Streets of Rage 3

""Streets of Rage" at its peak."

Ah, nostalgia.

What a trick it can play on us; fooling us into believing something better than it really is or was. Clouding our vision, blinding us to weaknesses. Casting a spell over us, and sometimes thrusting us into violent states of denial. As misleading as it can be, however, it is icing on the cake when combined with a solid, quality material.

Streets of Rage III, while not perfect, has its share of frosting to savour. As Sega's edgier, more hip answer to Capcom's side-scrolling beat-em-up franchise "Final Fight"--which, I might add, has not aged as gracefully--the "Streets of Rage" series distinguished itself from its rivals with grittier locales, challenging yet fair and solid gameplay, and of course its classic tunes, composed by Yuso Koshiro. SoRIII definitely delivers in terms of gameplay, if not so well on certain other accounts.

GRAPHICS 8/10:

Easily improved over SoR2, as III came later in Genesis' life cycle. The level of detail in the sprites is greater (look at the sweat on Axel's rippling muscles...if you're secure in your own masculinity, that is...), the animation is more detailed, the locales are lush--dirty never looked so good. This game's visuals have definitely aged better than SoR2's more cartoony look, and IMO much better than even Final Fight 3's visuals on the graphically superior SNES.

SOUND 3.5/10:

This is always a weak point for Sega Genesis games--the console's sound processors are bad, sometimes laughably so (Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition, anyone?). However, one of the hallmarks of the SoR series has been its soundtracks, produced by the talented Yuso Koshiro, with its techno & hip-hop infused rhythms (when the original SoR was released, I was playing it at a friend's house, who had a nice stereo hook-up--when his father came home, he told my friend to "turn that music off!" He was surprised when he saw this devil's music coming from a videogame!). SoR2 has, IMO, one of the best videogame soundtracks ever made.

With such a sterling pedigree, it's a shame that this area is where SoRIII fails, and MISERABLY so.

Collaborating with Motohiro Kawashima, Koshiro scrapped his magic sound for a dirty, electronica sort of vibe. The result is often unattractive, grating music. Even claiming that the music was ahead of its time is false--the music is just nearly uniformly BAD. One wonders if Kawashima did most of the work, as none of the tracks in the game display Koshiro's gift for hypnotic tunes.

The sound effects are standard--thuds and thwacks, explosions, grunts, groans and voice-work--but the screechy "YYYYYAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH" that each male enemy shrieks upon dying has gotten no less annoying with the passage of time, nor have the shrieks of the women.

GAMEPLAY 9/10:

This is where SoRIII shines.

Although the game IS on the short side, the four playable characters (plus some secret characters thrown in to boot!) each have their own attributes and weaknesses, their own attack styles and in turn, their own effective strategies. Sega expanded the movement options beyond just "walk" and "jump" for this title, allowing characters to run as well as do a roll into the back or foregrounds--these two maneuvers, particularly the roll, are most welcome additions and add to the game's already solid fighting mechanics.

The moves and specials all return, but those lucky enough to own six-button controllers can experience more of the game's move roster, as certain secret special moves--which do tons of damage, are tough to execute, and only available to players skilled enough to rack up high scores without losing lives--can be performed by Street Fighter-like inputs combined with presses from one of the extra buttons. These moves aren't essential to gameplay, but the fact that there in there is definitely a nice touch. Also worth note are the special moves some characters can use while wielding weapons!

The characters themselves are also more balanced than in SoR2--certain characters have been toned down so that they're not "God Tier". And by "certain characters," I'm of course referring to Axel--who in SoR2 dominated the game easily with his Bare Knuckle attack. Picking any other character was usually out of boredom from playing the game with Axel (second place cheapness went to Max, only because he had to work a little harder in order to grab enemies and obliterate them with his ridiculously high-damage throws!). Although I contend that Skate is the strongest character, he's not head-and-shoulders above the rest. The game is challenging no matter which character you choose, and the characters all feel pretty distinct from one another.

The stages themselves are standard side-scrolling fair, mostly, but Sega threw in a few secret areas to spice things up a bit. The bosses are challenging without being cheap, and fighting hordes of enemies is a blast as the characters are all well equipped to handle many situations.

The fun is only increased when a buddy joins into the fray for two-player co-op!!

The only negative I can really say about the gameplay is that some gamers will have a hard time getting through some of the game's more "populated" areas--it will take practice for many to beat this game, even on the Normal difficulty setting.

STORY (N/A):

Let's not even go there. Something about bombs and cyborgs and whatnot. Who plays these games for the plot???

OVERALL: 9/10

This is the best game in the SoR series--a series which, in my opinion, is more fun to play to this day than any installment of "Final Fight" or its clones--hands down. It's REALLY tough to listen to, but stomach the awful soundtrack and you will find yourself stuck with an extremely solid game that holds up well, even over eleven years after its initial release.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/15/05