Footage from a cancelled Streets of Rage project has surfaced online.

The game was underway at Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games, and was to have been a downloadable title.

“Not a lot I can say about this and to be honest the appearance of this video is a bit of a surprise,” said Ruffian Games business and management chief Gary Liddon, who then uploaded a version of the footage featuring audio.

“Here are some scenes from a playable prototype,” he wrote.

“It was something we built very rapidly and represents pre-pre-pre-pre (lots of pres) pre-Alpha quality. Even so it has a certain charm.”

“Like a lot of developers we work on a lot of different prototypes, they're just not usually shown in public. Beyond that there's not a lot more I can say unfortunately.”

Following the leak, former Ruffian developer Sean Noonan fielded some questions about the prototype on Twitter.

“Mechanically it had some similarities with God of War. I see the State of Emergency similarities though,” he said.

As to why it was cancelled: “I don't really have a solid answer to that,” he said.

“That was my life for a while. Probably the hardest hit I've had in the industry so far.”

“Though I've had fewer cancellations than most, so I should be thankful, I guess.”