User:Czar/drafts/SR

History
Each of the Saints Row series games were largely driven by a single idea: the original game by hip hop music videos, the second by expanding the first's "outlandishness and irreverence", the third by going "all out", the fourth by "the supernatural and super powers", and Gat Out of Hell from Disney films. Saints Row 4 time spent on development was the shortest of all prior entries in the series.

The first game was considered a "Grand Theft Auto clone" and was released between Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4. The series "carved itself a niche" while other open world-genre games grew to themes apart from "urban crime simulation". Commenting on the game's broad range of parody, Eurogamer Chris Schilling wrote that the series "has always been a magpie" in its appropriation of gameplay and story elements. Side mission activity types recur throughout the series, including Insurance Fraud, where the player runs into traffic to collect insurance reimbursements, and the demolition derby-style Mayhem. Recurring series features also include a robust character editor and a two-player cooperative mode.

Saints Row series developer Volition was sold to Koch Media in early 2013 when its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy. It became Koch's first internal video game studio. The studio announced Saints Row 4 two months later. The game was produced by Koch Media brand Deep Silver, which had previously produced European releases of the series. Acquired without rights to their Red Faction series, Volition's new goals were to make connected, open world games where "the player is an agent of mayhem". The entire company worked on the one game.

A Saints Row spin-off game, Money Shot, was canceled when THQ shut down. In the game, a bullet is shot from a sniper rifle, and players guide it past obstacles. There were 11 levels and one additional "infinite" level. It was in development for PlayStation 3 (where it was to be a free title on PlayStation Network), Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS.

Insert Coin, a video game clothing company, produced a line of Saints Row-inspired apparel in 2014.

Reception
Reflecting on the series in his review of Saints Row 4, Eurogamer Chris Schilling called it "one of the success stories" of the seventh generation of video game consoles, as it grew from "a poor man's GTA" into an open-ended sandbox game. He wrote that while the fourth installment's superpowers hit a "sweet spot between empowerment and vulnerability", no moment matched the "poo-spraying interludes" of Saints Row 2.

Legacy
Johnny Gat was a guest character in parody fighting game Divekick.