Streets of Rage 3

"Goodbye Max and hello Zan."

In the end of Streets of Rage 2 Mr.X was defeated(again)and the four heroes went back home and they all lived happily ever after right? Wrong. It seems as though our good friend Mr.X has returned to cause some hell to our heroes once again in the third(and final?) installment of Street of Rage. Axel,Blaze,and Skate return but unfortunately the big wrestler known as Max has been dropped and in his place is Dr.Zan who fights in a combination of both Blanka and Dhahlsim from Street Fighter(I guess Sega got rid of Max because he played too similar to Haggar from Final Fight and they didn't want the game to look too much like a rip-off). Two hidden characters also join the party and they are the boxing Kangaroo who is called Roo(yes you heard me right) and the karate kicking guy Shiva(He was one of the bosses from the last game and he happens to also be the boss of the first level here). Well without further adieu here is my review for Street of Rage 3.

Graphics
Axel,Blaze,and Skate have gone over a little make over since the last game like for instance Axel now wears a yellow shirt and dark pants no longer making him look like a Cody knock off,and Blaze now wears a light grey bikini instead of red. Most of the enemies from the first game are here too like the the bikers,the shirtless bald guys,and the girls with whips(They no longer wear leather so they may look a little different). Also the graphics don't look as grainy as they did in the last game and it looks a lot clearer. The graphics are just plain good.

Gameplay
Some of the levels from SoR1 and SoR2 have returned like the construction site from SoR1 with the holes in the ground and the elevator with all of the enemies dropping from the above from SoR2. Some bosses have returned as well like Jet from SoR2 and Mona and Lisa from SoR1(How's that for nostalgia). Beating up the criminals as you move along is as much fun as it was before and probably even better because there happens to be 4 separate endings in this game and yes there is still limited continues in this game for those that were still wondering.

Control
The control now takes advantage of the 6 button Genesis controller(That doesn't mean that you can still play on a 3 button one) so now you can perform backhand attacks and combo enders with one button. Another thing that is added is that the weapons you can pick up now have a meter on how many times you have used it so you can't depend on those all of the time. Control is still great.

Sound
The end of level fanfare is still present from the last game and the game before that. The voices are still done good and Blaze's voice sounds more tough as opposed to the wussy voice she had in the last game. The music is pretty good and almost as good as it was before and some of the tunes ended up staying in my head even after turning the game off.

Replay
As I said before there are 4 endings to the game and there are two versions of level 7 there is a whole lot of replay value. In fact SoR3 has probably one of the most highest replay values in a beat em up and that says a lot really.

Final Word
This has to be one of the greatest beat em ups ever along with Final Fight 3 and The Simpsons. Street of Rage 3 is another great Genesis game and one of the system's best. If you like beat em ups or the last SoR then it is a sure bet that you will love it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/22/01, Updated 04/22/01