Customer Reviews

Streets of Rage 3

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Years and years ago when Sega Genesis was at its twilight time with such great games available to play like the Sonic and Mortal Kombat games, there was the Streets of Rage Series. SoR3 is probably the best video game that I've ever played. It's very fun and it'll keep you entertained for hours. I haven't played the game for so many years, but I recently purchased one since I couldn't find any in stock here.

You are given 4 characters to choose from, although I can only remember two of the names, I still remember each (character) perfectly. They each have their own unique qualities - one is Axel, a young, blonde male cop who appears to be very strong. The second is Blaze, she's a beautiful brown haired female cop who is personally my favorite. The other is a very old male white bearded (bald) cop who is surprisingly muscle-bound just like Axel. The fourth one is a teen African American male skater who seems very energetic. You can also find (I think it was only 1, but I don't know) secret character(s) - the famous Roo, a boxing Kangeroo who is very fun to play.

Basically, you have to go around on this side scrolling game beating up bad guys and getting to their boss. If you defeat him, you win. Simple fun, a true classic for the Sega Genesis.

Ever since SOR 3 came out in 1994 I wanted it. I never actually managed to get my hands on it until last year as it went for insane prices on auction sites and was very, VERY hard to come by in video game stores. Luckily for me I was given it as a present from someone clearing out their attic. I couldn't wait to get home and play it. All I could think about was loads of hours of solid beat-em-up action and a return of those ultra-cool tunes by Yuzo Koshiro that made the first two games so memorable.

As soon as I started to play I was shocked that Streets of Rage 3 is actually a really, really bad game that may be impressive in terms of graphics but in regards to music and gameplay is far, far behind even the first.

First of all the game is just too damn hard. And you need to play it in hard mode otherwise you won't be able to get past level 5. And this time we're given a little bit more story and cut-scenes between the game levels. If you're playing the American or European release of this game I'd just skip these as they do not make sense and there are holes everywhere. The Japanese version (Bare Knuckle 3) has a different plot entirely and looks and feels like the REAL Streets of Rage 3.

In SOR 3 the story has Mr. X, in what limited capacity he now exists in, kidnap the Chief of Police and plant bombs all over city. He wants to replace high-ranking officials with evil robots. Or something! So, typically, the gang set about smashing the Syndicate AGAIN as their way of stopping him.

However, in Bare Knuckle 3 the opening cut-scenes with the nuclear explosion show the destruction of a city called 'Wood Oak' that was the first victim of a radioactive bomb powered by the newly discovered element 122, Laxine. The victims are given as an estimated 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured.

In a letter from Blaze to Axel she says that the Syndicate's laboratories seem to be involved in the research of Laxine and that a group in favor of a war with the country of Lima have captured the army general Petrov.

Mr. X tries to start a nuclear war by replacing the anti-war U.S. General with Shiva before a speech at the White House. In SOR 3 'City Hall' looks suspiciously like the White House so I'm led to believe that the level was just recycled and renamed.

In Bare Knuckle 3 you have to successfully prevent a devastating war by rescuing the general and the destruction in the city is just a slap in the face, while in SOR3 you basically have failed your task if you let the time run out (the General, now 'Chief of Police' is killed with poisonous gas). If you rescue the Chief in time you go straight to Mr.X's island lab, but if he dies you go to City Hall/White House.

Second, Yuzo Koshiro's music is HORRIBLE. What happened? The first 2 games had awesome music that showed what the meager Sega Genesis was capable of. The man was truly a pioneer when it came to composing stunning music for simple machines. In SOR 3 there are no cool tunes at all. It's all pathetic, tepid Industrial junk that would sound rancid coming from an Atari. A MAJOR let-down considering how amazing Streets of Rage Two was.

SOR 3 also has deleted characters that feature only in the Japanese version. Namely the character of 'Ash' who looks very, very homosexual and resembles Bennett from Commando or one of The Village People. I guess the PC Powers That Be thought the Western World couldn't handle such obvious gayness. The dialogue is also censored and 'naughty' words are replaced with 'clean' words. Character names are also radically and inexplicably different.

If you want this badly then the Japanese version is the ONLY way to go. Seriously, it's a complete disappointment otherwise. I'm not saying that the Japanese version is great, it's only slightly better.

This game improves upon the 2 other ones before it. You get to play 4 differnt characters. Either 2 male cops (both have the same strengths, just differnt specials) a female cop, and a little kid on roller blades (he's fun to play!). Instead of just blowing something up with a rocket launcher like the first one, each character has their own special. This is a very fun and time consuming game! I love it!

I remember playing this back in the day, I grew up on the Streets of Rage games and this has got to be the best one. There are 4 characters and 2 secret characters to play as. They all have their unique fighting style, and this has got to be one of the best fighting games on any system even though it's dated. The fights are challenging, and the action is intense! Streets of Rage 2 was kinda slow, that's why this one is better. SoR3 has a "Run" option now to get through the levels a bit faster and to speed up the action. Anyway, great, great fighting game.

OF ALL THE STREETS OF RAGE GAMES I EVER FINISHED THE 3RD INSTALLMENT HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT TO BEAT IN ORDER FINISH THE GAME WITH THE BEST ENDING YOU HAVE PLAY IT ON NORMAL LEVEL MAKE SURE THAT THE POLICE CHIEF DOES NOT DIE IN STAGE 6 & DEFEAT MR.X IN UNDER 3 MINUTES IN STAGE 7 THE ENEMIES ARE MUCH TOUGHER TO FIGHT THERE ARE LEVELS WITH FANTASTIC GRAPHICS THE CHARACTERS YOU GET TO CHOOSE FROM ARE VERY UNIQUE IN THEIR OWN SPECIAL WAY THERE ARE A FEW GOOD WEAPONS TO PICK UP TO USE IN BATTLING BAD GUYS & THROUGH CERTAIN CONDITIONS THERE ARE MULTIPLE ENDINGS TO THIS VIDEOGAME

I remember Streets of Rage 3 pretty vividly when I was growing up. My family never actually had it for our genesis (up until recently when I decided to start buying genesis games for a collection), instead our neighbors were the ones that had the game and we would come over to play it. We used to play it constantly, trying to get to the last stage filled with robots, unlocking secret characters to play, getting the good ending, we played the hell out of that game (although I would admit, we played our copy of Streets of Rage 2 more, but thats not the point.)
Playing it as an adult with a more refined taste in games, I still find SoR3 to be a classic game worth being in any genesis fan's collection and a game that old and new players alike should play. That being said, it surprises me how SoR3 can be somewhat bashed on not only to the change's made from SoR2, but also the changes made from the japanese version of SoR3 (known as Bare Knuckle 3.) I like to refer to this game as the "Super Mario Bros. 2" of the series, because of a certain Youtube AVGN-rip-off reviewer (I'm sure most of you know who I'm referring to) who once made an onling video game review of SMB2 where he bashes the game with his nit-picky and uneducated opinion, and essentially goes so far as to imply that it is a bad game (which it is not.)
If you're wondering what exactly sets SoR3 apart from previous installments, there are some changes but not a lot. As for gameplay, it's the same old Streets of Rage we all know and love. You have a group of characters fighting thugs and killers trying to save a city being threatened with bombs set to detonate, and its up to the players to save the city. So, what are the changes made from SoR2 to SoR3? Well for one, the overall speed of the 3rd is faster than that of the 2nd, and by overall, I mean everything. The characters and enemies move faster, the combat and gameplay is faster, even the soundtrack is faster compared to the 2nd game. The amount of moves avaliable to each character has been upgraded as well. Now characters can run, roll escape, use enhanced special moves both unarmed and with a weapon. Whether you like SoR2 more than SoR3 (which I do) or not, you can't deny that SoR3 is a step up in gameplay.
What makes Streets of Rage 3 the "SMB2" of the series would be the nit-picky excuses people have about the "differences" it has with the japanese port and SoR2. Some people don't like for instance the soundtrack in SoR3. I think the soundtrack in SoR2 is better, however I thoroughly enjoy the one in SoR3. It's not a bad soundtrack, it's different. Would you rather they play the same music from the 2nd game in the 3rd instead of coming up with a new and original soundtrack? The other reasons why SoR3 is looked down upon is because there are people that say Bare Knuckle 3 is the superior version. And what makes BK3 superior to SoR3? The colors of the 4 characters are different (or atleast the 3 characters from the previous game have the same colors as before), some of the female enemies have more revealing clothing (woo woo), and you get to fight a gay sterotype mini boss...Really? This is what makes it a superior game? A pointless mini boss and a few palette swaps? That's all aesthetics, hardly enough to call BK3 superior to SoR3. For something to make either game superior to the other would have to be something involving the game itself...Kinda like the fact that the difficulty settings in SoR3 are actually harder than the difficulty settings in BK3!
All in all, Streets of Rage 3 is in my opinion a very good if sometimes underrated game for the Sega Genesis. Check it out sometime.

Mr X has risen again, is now kidnapping city officials and replacing them with robot copies. Not only that, but the Chief of Police has been kidnaped and it seems Axel is the culprit. So Blaze gathers the team together and they set off to find Mr X and rescue the Chief.

Well, almost all of the team. Max is unfortunately not included, is replaced by a cyborg called Dr Zan who is admittedly a good character and interesting to play but it would have been nice to have the choice of Max as well. New features in this game include the ability to run, a "secial moves" meter which means you're energy won't be deducted by using a special move if it's full and some special moves involving weaons (certain characters can use weaons to greater advantage, such as Skate's flying attack with a knife). There are even secret characters, ad playing Shiva is fun.

It's common knowledge that Sega of America made a lot of changes to the original Japanese version of this game. They removed one of the sub-bosses (a transvestite) and changed the story so it makes very little sense. Frankly, beat-em-ups don't need complicated plots. But what irritates me is that Sega of America decided the game was too easy and so altered it, removing the easier options (play it on easy and it ends at level 5, whereupon you're treated to Mr X telling you you're a waste of space). What Sega of USA did was make the enemies much faster. This means they run around the screen avoiding you and their combo attacks are impossible to stop. All this leads to is frustration rather than a greater challenge. The enemy attacks lose ridiculously large amounts of energy (even a few hits from a "Donovan" can lose you a stack of energy). To make things worse your attacks have been weakened. Axel, for example, has moves which are now next to useless. You can increase the power of your forward-attacks if you get a certain number of points, but if you lose a life you lose the extra power. The repetitive waves of enemies is also irritating. At the beginning of one of the Level 5 areas, for example, there are endless streams of Garcias with very large energy bars. What with your limited strength in this game, levels like this soon become an utter chore. Sega of USA also did other stupid things, like remove a lot of the food and give some of the most common enemies the ability to eat food.

Not all the blame can be put down to Sega of USA, however. Whilst the first two games had an assortment of interesting, inspired enemies to fight, most of the ones here have just been lifted from the previous game. The grainy sprites lack the character of their SOR2 versions, and some of their new moves are just stupid (the fat firebreathers can now pick other thugs up like puppets and fling them at you, also roll across the screen and then stand there with a ring of stars around their head cartoon-style). The backgrounds are just cliched beat-em-up scenes (the street, the industrial areas, the enemy base, etc) and the music is a collection of tuneless noises which only adds to the frustration. There are some good ideas such as the cargo carrier in Level 4, and Level 6 must be the most sophisticated level in any Streets of Rage, just shows how good this game could have been.

Overall, this will keep fans of the series amused. But it's certainly the lesser of the SOR trilogy (the first game might seem a bit dated now but at least it was good in its day).

streets of rage 3 is a gr8 game lots of fun all of the streets of rage game are some of the best sega games made if you like any side scrolling fighting game like final fight the old tmnt you have to try one of the streets of rage games out you will like them lots of fun with a friend all are 2 player there is a reason the streets of rage games are not cheap there the best hope this helps

simply put this game destroys everything the first 2 games had,the music goes from half decent tracks to god awful collection of noises that'll make your ears bleed,to make the game more "challenging" they simply made every enemy far to powerful and fast and doesnt make it challenging just incredibly frustrating and you HAVE to play it in hard mode to see the proper ending,i'd waited years to be able to play this game and now i wish i hadn't bothered,it destroyed the franchise of streets of rage in my eyes,i would rather play the original streets of rage than this,its that bad. Its actually a shame because their are a lot of good features,you can run with a double tap left or right,roll up or down the screen to dodge with a double tap,special moves vary when your holding a weapon adding to the variety of moves at your disposal but the difficulty level just strips away any fun to be had from this game,rather than be pleased with yourself when you beat a boss,youll be relieved that you got past them,dont get me wrong i like a challenge but throwing vast numbers of super powered enemies at you at once is not the way to do it and who thought putting multiple gun toting enemies in a beat em up would be a good idea!? apparently the japanese release (bare knuckle 3 in case you dont know) is easier and uncensored. to end this review,you may have heard of the streets of rage remake available free to download,this has many elements from all 3 streets of rage games mixed up a bit and is infinitely more enjoyable than this,i'd recommend getting that instead,this is strictly for gaming masochists

Does it mean it's a bad game no cause you can dash attack and dash attack with weapons but to make it short and sweet Sega of America messed up with the english translation and and tweaked the plot and toned everything down for kids that's what hurt the SNES version of Final Fight among other things. SOR is known for killer soundtracks but 3's only got a decent soundtrack. Story I ain't making this about the Jap version which is way more superior. Blaze learns of a new syndicate that there plan is to replace Seattle government officals with Robots a Scientist cyborg then informs Blaze that Mr. X is alive and that he's in control of the new syndicate now called Triple X. She notifies Axel and Skate returns all four go after the syndicate. 7 levels play on easy only 5 if you fail to rescue the chief you take an alternate path don't beat X's robot in time on level 7 you get the bad ending if you beat in time you get the good ending. Should've stuck with BK 3 story this could've had a Die Hard 3 vibe to it.