Continue!
In the last post, we visited the first of the GO SEGA 60th anniversary celebration games: top-down tank party game Armor of Heroes and Fantasy Zone homage ENDLESS Zone. Today, we'll be looking at Streets of Kamurocho and Golden Axed, the final two games that make up this now-delisted tetralogy.
These last two titles also have some interesting history to them, so there are dedicated sections for each to cover some of their background.
I once again want to thank Sega Retro and their dedicated pages to the GO SEGA promotion for being an excellent resource as I filled in the gaps and searched for details to make a coherent story of these games' histories.
Streets of Kamurocho
Developer: Empty Clip Studios, Sega
Release date: October 17, 2020
Arsenal Tech Sleuth
Streets of Kamurocho was developed by San Diego-based Empty Clip Studios. It's a name that you might not immediately recognize, but may be familiar with some of their work. Browse their games list and you'll find titles such as the music-based shmup Symphony. The games list also reveals another insight: experience with retro remasters and brawler spin-off games. Notably, Empty Clip's portfolio includes.
- Dead Island: Retro Revenge and Final Fantasy XV: A King's Tale, two retro-styled side-scrolling beat-em-ups based on existing game franchises
- A few "retro remasters" based on their proprietary Arsenal tech, an emulation solution for 8- and 16-bit games intended to run ROMs accurately with optional enhancements
This makes Empty Clip a perfect choice for putting together Streets of Kamurocho, a Streets of Rage homage themed after the Yakuza / Ryu ga Gotoku series. It plays very similarly to its inspiration games, with unncannily similar physics and downright identical sound clips to Streets of Rage 2. Claims online, including those from the WEC Museum, suggest that this game's Streets of Rage 2 connection goes as far as actually emulating the Genesis/Mega Drive version of the original in some form.
Now the technical specifics on how that was achieved is something that we can currently only conjecture. Some believe Streets of Kamurocho is based on the Streets of Rage 2 source code, while others say it's probably an emulated version of Genesis Streets of Rage 2 with some of the assets swapped out for Yakuza-styled ones. What we do know for certain is that Streets of Kamurocho utilized the aforementioned 8- and 16-bit Arsenal emulator tech in its development, as confirmed by the games list on Empty Clip's own website, the reference to Arsenal in the game's credits, and the following in-credits shout-out: "Retro gaming community: thank you for your incredible information and research on the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis!"
Whether the final playable version of Streets of Kamurocho is running Arsenal or Empty Clip's own proprietary RapidFire engine (as some online sources such as MobyGames will confidently claim), is uncertain. What is clear, however, is that Streets of Kamurocho has a deep connection to Streets of Rage that go far beyond mere gameplay inspiration.
How's the game?
If, like me, you went into Streets of Kamurocho without knowing any of the above history at the time, you'd still find an enjoyable Yakuza-flavored chunk of Streets of Rage gameplay. The game spans a Yakuza-imagined version of Streets of Rage 2's Stage 1, a three-segment level with a boss at the end of each part. Clearing the stage loops you back to the beginning on a harder version of the level, with more aggressive and tankier opponents each iteration. You continue, racking up your high score, until you inevitably run out of lives and game-over. The game presents some simple fun, and I found enjoyment in learning the game's segments and the best strategies to get to higher, more difficult loops and improve my best score as I crawled up the online leaderboards.
The combat-focused gameplay is punchy and satisfying, offering options for ground and air attacks, grabs, and weapon pickups. While I was first playing this game, I had remarked how well it reproduced the classic beat-em-up feeling... only to later discover that it might just be Streets of Rage 2 under the hood!
Beyond the single-stage score-attack structure, the main differentiator for Streets of Kamurocho is its characters. Playable are recurring characters Kiryu, Majima, and Ichiban (unlocked once you finish the game's stage once), all playing like Streets of Rage 2's Axel Stone but with unique BGM and weapon sprites. As for the bosses, they're all reskins of the ones that appear in Streets of Rage 2 as well: Lau Ka Long, Koji Shindo, and Akira Nishikiyama replacing Jack, Electra, and Barbon.
Being so short, yet thoroughly painted with Yakuza franchise references, this game might just be Streets of Rage 2 again, but I'd say it's worth a play, and all the more if you're a big Yakuza fan.
Golden Axed: A Cancelled Prototype
Developer: Sega Studios Australia, The Eccentric Ape
Release date: October 18, 2020
Sources:
Digital Foundry + Dev stream (YouTube)
The background
Unlike the other three titles we've visited, Golden Axed wasn't created specifically for the 2020 GO SEGA celebration, and also wasn't even originally called Golden Axed. This game is actually a pitch prototype for a real (but scrapped) modern Golden Axe remake that dates back to 2012, slightly reworked later in 2020 to be played as a standalone "game."
The hubbub surrounding this game arose when one of the original programmers and major design contributors to the prototype Tim Dawson (of Assault Android Cactus and Unpacking fame), called out Sega for apparently releasing Golden Axed without informing him or anyone else he knew connected to the project. Dawson wrote a Twitter thread that describes experience with the prototype: crunch and management troubles. The account paints an unflattering picture of how the project was run, taking issue with the overly tongue-in-cheek presentation by Sega of the Golden Axed prototype as a novelty. Following this reveal, the Steam page copy was rewritten, rightly removing the original reference to "jank." (Speaking from experience, game prototypes by necessity and definition are going to feel incomplete and unfinished!)
Dawson and another member of the prototype team Sanatana Mishra (now both part of the Australia-based indie studio Witch Beam) would later be a part of a Digital Foundry livestream that walked through the prototype in detail, discussing its history and development--taking the opportunity to convert the situation into an educational moment.
The game
Like Streets of Kamurocho, Golden Axed is a retro-styled side-scrolling beat-em-up. Golden Axed, however, is much, much shorter, with its single stage taking just a couple minutes to finish. To get the most out of the experience, you need a different mindset, and a few replays as you play through what's essentially a living piece of gamedev flash-frozen in time.
As you experiment with the game you get a feel for how developed its mechanics are, with a light/heavy attack combo system, finishers, charge attacks, and even a dash-attack shoulder bash. The animations are satisfyingly brutal and gory, with some moves slicing enemies in half or bashing their heads in.
In a sense, this prototype is a form of minor miracle considering it was made in just two weeks. I can't help but be impressed at how well Golden Axed plays even in its explicitly unfinished state. It's an experience I recommend you try out yourself, not as a traditional "video game" but as demonstration of how tricky making a game can be. Hopefully Golden Axed and prototypes like it can promote a further respect for the craft of gamemaking... with releases better-handled than how Sega did here.
Conclusion
And with that, we've covered the four-game lineup of the GO SEGA 60th Anniversary! These titles' very existence is fascinating, and perhaps one or two of them have caught your interest. Although as of writing these games are long-delisted, there are still methods to acquire them officially on Steam--and I leave that as an exercise for the resourceful internet user.
For now, farewell--and happy almost 65th, Sega!