Sega announce new Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe, and Shinobi
One announcement, many games
I don't want to encourage more publishers to create irrelevant, self-indulgent trailers for Geoff Keighley's Advertganza, but I'll cut Sega a break for their one. Sure, the first 52 seconds are some live-action skit, but the following 41 seconds announce no less than five games. Sega are returning to their glory days once again, with new games coming based on Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe, Shinobi, "and more." You can get a few tiny glimpses at those in the trailer below.
So! Jet Set Radio is the ultra-stylish series about kewl kidz fighting The Man through the twin artforms of rollerblading and graffiti. Crazy Taxi is a wacky arcade driving game about pulling stunts to deliver passengers at breakneck pace. Those are both from the Dreamcast era. Then Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe, and Shinobi are side-scrolling biffers from the late 80s and early 90s.
These are some of Sega's biggest games for jabbing people's nostalgia glands so yup, this aligns with their stated desire for gobs of remakes and remasters. While some of these series receive the odd modern take every now and then, it's wild that some sat dormant for so long. I'm particularly thinking of how Jet Set Radio still is an influence on many developers over 20 years since the last entry—and more games have followed since we published that, like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.
Details are thin for now, leaving us to guess at the faint shape of these from snippets in the trailer. Keighley mentioned that the games are coming "over the next several years" but that's pretty vague. While Sega don't have much to say, you can sign up for a newsletter on their site.
Can't get enough of Geoff's annual advert hype machine? Find all the announcements and more on our Game Awards 2023 hub page, and why not pop into our liveblog while you're here?