What do I mean? Well, recently SEGA launched a poll asking people what classic SEGA game series they wanted revived. Now obviously there's a lot of potential there, but a lot of games of old simply wouldn't be popular today based on their old fame. The characters, the stories, and even the series are mostly forgotten by active game players. But it doesn't stop there: a lot of genres which were once popular have fallen out of favor with modern gamers. One such example is side-scrolling beat-em-ups. So that got me to thinking that while that exact combo of 2D + beat-em-up is no longer popular, the overall art style and attitude of Streets of Rage is still really cool and "addictive." I mean, even people who don't like b'mups like Streets of Rage in some way.
So that got me to thinking, how could you bring back Streets of Rage? Do you go for a 3D b'mup? What would you model that after? Or would you go for a free-roaming game where you found your own trouble hiding in back alleyways? Would it even be reasonable to resurrect Streets of Rage or would it simply be better to make a new game with a new name if you wanted to make a modern b'mup? What are some other genres that could work well within the world of Streets of Rage?
I know this might be "sacrilegious" to some fans of SoR, but what if SEGA were to publish an adventure game set in the world of SoR? The team or an individual from the originals is investigating what's going on in the city, going from place to place, interviewing people and solving puzzles. It's just that the solutions to the puzzles often involve smashing open windows with lead pipes or punching some guy in the face rather than using a rubber chicken on a badger. Pipes and knives and fists and skateboards would be your inventory items instead of newspapers and monkey wrenches.