SEGA is really having a moment. Hot off the success of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with the company’s mascot providing two of the best video game movies ever, another SEGA franchise is being turned into a movie. Deadline reports that Streets of Rage, one of my favorite games ever, is being developed with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad.
Kolstad reportedly wrote the script for the Streets of Rage movie, but he’s joined by Sonic the Hedgehog‘s dj2 Entertainment and Escape Artists as producers. The first Streets of Rage game was released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis console. A side-scrolling beat ’em up, it followed a trio of vigilantes as they fought their way through a criminal syndicate. Streets of Rage 4, the most recent game in the franchise, was released in 2020 and it was pretty damn good and faithful to the series. It’s worth checking out.
Smartly, SEGA is capitalizing on an extensive catalog of recognizable video game brands to adapt. They also have Altered Beasts and Shinobi films in the works, while they continue to ignore my demands for Phantasy Star and Alex Kidd movies.
