to a franchise of multiple mainline and spin-off games.
The most recent release in this line is Golden Axe: Beast Rider which came out in 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. While it kept many elements from the franchise, it acquired generally unfavorable reviews, perhaps attributed to its departure from the franchise's side-scrolling identity.
The Shinobi franchise began in 1987 after SEGA released it for arcade. Joe Musashi, the protagonist for the first few entries in the series, was one of SEGA's flagship characters alongside Alex Kidd and Sonic the Hedgehog.
The original release was positively received, and eventually spawned a franchise of over a dozen games and millions of copies. The latest release, simply named “Shinobi,” was on November 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS. Critics described the game as challenging, both in a positive and negative light.
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage is a side-scrolling beat-em-up franchise that began with its 1991 release for the SEGA Genesis with a total of four entries, the most recent one being a 2020 release as part of an attempted revival of the franchise.
The games were well-received and became widely available across multiple platforms, and the EDM soundtrack of the game also received praise.
