The biggest question Streets of Rage fans have had about the upcoming 4 has been answered: Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima are back.
Developers LizardCube and Guard Crush Games have announced the list of composers scoring the upcoming Streets of Rage 4, and they’re not just bringing back the original composers Koshiro and Kawashima. They’ve gone far above and beyond what anyone’s expected and brought on Yoko Shimomura, who wrote music for the original Street Fighter 2 and the Kingdom Hearts series; Hideki Naganuma, known for his work on the Jet Set Radio, Sega Rally, and Super Monkey Ball games; and Keiji Yamagishi, who wrote music for Ninja Gaiden and Tecmo Bowl.
In a new video discussing the soundtrack for Streets of Rage 4, Koshiro and Kawashima explain their approach to writing new music with modern sensibilities, while also retaining the spirit of the original Streets of Rage games. They don’t present any solid answers for how they’re handling the new soundtrack, but it sounds like the duo may try to use old chiptune-style instrumentation while modernizing their sounds.
Koshiro had a long career with Sega, composing the soundtracks to games like The Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, and Shenmue. He collaborated with Kawashima on the music of Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3.
The developers of Streets of Rage 4 have not announced a release date or platforms for the side-scrolling beat-’em-up, but now that we can rest easy about the music, everybody’s gonna’ be clamoring for a date. Stay tuned for more coverage in the future.
