Bare Knuckle 3 Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]

Developed and published by Sega in 1994.
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Better known in the west as Steets of Rage 3, this is a game that had something of an identity crisis, which resulted in three different versions.
The Japanese release features a completely different storyline to the US/European versions, despite being set in many of the same locations, but was unavailable outside of Japan.
I remember that the European version had completely different colours for the player character's clothing so as to be "gender neutral". I also remember that whoever did the palette swap on Axel did a real hatchet job on some of the sprites from his animation set; part of his leg disappears.
Perhaps most famously, the character "Ash" was completely removed from the western release and replaced with Shiva. Ash was based on a stereotyped gay male, which was deemed unacceptable for western audiences, hence his removal from the game.
The version that I have recorded here is the original Japanese version under the Bare Knuckle moniker with the unofficial English translation patch applied. Evidently, fans of the series felt that the Japanese version was superior, but that only those who could understand Japanese could fully enjoy the story. The patch translates the dialogue into English, and it appears to have been done very well as the game remains completely in tact and the plot is easy to follow.
As for the game itself, it took Streets of Rage 2 as a base platform and tweaked it slightly. The game improves the graphics and changes the art style slightly so that the characters look slightly more realistic and less cartoon-like (in my opinion).
Yuzo Koshiro composed the music, although the style used in this game is considerably grittier and less melodic than it's predecessors. The music divided opinion, but I liked the sound, especially the music in the opening level.
Something else I remember about the game is that it cost a small fortune when it came out. The game came on a 24 megabit cartridge and with memory being expensive, I recall that this cost about £50 upon release. My parents bought me a copy and I recall that this was the closest to an arcade experience in the home as I'd ever been.
The series ended with this game as a fourth game planned for the Dreamcast never materialised, but at least it went out on a high.
#retrogaming

[@estebancebreros5432]

26:00 LOL @ blondie jumping to her death. 😂

[@NazriB]

I grew up playing this game.

[@Damian_1989]

Lies Again?

[@jcmartin3801]

Very nice soundtrack! It's cool to see how SOR has gotten better with each new iteration.There is a clear improvement in graphics and gameplay.It makes me wonder what great games we could have had if Sega would have stuck with the Genesis a little longer.

[@rnt9652]

I think SoR 2 has better graphics overall. Better use of color, better scroll parallax and more vivid backgrounds. SoR 3 backgrounds are more static with almost nothing going on. Still nothing beats the moveset of this one, gameplay wise is probably the best 16-bit beat'em up. (Better than Paprium too)

[@SonGokuBlack93]

we are not talking about the same game. SOR3 didn't bring any improvement in the graphics. it was a downgrade

[@TexyPanda]

@@SonGokuBlack93sor3 obviously looks better with better shading

[@SonGokuBlack93]

@@TexyPanda no way!

[@TexyPanda]

@@SonGokuBlack93yes, you can compare them side by side in Remake

[@AmenYehudah]

Thank you for sparing the kangaroo! I guess you know its secrets!

[@E-breeze]

my favorite game!!!

[@dahitmann]

"The Bustle of daily life has wiped the event from everyone's minds...". I know the Japanese plot (this one) is 10x better than the garbage we got in the states, but this is pretty ludicrous. A nuclear level detonation in a city is not easily forgotten, I would think!

[@HunterTinsley]

Gotta pay the rent. No time to dwell on nuclear explosions...

[@sonicthehedgehog9886]

You can buy the collection on the Xbox 360 on the Xbox store so you could play the Japanese version of Streets of Rage 3 if you got the Xbox 360 or Xbox One. It's your choice.

[@bucksfan3880]

Just think of they made a street of rage for PS4 and Xbox one

[@Victory-in-YAHUSHA]

They are :)

[@thegaffer1558]

And now they have

[@AlfonsoECruz]

And now there is DLC for this very new game.

[@gaara0822]

Uno de los 3 mejores juegos de la megadrive( Sega génesis)

[@hugobasilio1303]

35:20 How do you that when enemies throw you?

[@AL82RetrogamingLongplays]

Press B + C (attack/jump) just after being thrown.

[@hugobasilio1303]

Thank you!

[@robertocrotti3267]

Come si fa il super pugno del drago con rincorsa e montante ??? Non riesco a farlo

[@ertugrulkarslioglu4271]

Chilhood memories 😅😅

[@HrvojeGrahovac]

Shame that the 4th one never came on the Dreamcast

[@fedecruz3629]

Old School

[@ravimehra5164]

How can I find link this game on android

[@user-lv3bp3wo9t]

Did you know, this game has very hard mode?

[@MK-jc6us]

The possibility to use the special attack (A) simply by waiting for the bars to charge (each 6 secs) is kind of boring, takes some difficulty from the game. If I am not mistaken on BK2 if you grab someone while holding a weapon, you automatically drops your weapon. Which is also better imo.
The design could be also better, compared to the first two BK, this one looks kind of ugly.

[@iqbalsubakti797]

Please Give Me Link Gaming

[@inceptional]

Shame about the terrible music and slightly more "Americanized" look of the character art in some of the menus and cutscenes because other than that I think 3 was a solid beat em up--although 2 is still the best. The art I can get over, but the music is just too annoying most of the time.

[@rnt9652]

I don't know why people praise SoR 2 music that much, bearing in mind that it has a lot of hardcore/industrial/experimental techno sound too, and some songs are as annoying as many found on SoR 3. Still, this is a matter of taste, I know people that deeply love the weird OST from SoR 3, hardcore techno music may not be a good choice for a mainstream commercial game like this one, but it was interesting for a change. Also, I think I kinda suits the frenetic and fast paced gameplay. (SoR 1 remains as top of the tops OST ever)

[@inceptional]

@@rnt9652 It's still much better than the music here.

[@adrians380]

The house pop sound in 2 sound is very good and I do really like The Bridge theme but the music is definitely better in 3 but only because I like this kind of hardcore electronic music.

[@Laenthal]

The music is ahead of its time, not terrible. It makes the events on the screen and heroes' moves exude badassery. Genre has nothing to do with it, but pacing and composition. Brilliant work.

[@nico_13]

😎😎👑👑👑😍😍🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

[@Laenthal]

Boo for taking Axel and his most boring moves :(

[@hh-mj2sh]

😅🤣🤣🤣🤣