Streets of Rage 3

aka: Bare Knuckle 3, SoR 3
Moby ID: 11193
Genesis Specs
Buy on Genesis
$159.99 used on eBay
Buy on Windows
$0.99 new on Steam
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Description official description

In part three of the Streets of Rage series, Mr. X is back and this time his plan involves replacing public officials with his own robots. Only Axel, Blaze, Skate, and new-comer Dr. Zan can stop him. Streets of Rage 3 features all of the beat 'em up action you would expect from a Streets of Rage game. One new feature is the special move power bar, where it only costs energy to do a special move if the bar isn't full. Also new is the ability to do special maneuvers with different weapons, depending on the character. For example, Skate has no special move with the pipe, but does have one with the knife. The opposite is true for Axel. Any weapon Dr. Zan picks up is turned into energy balls which he can throw at the enemies. Secret characters and multiple endings add replay value.

Spellings

  • ベア・ナックルⅢ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Genesis version)

78 People (63 developers, 15 thanks) · View all

Producers
Director
  • Yui
Product Manager
Main Planner
Assistant Planner
Concept Designer
Animation Designer
  • Ryuryu
Character Designers
Background Designers
Lead Programmer
Character Programmers
  • Takosuke (as Takosuke)
  • Chata
  • Nagisa
  • Mr. Nobody
Background Programmer
Music Producer
Music Composition
Music Programmer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 30 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 68 ratings with 6 reviews)

Lost in translation

The Good
In the same way SoR 2 improved on pretty much every aspect of the first, this one also improved on a fair number of areas. The minimal plot of the previous games, only told at the starting sequence now develops between the game with some cutscenes, and now there are a few different endings depending on well you do some key parts. Gameplay was also tweaked a bit: it's now possible to run with any character, as well as perform a defensive roll left and right (or more accurately, up and down). Weapons now can be used a certain number of times before breaking, instead of magically vanishing every third time it is dropped, and Axel's Rising Upper was toned down... until the player reaches two or more stars. Then, it becomes more powerful (and spectacular) than before, but gaining such ranking requires a lot of beating to be done, and each death means a setback. Level-design wise, death pits and traps re-appeared, making levels a lot more varied and opens strategies missing from the second. The developers weren't shy on that, and most levels include a part with them.

The ability to play as Shiva is interesting, although he's far too strong to be taken seriously.

The Bad
I really don't know what went through through the heads of Sega of America executives with this game. Making a few changes to close a bit on cultural differences (such as the removal of the character Ash - with all the noise about video game violence, the last thing they needed was accusations of gay bashing) is acceptable; butcher the story left and right because they could, change the character colours for no reason whatsoever and make the game impossibly hard are the reasons why the game is so lowly regarded among fans of the series. And not only is impossibly hard, but the ending is crippled for those who don't select anything but the hardest difficulty settings. Yeah, there's no doubt SoA knew how to screw up a game completely.

Surprisingly, the music isn't even half as good as the previous efforts. I've read somewhere the music was rendered rather than composed, which explains how Ventolin-ish it occasionally sounds like.

The Bottom Line
On an interesting note, the same SoA refused to give a green light on a SoR4 project for the Dreamcast. So not only they spoiled the last game, but also effectively killed the series. Nice.

Anyway, the game strikes me as a bit of a paradox. While its improvements come in the line of the previous games, making the game effectively better, the butchering of the game at the hands of SoA spoiled most of the game with idiotic changes and an incoherent plot. My advice is to play the original Japanese game with a translation of the plot at hand.

Genesis · by Luis Silva (13444) · 2006

Sega's Censorship

The Good
Streets of Rage 3 features improved graphics, animation, music and sound effects along with new fighting moves and a few storyline plot twists. On the surface it would seem as if Sega simply took what was great about Streets of Rage 2 and made it better.

The Bad
During the video game wars between Nintendo and Sega, the later sought to portray itself as being cooler and less stuffier then the Big N. This was done in its ad campaigns as well in its products.

Sega gave approval for Galoob to produce a Game Genie for the Genesis and Game Gear. Sega allowed games made for their systems to contain graphic violence, blood, gore and even some scantily clad females. Yet, Sega's own Streets of Rage 3 was heavily censored for release outside of the Asian market; drastically changing the original storyline (harsh language and nuclear weapons) as well as some enemies characters who were gay or transsexual. Why these changes were made is not all together clear. Their was intense political scrutiny placed upon the video game industry in the early 1990's and, maybe, Sega decided to retool the game so as to avoid controversy. Yet, it does create some obvious plot holes, a less dramatic storyline and undermines the notion that (as the ads said) Sega does what Nintendo doesn't.

The Bottom Line
Streets of Rage 3 is an action packed, beat em' up that builds upon the successful elements of the first two games. Fans of the genre, should enjoy the ride. However, the decision by Sega to drastically alter the original plot and censor certain elements from the game was a bad decision, which has never been fixed.

Genesis · by ETJB (428) · 2010

Excellent game but beginning to show signs of fatigue

The Good
Everything about the core action, this game gets generally right. Punching a goon feels good, knocking down enemies feels good, the movement feels good, and just about every aspect of the game feels solid. You can tell the pedigree that this game came from has paid off in terms of control schemes, pacing, and handling of the game itself.

The designs are also visually more interesting, at least to me. The previous game felt like it was a tribute to the greatest 80s action movie ever. This one, however, dials it back and takes on a more somber tone in terms of its palette, which is actually quite fitting given the darker theme and narrative.

The Bad
On the flip side, while the action feels better, the game design feels less thought through compared to it's predecessors.

While the first game was a pioneer in it's overall design, it really was the second game that brought it all together and managed to make sure there was literally no extraneous parts to the game design. The second game felt like the designers really took the time to think through every mechanic, every piece of content, and every extra piece of option they delivered to the players.

Streets of Rage 3, on the other hand, felt like someone built the entire game, and then after the game was completed, decided to add more stuff onto it just because. No where is this more apparent than with the star system. If you ask me, the star system felt completely extraneous to the experience, as anyone who could really benefit from the star moves the most would have the hardest time holding onto it anyways, and anyone who could hold onto their stars probably didn't need the star moves anyway. There are a couple of instances where the lower level star moves are strictly speaking, more useful than the upgraded versions. All of it just made it feel like the star moves were actually not part of the original game design. (In fact, I challenge anyone to play the game as is without using their star moves. You will probably find it to be a far tighter experience)

This goes double for the a lot of the secret stuff. i.e. were Shiva, Ash and Roo REALLY necessary for the game? Shiva was particularly egregious as he has a single move in his arsenal that can basically allow you to lockstun any enemy to death. A lot of these little things crop up with these extra characters and extra content that it honestly felt like someone at Sega saw the finished product and said, "we need Shiva to be playable, and kids like Street Fighter 2, right? So let's put some of THAT stuff in there" and there it was.

Keep in mind, this is not to say the game is BAD by any stretch. It just feels SLIGHTLY on the bloated side of things.

The Bottom Line
In the 90s, a lot of games went through a strange of cycle of innovation > refinement > bloat between sequels. Golden Axe went through it, street fighter went through it, JRPGs went through, and Streets of Rage was not immune.

To be fair though, it made it out far better than other franchises as it still produced a HIGHLY competent side scrolling beat 'em up. Might not the genre re-defining classic that was Streets of Rage 2, but still an immensely well executed brawler set in that magical time that is the 90s where it feels like gang violence had to be colorful, ridiculous, and full of metal punks.

Genesis · by Elliott Wu (40) · 2016

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Bosses

At the end of the third stage you will have to fight against... yourself (depending on which character you've chosen to play with)!

Cover

When the UK magazine Mean Machines Sega reviewed the game in 1994, they had their art editor draw a cover picture with Zan and Blaze standing in front of the building. Sega Europe bought the rights to the artwork to use it for the cover of the UK/Europe release.

Cut content

According to several pre-release screenshots, there was originally a section where the players got to ride the motorcycles they are so often attacked by. This section was obviously removed for the final version.

Hidden characters

In the Japanese version of the game (Bare Knuckle 3), along with the other hidden characters, you can also unlock and play as an 'effeminite' male character named Ash, after beating him in Round 1. He cannot wield weapons and has very few attacks, though he's ridiculously quick and is far too strong to use in a normal game. Ash can also be unlocked in the US version by using the Game Genie.

References

The character Blaze is very reminiscent of the female character in SEGA's 1985 coin-op Flashgal.

PAL and US version

There are a number of changes in the US and PAL releases: * A part of the intro and a picture in the bad ending were cut. * All characters but Zan have slightly different clothes. * The female enemies have more clothes. * The police chief (in the original a general) has no beard anymore. * The boss Ash was replaced with Sheeva (a character from the predecessor) and the boss Break was renamed to Axel. * In level one of the original, there is a hole in a wall in one place. The wall part was completely removed.

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Patch

There is an unofficial translation patch available for the original Bare Knuckles 3 Megadrive release, which effectively allows to play the game in English without the content changes that happened when the game was officially localized.

Information also contributed by CaptainCanuck, Mad Griffith and Matt Keller

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by RKL.

Windows, iPhone added by Sciere. Macintosh, Linux added by Foxhack. Wii added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: Sciere, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, Trypticon, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 30, 2003. Last modified March 25, 2024.