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[Kazza]

I'm going to post some of the earlier designs here, but it's well worth reading through the whole blog, where the character designer, Ben Fiquet, goes through his design process for Blaze and Adam, as there is a lot more information and drawings in there:

How Lizardcube Redesigned the Characters of Streets of Rage 4, Out April 30

The future of retro: redesigning the iconic characters from the original Streets of Rage.

blog.us.playstation.com

On designing Blaze

I decided to start from what fans remember most, which is the original sprites. One of her “calling cards” is the color scheme: red, underlined by her miniskirt and tight top. It was important to keep these attributes, as they express not just the character herself but also the fond memories of many players around the globe.

So, I tried different things in my attempt to “get” the character. My point of view is that she’s a strong, independent woman — a cop and a professional dancer who’s not afraid to clean up the streets in a tight skirt. I liked her jacket in the first episode, which gives her a more urban look, so I wanted to keep it — but in a more modern way.

On designing Adam

I followed the same mindset when designing Adam. However, because he only appeared in the first episode, there was way less to work with. I tried keeping his shoulder pads, but to no avail — they felt too anchored to the 80s. So I explored other directions… The glasses make him look more mysterious, and sort of remind me of the look of the old sprite, where his eyes are barely noticeable.

Due to the technical limitations of the time, the original games didn’t have many frames. To bring the game forward to the present, I wanted as much fluidity and impact as possible. This proved very hard on the production, since each playable Streets of Rage 4 character has approximately 1,000 frames. Plus you have assorted enemies between 300/400 frames each. And everything is hand-drawn frame by frame in Photoshop.

With this amount of time, effort and talent going into the art design of the game, how can anyone seriously say "it looks like a cheap flash game?"

 

[Kazza]

Looking at the earlier designs, I definitely prefer the final ones. What's that first jacket they had on Adam? I still wish they had removed that jumper tied around Axel's waist though - it just makes the design look a little too busy imo.

 

[Miles708]

Ok this actually... looks great?
I mean, Adam design still looks like a bartender to me, but animations are frankly awesome and the style is crazy good, while not mimicking the original.

I think the "flash game" vibe some people can have has more to do with the art style, with thick outlines and characters clearly separated from the backgrounds, but that's an artistic choice, and it's ignoring the huge work done in the frame-by-frame animations department.

Hope there's an "extra" section in this game too, like with Wonder Boy The Dragon's Trap. That had loads of neat videos, animations, musical pieces, and all kind of interesting making-of content.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Adam looks like the best improvement out of all of the characters. Although when I see him, I think of Terminator and if they had Black Terminators that they would look like him.

If Streets of Rage 1 was focused on Late 80's Attire then 4 is definitely focused on how the late 90's looked. The characters being in their early 30s/40s does add to the realism akin to how Yakuza was, although instead of bringing back the older sprites to have 17 characters in the game, I personally would have asked SEGA if they could of added Kiyru and Goejima from the Yakuza series and add Akira and Pai from Virtua Fighter, that would have been MUCH better in my opinion than re-using the older Sprites/Characters.

Random but...is it me or does Adam's shoes look like a Re-Colouring of Sonic and Shadow's?

 

[GenericUser]

Looks like a cheap flash game

 

[Deleted member 738976]

Axel should have looked more like this.

 

[Miles708]

I personally would have asked SEGA if they could of added Kiyru and Goejima from the Yakuza series and add Akira and Pai from Virtua Fighter, that would have been MUCH better in my opinion than re-using the older Sprites/Characters.

Welp, now I want this too!
Sega Japan's output and western project are very separate, so I think this could never happen, I feel like they're very agains "mixing" the various branches.

Looks like a cheap flash game

Axel should have looked more like this.

They should have looked more like THIS!

(... I just want a new Last Bronx dammit)

 

[Kazza]

Looks like a cheap flash game

I personally would have asked SEGA if they could of added Kiyru and Goejima from the Yakuza serie

That's a great idea! Ryu Hazuki or one of the Virtua Fighter characters would also be great. Maybe for DLC.