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'Streets of Rage 4' will be scored by an all-star group of composers
However well Streets of Rage 4 turns out, it should at least have a top-tier soundtrack. Guard Crush Games, Lizardcube and Dotemu have revealed that the side-scrolling beat-em-up will have music from Motohiro Kawashima and Yuzo Koshiro, both of whom produced soundtracks for the original Streets of Rage games. They'll tap into the "thumping club anthems" you may remember from the first three titles while creating new sounds.
Jet Set Radio composer brings funky fresh beats to Hover
Hover: Revolt of Gamers, the upcoming game from French developer Midgar Studio, is inspired by games like Mirror's Edge and Jet Set Radio (or as it was known in the States, Jet Grind Radio). Thanks to hitting the $60,000 stretch goal of their crowdfunding campaign earlier this week, Midgar will be able to add composer Hideki Naganuma's funky fresh beats to the game. If you didn't consider Hover a spiritual sequel to the Dreamcast's best paint-em-up, skate-em-up game already, perhaps Naganuma's involvement will convince you: he composed music not only for the original Jet Set Radio, but the Xbox follow-up Jet Set Radio Future as well. If you've never played either of the Jet Set Radio games, you still may have heard Naganuma's music compositions in Ollie King and Sonic Rush. "It was love at first sight," Naganuma said regarding his decision to contribute to the game. "Hover has hot graphics and a cool worldview. At first glance, I felt like I'd love to make music for Hover. This feeling's been a long time since Jet Set Radio Future." Hover's Kickstarter is still going strong: as of writing, it has less than $2,000 to go before the city players will turn into their playground adds a new district and becomes twice as large. [Image: Midgar Studio]
Jet Set Radio HD retains US-version content, half of original track list
Stripping out Jet Set Radio's eclectic mix of original and licensed music would be a vandalism far worse than that perpetrated by its roving band of cel-shaded graffiti artists. Sega's proposal of a high-definition update to the cherished and influential Dreamcast game skated around the question, but now we know just how much of the music will remain intact: 16 tracks, roughly half of the 30 shipped between the North American and European versions.Sega tells Joystiq it made every effort to pursue and re-license all the music, but cost and even the availability of certain music publishers became an impediment. In the end, Jet Set Radio keeps its original music (composed by Hideki Naganuma), and several fan favorites like "Magical Girl" (Guitar Vader) and "Funky Radio" (B.B. Rights). We'll probably survive without Rob Zombie.Though the NTSC- and PAL-specific tracks haven't made the cut, the levels developed for those versions (including Grind Square) will be included with this summer's HD port. The preservation may not be flawless, but the presentation nearly is -- Jet Set Radio's bold, cartoonish aesthetic benefits immensely from the higher resolution, 16:9 display and 60 frames-per-second output. Oh, and there's one more thing you didn't have before: a second analogue stick to steer the camera!%Gallery-150619%
