Sega Reveals Free Streets of Rage/Yakuza Mashup

As part of their 60th-anniversary celebration event, Sega has revealed a free Streets of Rage/Yakuza mashup called Streets Of Kamurocho.

“The death of the Tojo Clan’s Third Chairman has plunged the organization into chaos,” reads a description of the game on its Steam page. “The violence spreads to the streets, and only Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima can put an end to the bloodshed!”

While the game isn’t scheduled to be released until October 17, the early footage of the game looks surprisingly solid. Granted, it’s pretty much a Streets of Rage game that just incorporates some Yakuza characters and environments, but it turns out that those two series actually go together quite well. Whether you’re just looking for some old-school beat-em-up gameplay or you want to feast your eyes on an official pixel art rendition of the Yakuza universe, Streets Of Kamurocho looks like a surprisingly well-produced game for what essentially amounts to an Easter egg.

That’s not all that Sega is releasing as part of their anniversary celebrations. On October 15, you’ll be able to download a free copy of Armor of Heroes: a retro tank battling game featuring competitive multiplayer and couch co-op. On October 16, you’ll be able to try out Endless Zone: an action game “inspired by SEGA’s ‘Fantasy Zone‘ series.”

For long-time Sega enthusiasts, though, the most intriguing upcoming anniversary project has to be October 18th’s Golden Axed.

See, about 10 years ago, SEGA Studios Australia was working on 2.5D reboots of the Golden Axe, Altered Beast, and Streets of Rage series. Progress on all of those projects was stopped in 2013 when SEGA Studios Australia was closed, but Golden Axed represents a working version of what the team had built up until that point.

By Sega’s own admission, Golden Axed will be “janky” and “buggy,” but for Sega fans everywhere who long wondered whether these reboots could possibly recapture the magic of some beloved arcade franchises, this game (or, more accurately, demo) will offer a glimpse at what could have been. At the very least, the early footage of the project suggests that the team was walking an interesting path before the project was stopped in its tracks.

If you’d like to learn more about the history of Sega, be sure to check out the recently released (and pretty good) documentary about the early days of the Sega/Nintendo console wars that’s currently available on CBS All Access. As for the future of the company, we’ve heard rumors that they could be one of the studios on Microsoft’s shopping list, but we can tell you that they’re planning on bringing many more games to PC in the near future.