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SEGA has just surprise-announced a wide-sweeping revival of a number of its long-dormant, retro franchises at The Game Awards last night. Brand new entries in the Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage series were shown off in a single 'Power Surge' reveal trailer, which you can see in full below. While we have known about the Jet Set Radio remake for quite some time, thanks to a leaked internal presentation that hit the internet back in April, it was pretty breathtaking to see the project confirmed and running in full throughout this trailer. The Streets of Rage game looks to be a modern take on the series, featuring Axel Stone pummelling bad guys in a traditional 2D arena using 3D graphics (seemingly following the philosophy behind Sonic Superstars). Golden Axe appears to be a behind-the-shoulder fantasy action-adventure, and we can see Gilius Thunderhead fight and combat roll around a gorgeous landscape. Shinobi perhaps looks the most interesting in terms of revival, considering that it appears to be taking a more 'retro' approach than its fellow titles. The game is seen running entirely in 2D, with beautiful hand-drawn graphics, and the gameplay suggests a 'Metroidvania' style approach. Crazy Taxi, however, just looks like pure arcade fun as we remembered it back on the Dreamcast - with the added bonus of a police car chasing the taxis around the city. Will there be a Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit-style 'cops and robbers' multiplayer mode involved? Jet Set Radio Golden Axe Streets of Rage Shinobi Crazy Taxi Although SEGA has made no secret of its desire to pull from its extensive back catalogue of IPs in recent interviews and financial presentations, it is still surprising to see so many of these projects announced all at once. It also appears to mark what SEGA is calling a "New Era" for the publisher - and if the games end up being good, it could finally be the Era that long-time SEGA fans have been waiting for, for decades. One of our first ever news stories on the Sonic Stadium was the reporting of the rumour (and then the sad confirmation) of SEGA's exit from the home console business with the death of the Dreamcast, back in January 2001. We had all hoped that, with the company's move to third-party publishing, that there would be more of a leveraging of its huge suite of high-quality franchises. Over the last twenty years, SEGA has tried with hit-or-miss results, but with this trailer, for the first time it kind of feels like (from this old-man SEGA fan, at least) that the publisher is finally about to 'get it'. Let's see what happens, eh? What do you think of all of this news, and which project are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments section below. Original Post Content: View full story