Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs - The Game

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs - The Game is an upcoming 2D 16-bit-style run and gun-style shoot-'em-up video game. It is being developed by a German development group called "Team Saber Rider". The game is based on the 1987 television series of the same name, which is an American adaptation of a 1984 anime that was reworked and originally syndicated by World Events Productions (WEP). The game is also licensed by Studio Pierrot, the original owners of the series.

Development

The game was formerly developed by indie German company Firehazard Studio,^[1] in conjunction with Denaris Software and Pixable Studios. Firehazard Studio released some gameplay footage in a pre-alpha build of the game at E3 2011, which depicted Saber Rider, and then the giant robot Ramrod, battling various enemies in a city. The game was announced as a digital-distributed title for multiple platforms, which included the Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Wii U, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita (then still known as "Next Generation Portable"), Xbox 360, iOS, and Android. It is also being developed for the Dreamcast and the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16.^[2]

However, after three years of silence, a new teaser video, which depicts a much-improved Ramrod model, was released in March 2014, proving the game was still being developed.^[3] Gaming news site Siliconera then contacted director Chris Strauß, whom confirmed that the original developer Firehazard Studio had since disbanded, and calls the current development group as the "Team Saber Rider", since the game is momentarily their sole focus. Strauß mentions that development went through various hurdles, although not from their end, but the problems did greatly affect development, slowing it down, even casting doubts that the game would be finalised. Strauß mentions plans to release the game by the target year of 2016, as well as a funding campaigns via Kickstarter and Steam's Early Access service. He hopes to finalise the game for the PC and Nintendo 3DS primarily, before porting it to other platforms.^[4]

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