SEGA wins Game Awards with Golden Axe, Shinobi and Streets of Rage reveal

In a night of countless game reveals and trailers, SEGA arguably stole the show during the 2023 Game Awards. After teasing a new era in the run up to the event, SEGA confirmed plans to revisit five famous franchises during a mind-blowing 90 second trailer. After years of the same Sonic the Hedgehog and SEGA Mega Drive collections, SEGA is spreading its wings and embracing other games from its past. While we don’t have too many details about the upcoming games, the news has gone down well with SEGA fans. You can watch the trailer below…

As you can see from the video above, SEGA will release brand new versions of Golden Axe, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio.

Interestingly, SEGA revealed that more games are also in development as part of its ‘Power the Next Level’ initiative.

SEGA’s Shuji Utsumi explains more: “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.

“Today’s announcement is just the start of our initiative. The upcoming projects, spanning a range of genres, are currently in different stages of development and will release over the next several years.”

The games shown in the trailer all look promising, with the 3D fighting action in Streets of Rage the only slight cause for concern. 

Shinobi retains the 2D platforming of the earlier games, albeit with a stylish new art style.

Crazy Taxi appears to have police chases and possible multiplayer, while the uber colourful Jet Set Radio looks like it could be a remake of the original.

Golden Axe, meanwhile, is a third-person action game with multiple characters, hinting at possible co-operative multiplayer.

In addition to bringing back classic franchises, SEGA recently made Model 3 arcade games available for the first time on consoles.

Like a Dragon Gaiden contained the previously unreleased Daytona USA 2 (now known as SEGA Racing Classic 2), as well as Model 3 fighting game Fighting Vipers 2. Upcoming action game Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, meanwhile, will feature SpikeOut.

With SEGA more open to revisiting its retro gaming library, here’s hoping for more re-releases and re-imaginings in the future.

I would love to see a SEGA Arcade Racing collection containing arcade perfect ports of SEGA Rally and its sequels, all of the Daytona games, as well as OutRun, Turbo OutRun, OutRunners and OutRun 2.

It would also be great to see some of its lesser-known arcade games get a release, such as Emergency Call Ambulance, Scud Race and Cool Riders.

Whatever the future holds, SEGA’s announcement is a massive step in the right direction, and proof that the company is finally starting to listen to its long-suffering fanbase.