Spraying faeces, giant purple fake phalluses, ALIEN ANAL PROBES--The Third Street Saints have been through them all, and the only direction to go now is...somewhere different. Apparently the upcoming Saints Row 4 is set to conclude "the saga" of the series' existing characters and Saints members, leaving any possible fifth instalment as a fresh start of sorts. Speaking to GameReactor, design director Scott Phillips recalled Volition's thought-process when hatching the ridiculousness-in-a-disc that is Saints Row 4...

"I remember telling people: 'I don't know how we're going to top this. We've got a mission on Mars, we've got a heli-carrier, we've got zombies. Where do we go from here?'"

"But everybody took a vacation, we came back, started fresh, and very quickly we came up with: 'Well we've got to have... let's do superpowers. It's something we've always been talking about. Wouldn't it be great to run as fast as a car, or jump over a building, or be able to pick up somebody with your mind and throw them across the city."

Pushing the envelope to its alien-bashing/dildo-flailing extremes with Saints Row 4, the team felt that if there is to be a fifth game they would have to rethink a lot of the elements and rebuild the series in a new direction...

"So if there's any more future Saints Rows – which you know we always hope there will be, we hope there's fans for future games like that – they will probably continue in a different direction."

So, where would you like to see the Saints Row games headed after SR4? If we were to follow the series' thematic progression...

Aspiring hood

Gangster

Celebrity

President

...

God(?)

Your Mum?!?