"Just like the last one......but different"

I'm not gonna lie to anybody. I loved the game. I just wish that they could have revamped the combo system a little better. The addition of a three new characters was a nice try to help the game, but it didn't work because these characters are very powerful and cheap ''comboers''. That is a bad combination.

Nice additions to the game are the graphics being tweaked to PS2 quality. The backgrounds actually give the feeling of being in the open when in an outside arena. The way that the wind makes the costumes move is also nice. The character graphics are excellent. They actually have human qualities...well except for Busuzima and Kohryu. One thing that I wish could be done is changes in the graphics of the characters as the fight goes on. Like in the game Ready 2 Rumble, the features of the characters face became more marred as more damage was taken. With the fact that the faces are so real, this would be an excellent addition.

Another nice addition is the additional beast rage moves. The last BR had only one per character, limiting the effects of putting them into combos w/o having to go into a complex combo. In BR3, at least one of the Rage moves can be put into a combo. This is a big improvement from the first BR where the beast form was just a different form of the human form. he combo system, however, could have been revamped. The system didn't change from the first one at all, with the exception of the variations in the moves. I personally would have liked to learn a whole new way of having to combo, but that is b/c I like to master every fighting game out there.

Another cool addition is the story line for each character. I like fighting games that put a background to the characters. Like in BR2, each character has s different story line, but it may interact with other characters. The last one had a separate Story mode, which was just an arcade mode with a plot. BR3 does that again, just without the extra option. h bad part about it is, I would have like to find out about Kohryu and Uranus, but they have no past apparently.

The music for the game is excellent. I love the sound track mainly b/c it has my favorite type of music...electronica. It really sets the pace for the fighting scene. I only wish that I could access the tracks and make myself a copy.

The un-lockable options in the game are fairly unoriginal. Like most other fighting games, the options are unlocked by either beating the game on a certain difficulty, or lasting a certain amount of time in survival mode. The unlocked options themselves are unoriginal. ''Sudden Death mode'', ''Hyper Beast Mode'', ''Knockdown Mode''. All of these have appeared in other games, just in different forms. GET ORIGINAL HUDSON!!!!!

These are my thoughts on a really cool, though overly redone series. Maybe if they do a fourth one, they can revamp the WHOLE thing.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/02, Updated 08/07/02