Streets of Rage 3

"Lost in Translation - how over-tweaking proved costly"

I remember reading the reviews for this back in the 16BIT heyday, and most magazines praised Streets of Rage 3 (SoR3) to high heaven. Being a fan of the series and having played SoR2 to death in particular, I was looking forward to everything that was being said about it - improved graphics, new special moves etc. The one negative I'd heard about it was that, like SOR2, it suffered from one major flaw - it was too easy. Upon buying it, I was sorely disappointed. Now, unless those reviews were of pre-release imports of Bare Knuckle 3 (Bare Knuckle being the name for the SoR franchise in Japan, for those not in the know) and not SoR3, I just couldn't understand how they could have gotten it so wrong.

Years have passed since then, and having recently picked up a mega-pack of Sega games (ahh, the nostalgia!) for my PS3, I got the opportunity to play this again, and see if maybe I'd been too harsh in my assessment...

Graphics:

The graphics are good, in a workmanlike kind of way. Naturally, they are a vast improvement on SoR1 and are a decent example of what the Mega Drive/Genesis was capable of towards the end of its run, but there is no way they are an improvement on SoR2 (this is where the problems start, however, in comparing it to it's predecessor, SoR2, and naturally such comparisons have to be made to see what progress, if any, has been made in the series). Sure, they tried to put in a lot more texture, but what that amounts to are dots and wiggly lines, which ultimately look a grainy mess, they're far too fussy and detract from the overall look of the game, rather than adding to it as they'd hoped to. Proves the old adage: "Sometimes less is more".

Furthermore, the environments are just plain uninspired, repetitive and boring - SoR2 in particular had some fantastic, memorable stages - everyone remembers the arcade or the battle in the "Alien"-inspired funfair ride, right? Rather than having lots of short stages with variation, these seem to go on forever and hearken back to the limited design of SoR1 - docks, beach, construction site - but where SoR1 had an excuse (graphical limitations at the time, etc.), this is unforgivable as it's a downstep on the previous entry in the series.

The colours are muted and drab, and even the character sprites are choppier looking than in SoR2 - not to mention someone screwed around with the character's paintjobs for some unfathomable reason in the process of changing this from Bare Knuckle 3 to SoR3 (just one of many disfavourable comparisons between the two which will be brought up in the course of my review, hence the title). In BK3, the characters are wearing their traditional garb - Axel has white t-shirt, blue jeans and bandanna, Blaze wears her red dress etc. Axel is now wearing a pee-coloured yellow t-shirt and black jeans (much like Adam in SoR1) and Blaze is sporting some hideous grey outfit...okay, it's a minor quibble, but it's a quibble nonetheless. Since the backgrounds don't have that brighter, neon tone, having the characters similarly muted is also unimpressive and detracts from the overall feel.

3/5

Music and Sound:

Much has been made of the music not being in the same league as previous entries in the series either, and this is undoubtedly true. SoR1&2 both had some catchy beats to at least let you play without being offended as you stroll along kicking butt, but frankly some of the levels and boss themes were inspired, particularly in SoR2, they were atmospheric and pulled you into the pace of the action. This is just very generic and bland, average, but it'll do, I can live with it.

What I can't live with, however, is the quality of the sound, which is dreadful. At the time, I thought the fault was with my Genesis, but the same thing is to be found on the PS3 - the sound effects (particular voice snatches) are tinny-sounding, and they pop and crackle with distortion, which wasn't an issue so much with SoR2 (compare the two vocal moments for Axel's "bare knuckle" move and you'll hear the distinction). There's times the sounds stop working for short periods too, and all you can hear is the music.

1/5

Control:

The controls are as simple as ever, which is great as it's easy to just pick up and play. Mastering the moves will take you no time at all, and if you played SoR2 you'll feel right at home, though there have been some new moves added - dashes, dodges and special moves using certain weapons when used by specific characters. There is a slight issue I found with the controls being not quite as sharp and responsive as the previous entries though, it might literally be a delay of milliseconds, but that delay is crucial here as the enemies' speed has been significantly increased (more on this later) and it's the difference between contacting with the target or having them breeze past you, and it's especially troublesome if you can see a gang of enemy thugs closing in to surround you. Not a great problem though, by any means.

4/5

Gameplay:

Okay, this is the meat and two veg of the review, as frankly I don't care much how the game looks and sounds (I'm playing 16BIT games on a PS3, fer cryin' out loud!), it's all about the gameplay!

And this is where, sadly, it really lets itself down.

SoR2 was too easy, that was without a doubt its main fault, but SoR3 is far too hard, which is why I can only conclude those original reviews were for the Japanese version, Bare Knuckle 3, which even on its hardest difficulty setting was much easier to complete than SoR3 on its default difficulty. Sega of America "tweaked" the game before releasing it as SoR3, wanting to increase the difficulty, which I have no problem with at all, I prefer games that are challenging, but rather than sensibly making changes to improve it, the result is a game that's just plain frustrating to play.

For starters, the enemies move too fast, they can run rings round pretty much everyone but Skate and Blaze, and they can hit you at lightning speeds (not to mention they have a block function and you don't, the dodge function you have just doesn't cut it). And that's just the regular punks and thugs, the bosses are even worse - those really great special moves they put in are a waste of time, they just don't connect, so you spend most of the time chasing around after the bosses (who evade you easily and too often - Mona and Lisa at the end of stage 2 are a prime example of this), being only able to hit them with weak jumping or running attacks, which just prolongs battles to the point of tedium. This isn't helped by the fact that the enemies even on normal difficulty are overpowered, being able to deal out tons of damage to you with simple punches and throws, and some of them have extended life bars and cheap moves that will hit you without warning. The characters you control, by comparison, are ridiculously weak, even your strongest special moves have been depowered significantly since SoR2.

It may have been too easy, but one of the great strokes of SoR2 was that the game's mechanics were perfect - each playable character had his/her own niche and getting to grips with their individual skills, speeds and strength was part of the fun and replay value. Here it's a waste of time - for example, Axel, who since SoR1 has been perhaps the most even of characters, is too slow (in comparative terms to the enemies he faces - he's now as slow as Max in SoR2, or Zangief in Street Fighter II, for old school 2D figher fans - but crucially, unlike those characters, he doesn't have the extra strength or moves to even that defect out, even his special moves hardly do any damage. As I said, I prefer tougher games, but this is just frustrating, it's not like they've improved the enemy AI or given them a more sophisticated battle style, all they've done is weaken the playable characters, limit your lives and boost the speed, strength and stamina of the enemies, making it vastly one-sided. A group of plain old thugs can surround you and beat you to a pulp quite easily, the only way out of it is to use a special move. That's not increasing the difficulty in a way that improves the game, just increasing the frustration factor.

2/5

Replay Value:

The replay value of side-scrolling beat 'em ups depends a lot on the player - by the nature of how they work, they are naturally repetitive, and for some people beating the game once is more than enough, they don't offer much else. Other players can happily sit down and turn one on any time and just have some fun beating on the bad guys. That, of course, hasn't changed with this - other than a few secrets, cheats and a battle mode, how much value you'd get out of replaying it is probably down to whether you like this genre. There is a story, but it's not really an integral part of the game (and was never intended to be, this isn't an RPG after all), so the narrative isn't going to keep you coming back for more (and again, the BK3 story had more to it and made more sense, some elements were cut for the American/European version, making it even patchier).

That being said, I think the difficulty will for most people prove a deterrent rather than a challenge they want to keep going up against, since the difficulty is not achieved through intelligent design and more through clumsy mistakes that have occurred in the making of the game and also in it's being translated from BK3 in Japan to SoR3 elsewhere.

1/5

Overall:

It's not a *terrible* game, is certainly better than a lot of side-scrolling beat 'em ups, and it's playable so long as you have a high tolerance level for all the advantages that the computer has against you from the start, as well as the few other flaws. It's a shame, this could have been a great game, the makers clearly tried to make improvements over previous installments in the franchise, but I can't help but feel the poor execution of some of the basic elements of gameplay really mar it as an enjoyable experience. BK3 still had the same graphical and sound issues, and it was far too easy, but the game it became in SoR3 is far less fun and fluid than it ought to be. It probably would have stood up better if it hadn't followed such a great game in SoR2. Worth a look, especially if you're a SoR/BK fan, but of the three SoR games the second entry in the series is still the reigning champion, even if it lacks difficulty.

2/5 (or 4/10 on GameFAQs system)

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/09

Game Release: Streets of Rage 3 (US, 03/17/94)