Yuzo Koshiro is one of the most renowned music composers in video game history. If you don’t know about him and you play video games, you should. His resume of compositions includes Sonic: The Hedgehog, Shenmue, Revenge of Shinobi, and Super Smash Bros. to name several. One of my personal favorite franchises that Koshiro worked on was Streets of Rage, which is regarded as one of the most popular series in the beat ’em up genre ever. Sega delivered three solid installments of this IP on the Sega Genesis, so many were very excited when they heard rumors of a possible Streets of Rage 4 game coming to the Sega Dreamcast.

But it never happened. In fact, a lot of people denied this game was even a thought that crossed Sega’s mind. But then, the Street of Rage 4 myth was proven to be true years ago, after a tech demo for the game slipped under Sega’s door cracks. If you’ve never seen it, you may want to refer to the top of the page, and keep in mind: this is a tech demo.

Well, that was cringe-worthy! Perhaps we should be happy this never saw the light of day, as it would’ve likely ruined the prestige of the Street of Rage name. Moving forward to the present day, Mr. Koshiro tweeted a couple of images from the thwarted Dreamcast title, showing off the game’s four main characters. None of Streets of Rage 4‘s characters were returning cast members from the previous games—though they all resemble their predecessors quite closely. Burn is the splitting image of Axel, and apparently his son as well, while Erie seems to fight in the same ninja-like style a series veteran, Blaze. And just like the rest of the series, there’s a dark-skinned dude in a tank top. But this time around, he’s more like series original Adam, and free of any rollerblades.

Though it’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever see another entry in the Streets of Rage series, at least we have tons of mods for the already existing titles with which to play. A cool one that just surfaced on the net a couple of days ago mashes the franchise up with Konami’s survival horror series Silent Hill. In Streets of Rage: Silent Hill, players can take control of many of the series characters—including James, Maria, Eddie, Heather, Angela, and Travis. You can even play as Pyramid-head himself.

Download the game here and let us know what you think in the comments below.

HT: Segabits, Siliconera