Navigating the Streets Of Rage
Simply the name “Sega” is synonymous with the ‘90s. If you were a kid in that decade, then you knew the name; even if you preferred the rival team, you still knew who the competition was. Of all the games that Sega created, Sonic The Hedgehog became its most successful series and is globally known and beloved. After years of unsuccessful attempts, Sonic finally came to the big screen in 2020 and proved his massive appeal hadn’t waned with time. With a sequel also having enormous box office success it is unsurprising that Sega now looks to its library of games to birth the next global franchise. From Sega’s vast catalogue, Streets Of Rage has emerged to receive that honour to head to cinemas next.
As a massive fan of the four games in the franchise, I couldn’t be more excited to hear this news. It did lead me, though, to start thinking about how you would adapt these games to the big screen. The most obvious answer—and the one a lot of folks on social media seem to be vibing with—is to make it a straight-up action movie. The only piece of information we know at the moment about the project is that John Wick creator (and NOBODY screenwriter) Derek Kolstad has been brought on to pen the script, suggesting that maybe that’s also the studio's mindset as well.
Thing is…I’m not so sure that is the best way to go. It’s certainly something that would work, mind you; the games are essentially the story of people forever moving to the right and punching anyone that tries to prevent them from that goal. You could easily work the names, places, and rough plot into any action film you want. If you dig deeper though, there is another way to approach this material.
Streets Of Rage was released in 1991 and set the stage for three police officers—Axel, Adam, and Blaze—who can no longer ignore the blatant corruption of the force and city officials while their city falls apart under the control of organised crime. They all resign and decide to take matters into their own hands and thus your vigilante justice begins.
You take on boomerang-throwing gangsters, wrestlers on the beach, giant men who breathe fire, a Freddy Krueger copycat, and the final boss, Mr. X, brandishing his Tommy gun. Totally normal stuff.
If Streets Of Rage were the only entry in the franchise, then I’d say a simple martial arts film would still be the way to go. Thing is…they made three more games after this, and those follow-ups got a bit crazier.
1992’s Streets Of Rage 2 is the one that really catapulted the series into mainstream success and introduced two new characters to be played as. Right off the bat, the antagonist from the first game has returned to take his revenge. No, his death wasn’t retconned; he literally returns from the dead.
Streets Of Rage 2 introduced special moves and blitz attacks into the series, from a gameplay standpoint they simply gave you more options and changed up the game.
From a visual standpoint however, characters now essentially had superpowers. Axel could create fire from his fists, Blaze enhanced her strikes with Ki blasts or ‘soul power,’ newcomer Skate could defy gravity and spin to win while other newcomer Max…well, Max could suplex people into the next life. He didn’t need powers. This madness also extended to the enemies, you went up against madmen with jetpacks, Blanka from Street Fighter, supernatural ninjas, Ki blasting-karate warriors, and killer robots.
Streets Of Rage 3 (1994) and 2020’s long awaited fourth entry went even harder with the craziness. Playable cyborg characters, even more supernatural powers, the brain of Mr X in a jar remote controlling a drone to kill you. Music that can mind control you into doing other people’s bidding, DJs that shoot lasers, and huge spider mechs.
So while it’s certainly tempting to make a film that is more in line with the gritty realism of 1984s STREETS OF FIRE, I actually think that would be doing this franchise a disservice. Streets Of Rage was not based on any pre-existing media but it was heavily inspired by Japanese manga and anime. So much so that the fourth game in the series even leant into that inspiration for its art style. So why shouldn’t the film do the same thing?
The original Japanese name of the Streets Of Rage series was Bare Knuckle. When Streets Of Rage 3’s story leant into the more fantastical elements, the American release was altered to make it seem more grounded. 28 years later, that may be not a requirement given our current reigning age of the superhero film.
“IP is King” filmmaking is dominant at studios, leaving many scrambling to find recognisable names to turn into projects. Video game adaptations are no stranger to this and for a long time have carried the stench of failure. So many botched attempts left audiences soured and executives confused. Just the mere mention of a movie based on a video game was enough to put people off, the resulting picture often having little to do with the source material, alienating even the built-in audience that is meant to be drawn in by the IP.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 has proven that people aren’t afraid of the weird and wonderful, with many praising that the specifically game-inspired locations and characters took centre stage.
There are so many ways that this could be worked into the upcoming Streets Of Rage film. Lean into its crazy side, don’t be afraid to make something different. Another generic action film isn’t going to give you the next Sonic and it’s not going to be as popular as JOHN WICK. Equally don’t just look at something like the MCU and copy it; there’s a reason why manga and anime are incredibly popular, possibly the most popular they’ve ever been in the West.
Take the tone seriously, make your heavy-hitting action film—but instead of giving them guns, give our heroes fantastical super powers reminiscent of insane Hong Kong movies with their impossible abilities and massive bloodletting. Because if you aren’t going to let Axel uppercut a flaming fist into an unsuspecting goon’s head, are you really making a Streets Of Rage film?
