Fans seem to expect it to sound close to the first game in the series.

French publisher Dotemu has unveiled some details on the soundtrack to its upcoming side-scrolling beat ’em up game Streets of Rage 4.

Series composers Yūzō Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima are both returning to craft the music behind the latest instalment in the long-running series which dates back to 1991 when the first Streets of Rage launched on the Mega Drive.

Joining Koshiro and Kawashima will be Hideki Naganuma who composed the music for the Jet Set Radio games and Super Monkey Ball 3D,  Yoko Shimomura of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and the Kingdom Hearts role-playing game series, and Keiji Yamagishi who wrote the music to Ninja Gaiden and the bonus tracks on The Messenger’s soundtrack.

Music label Brave Wave Productions, founded by Yamagishi, played a part in bringing all the composers together.

Dotemu has shared a video that was filmed at BitSummit (the Japanese independent game development festival) last month, in which Koshiro spoke about how he regularly socialises with Shimomura but says it “feels strange” that they are both working on Streets of Rage 4 since the Street Fighter and Streets of Rage series were seen as rivals back in the early ’90s.

After revisiting the music of the original Streets of Rage, Kawashima said: “I felt that Streets of Rage wasn’t based on melodies. It was phrases woven with each other, like parts knitted together.”

Koshiro added: “Originally, the Streets of Rage music is heavily inspired by club music from the late eighties to early nineties. Working on the project today, I wondered on the approach to take, whether it should be modern, using EDM for example.”

Looking at fans’ opinions on the Internet is leading Koshiro to believe they want Streets of Rage 4 to sound closer to the first game.

Co-developed by Dotemu, along with Guard Crush Games and Lizardcube, Streets of Rage 4 will be the first game in the series in over 25 years. It’s not been announced yet what platforms it will be released on and when.