Try though you might, you can't keep a good brawler down. Developers and fans alike have been trying for years to see the Streets of Rage franchise revived, but it's been shut down at almost every turn. Recently, concept art has popped up from an artist at indie developer Backbone, known primarily for their ports.
Arvin Bautista recently added to his online gallery a small collection of artwork to be used as promotional pitches for XBLA and PSN. Included therein are pieces for Genesis classics Streets of Rage and E-Swat.
Whether the pitches were ever made is unknown, but given the lack of news on a re-imagining for either game, it either never happened, or was refused.
While Streets of Rage and its sequels has been re-released individually, and on a number of collections for various systems, it's yet to receive a new title since the third game hit in 1994, although attempts have been made. The game that was originally planned as Streets of Rage 4 was re-worked and ultimately released as Fighting Force in 1997, and more recently, Crackdown developer Ruffian Games had a reboot in the works, but that was cancelled early on. Footage from the build eventually found its way online.
Despite HD remakes like Double Dragon Neon grabbing attention, proving there's still a market for old school beat 'em ups, Sega seems content to hold onto the Streets of Rage IP despite fans' cries for a new game.
