Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi and Shinobi are among the five Sega titles getting shiny new games in the future…
Did you know that nostalgia was once regarded as a sickness – a longing for a time or place long gone so intense that it could result in a fever or even death. In many ways, this refl… OH MY GOD, SHINOBI! I NEVER THOUGHT WE’D SEE ANOTHER 2D SHINOBI GAME AGAIN!!
Ahem.
Overnight, Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards 2023 was the venue for the usual array of announcements and slick trailers. And arguably the one most likely to tickle older viewers’ nostalgia glands came from Sega.
It’s a trendy lifestyle-type promo, at first, with some annoyingly young people sitting on a sofa enjoying some time in front of an unspecified console. But… is that a Shinobi arcade cabinet implausibly located in the corner of their flat? Why, yes it is – cue a welter of quick-cut images, showing off no fewer than five games on the way from the House of Sonic.
Those titles are: Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets Of Rage and Crazy Taxi.
These are evidently some way into development, as well, with brief glimpses shown of a slicker-looking Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi, 3D takes on Golden Axe and Streets Of Rage, and what looks like a 2D Shinobi sequel with hand-drawn graphics.
Sega hasn’t announced a release date or official titles for any of these, it should be noted. We got a Streets Of Rage 4 in 2020 (and very good it was, too) so it’s unclear whether the new one will be a numbered sequel or a spin-off. We’re a little bit cautious about the 3D Golden Axe, as well, given that the last attempt at such a game – Golden Axe: Beast Rider – was frankly horrendous.
Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio look promising, though, and as you’ve probably gathered, we’re quite excited to see Sega’s long-dormant ninja antics series, Shinobi, finally getting dragged out of the archives.
More on these as we get it.
Read more: 8 classic Sega games we’d like to see turned into movies
