SEGA in the Media: Saints Row IV’s homage to Streets of Rage

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This just might be a first for SEGA in the Media, a SEGA inspired video game within another video game! Released last year, Saints Row IV was a tongue-in-cheek action-adventure game from Illinois based developer Volition. Given the self-referential nature of the series, it only makes sense that they’d eventually reference crazy action games of the past, and what game is more fitting to pay tribute to than SEGA’s Streets of Rage? Dubbed “Saints of Rage”, this 2D beat ’em up appears at around 75-80% of the way into Saints Row IV. In-game, “Saints of Rage” is an enemy created nightmare simulation. Kicking off with a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” message, the player is taken to a title screen which is a direct reference to the original Streets of Rage title screen.

Saints Row IV pays tribute to Streets of Rage

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[Warning: Spoilers]

The latest entry of the Saints Row franchise came out last month and in the full game there is a part in the story mode where you play as a retro side-scrolling beat ’em up arcade game called ‘Saints of Rage‘. Sound familiar?
If you want to see gameplay, hit the jump but I warn you the gameplay reminds me more of ‘Double Dragon‘ than Streets of Rage.