For the last eight years, a team of dedicated Streets of Rage fans have been working on the ultimate version of their all-time favorite game. What they delivered was actually impressive: 103 stages, 19 playable characters, new modes, a level editor, not to mention all the graphical updates. The list goes on and on.

After nearly a decade of self-motivated dedication, they finally released their completed masterpiece, only to have SEGA shut it down soon afterwards. They're going around the interwebs and killing any links to the game that they can find. Sadly, there's already a precedent for stuff like this, as just about any fan remake, whether distributed as freeware or not, has been taken down by their respective copyright owners.

Right now I'm kicking myself in the ass for not downloading this when I first heard about it. Hopefully, SEGA will come to their senses and realize that this isn't a threat to their XBLA sales of Streets of Rage 2 and lets this plucky young (or old by now) crew of devs distribute their most awesome homage.

[Dev team's page]

[Source]