A missed (golden) opportunity?

Wii U owners could have potentially been enjoying a glorious remake of arcade hack 'n' slash classic Golden Axe had SEGA Studios Australia got its own way.

A recently released video shows a pre-alpha prototype of the game, which the studio had been working on at one point. Surprisingly realised for a game at such an early stage in development, SEGA Studios Australia had some very interesting plans in mind for a new series of remakes, all of which would have been marketed under a new label called "SEGA Reborn". Not only would it have meant the return of classic SEGA franchises, but the studio was planning to go one step further by — bizarrely enough — making it so that each of these remakes was set within the same universe. This would have meant that games such as Streets of Rage, Shinobi and even Out Run would have all been linked together in some way.

Unfortunately, SEGA Studios Australia recently suffered as a result of a company restructure ordered by SEGA central command. As a result, the studio is to be closed and it's unlikely that this Golden Axe remake will ever amount to more than just a prototype. The last game to come out of the development studio will be a remake of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, which is due to release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in September.

To see what might have been, view the pre-alpha footage of the Golden Axe remake below.

[source segabits.com]