This game had a really mature atmosphere. The sprites and the music made me feel like i was entering a dangerous place. It was my first SoR game and the controls felt really good. Good times.
Streets of Rage 3 was amazing. It's so hard to go back to Streets of Rage 2 after using the running and dodging. The soundtrack was just more hard hitting. People were just hoping for more Ace of Base and 90s pop music riffs. I loved the harder music. More energy and felt just right. Similar to Contra Hardcorps music. I loved 3. The only thing I didn't care for was Dr. Zan. He's not as fun to use as the others.
I think its time to release a Streets of Rage Trilogy remaster using the Streets of Rage 4 game engine, allow Yuzo to re do the music how he sees fit and it would sell like hot cakes.
My brother is 8 years older than I; he was all Sega and I grew up playing Nintendo. Still, SoR was always something that brought us together. Watching your channel is like talking to him lol! Good work, love the content.
The soundtrack was written by a program Yuzo created called "Automated Composing System". It was a program for generating heavily randomized sequences in Tracker compositions. You can basically say the soundtrack was produced by Yuzo inputting small inputs of music and a simple A.I. 'created' the music.
@@happyspaceinvader508 that was the point with that soundtrack. It needed to hit more then sound very melodic. They aimed for that harder edge this time. More eminicent to early hardcore/hard techno at that time.
I actually didn't like it as much as the second one until I beat the game maybe 6 years ago, I put it above one but not as great as two but once I beat it I thought it was the best of the three and even better than the newer one I beat.
There was another interview where he said he was trying to bring across a transition between human and machine-like sounds. That's why as the game progresses the music gets weirder. It's clever; probably a bit too clever =)
Oh god...rough entry into the series, lol. I grew up on SOR2 and was disappointed when i played SOR3 for the first time, the music and the difficulty were off putting.
I’m so glad people are finally talking about the original Bare Knuckle 3. I Suggest everyone that’s a fan of the series to get a translated copy of the 3rd one. The story is creepy and amazing. Way ahead of its time. Loved this review.
I can't remember the exact source, I think it was in a copy of a Mean Machine Sega magazine but they mentioned that the reason why Adam wasn't playable in the game was that he was supposed to turn into a bad guy. Either becoming the final boss or something akin to Shiva. This was probably written during the beta stages of the game as I can remember certain screenshots of the game at the time being different to what was in the final.
I know I am in the minority here but 3 is my favorite soundtrack in the series. Love how much it sounds like a lot of the Detroit House music coming out at that time. I can totally understand why other don't like it though.
@@Tiripsroirraw Its not a show I grew up with when it was around but I've seen clips online and they are all super awesome. Detroit is such a fascinating city and has had so much amazing music come from there
The music being much more aggressive quite fits the bleak and more violent settings and gameplay. But I suspect Yuzo Koshiro going to far beyond what the Genesis could handle in electro music... Anyway, it lacks the funk and jazzy electro vibe of the two 1st episodes. I suspect Adam was not added because his gameplay would be too similar to Axel. But hey, he is in SORR, SOR2X and SOR4
@@leendo23 it's pretty damn good music. It has a rougher edge like hardcore and harder techno had in around that time. In holland we grew up with house,techno and later on hardcore. These elements where what the scene back then represented.
@@leendo23 This was a futuristic experimental soundtrack. I really liked it. I know most people hated it. But it does grow on you. At least it did for me. There were a few sub par tracks but most of it was still awesome in my opinion. It wasn't superior to SOR 1 & 2. But it was still an amazing effort.
I really like the music on SOR3. Its more experimental and glitchy, reminding me of stuff like Aphex Twin and Autechre....theres a lot of crazy frequency modulation on the synth sounds and bit crushing in the hi hats to make it more agressive and industrial. All of this is to complement the robotic/cyborg nature of the story from the game. As you said in the vid, its definetly an acquired taste.
Nintendo in the 90s: "Japanese releases too hard, make easier alternate versions for western market" Sega in the 90s: "Japanese releases not hard enough, make harder alternate versions for western market"
Nintendo was worse actually. Check out Ninja Gaiden 3 for example. Sega actually sometimes made things easier for Americans like when they turned Tatsujin into Truxton.
From a business perspective it was the right move. Millions of dollars were to research the difficulty issue. When they deemed a game beatable on a weekend rental severely hurting sales potential they had to do what was best increasing the difficulty. Unfortunately some of the ways they did this made the American versions too hard or just tedious. Thankfully with the Japanese developed games their home versions are easier. For the American versions that made it to Japan next to none received the treatment of making them easier. Games like The Ooze, Comix Zone, Ecco the Dolphin, Lion King could have benefited from an easier difficulty making them more accessible to the average gamer.
@@wadestoss3325 Comix Zone I agree completely. Especially because it's a short game. Just bringing it up because alot of casual players complain about the difficulty. The Ooze I don't agree with. I really like the game but it will absolutely punish most players. It's also a really long game so they didn't need to make it such a challenge. Also trying to collect all the DNA strands for the good ending is sadistic. Either way I really wish the Ooze got more respect. Sega's fault I guess for not pushing most of their later 16-bit games. To think this was supposed to he a packin in with the Nomad and it didn't even end up as one of the games advertised on the box 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah from what I understand Contra Hard Corps had a much more enjoyable Japanese version, it gave you a life bar that let you take 3 hits per life instead of one.
Streets of Rage 3 was dope AF. I loved the grittier feel and harder difficulty, extra special moves(especially with the weapons) and the hidden characters and different routes you could take not to mention the endings that was possible. It was definitely some good tracks to the game. My personal favorite of the classic trio.
The gameplay mechanics like roll and universal dash were a warm welcome that was sorely missing in SOR4. Music was weaker than 1&2, but still some greats, my personal fav being The Poets I.
I think they added to perfection and it detracted from the gameplay. The same way MK3 didn't need dial a combos, Streets of Rage 3 didn't need rolling and dashing. Maybe still better than the first game tho, but 2 just plays much better IMO. And I have played the Japanese version of 3 as well.
Totally agree. I can't play any other character and really enjoy it except Skate in SoR 2 these days because the dash is just too good to lose and he was the only one who had it. I think Disco has its charms and Fuse certainly sets the tone its name suggests.
I find it very interesting from an art point of view. But as a soundtrack for a game it really can get annoying. If Yuzo saved some of that music for a cd album, maybe it would be more appreciated.
@@rodrigojbc1 definitely it would have been way better all in all I like the new direction I get it especially with the backgrounds and settings it’s mainly the quality of the sounds I bet it sounded way different before it was compressed for Genesis
For those of you that don't know, Ash is still in the American version but to access him you need to use a game genie or PAR code to use him. A simple google search will find the codes to play him.
one thing I am surprised you didn't mention when showing the differences between Bare Knuckle and Streets of Rage is that, for some reason, they decided to take away the flicker effect when an enemy dies. I also recall that when you go into the club in level 2 the strobe effect is way worse in SoR vs BK. In BK you just get a slight dim effect but you are still able to see everything on screen, whereas in SoR the screen goes completely dark and you can't see anything. SoR3/BK3 was actually my introduction to the series, so I always prefer it to the others (though I'm the weirdo, I find SoR2 to be the least enjoyable of the series) but when TH-cam was brand new and I saw people playing translated versions of BK3 (thanks to ROMs and emulators) I was so shocked to see how different SoR3 was. You look at BK3 and you can see the devs were just upping the ante for the story consequences, but then kept everything else largely the same. Axel and Blaze are still in their same colour scheme and same with the enemies. It always felt to me like when it was being prepared for its NA release, management insisted on changes that didn't make any sense. Why is Axel now wearing Adam's clothes? It looks absolutely awful, and Blaze's silver made playing difficult in some places because now her model doesn't pop thanks to a more muted palette. Just change, for change sake and it didn't make anything better
I feel a lot of the music sets the tone and mood of the strange, new and unknown techno threat the heroes are facing with the machine fights and robots replacing people. I feel it fits the game setting really well!
I always felt Streets of Rage 1 had the best music out of the bunch. Streets of Rage 2 was the most balanced. Streets of Rage 3 was a improvement from SoR2 with great variety but with a lackluster soundtrack.
Another great review and thank you for explaining what the stars meant. All this time I played the game I had no idea why there were there. I may be in the minority here but I actually liked the soundtrack. To me it had more of an electronic/robotic feel to it that added to the whole idea of robots trying to take over. Again, keep up the great work!
Honestly the first time I played SOR3 was last year... so no nostalgia here. The music was weird at first but I do think it is an acquired taste, and I've grown to like it a lot. It much less melodic than SOR2, and trades that for an industrial vibe. It sounds a little more hardcore to me, and changes the vibe of the game in a refreshing way.
The tracks Poets I and II are GOAT status for me. I think a lot of the backlash to the OST is from people that don’t have a lot of familiarity with hard techno. No idea who Underground Resistance or Jeff Mills are? Well then, this probably isn’t for you
In terms of rom hacks/game edits, there's a patch that adds - Playable Max and Adam - A roster with 9 characters - English translation - A functional version of Shiva - Original color palettes Also since it's the Japanese version it also retains things like - Ash (both as a boss and playable character) - Reduced difficulty - Original Story - Uncensored enemies and Blaze sprite Or you can always pickup SOR Remake, specially since it just had a recent update
i missed having a dedicated grappling character in the lie-up. it would have been nice to get a max character that got special throws using the 6 button controller.
@@SonnyBCreative didn't like playing zan as a grappler. His over the shoulder throw is quick but his powerbomb had that twitch animation that made it less fun to use than max's jump powerbomb from 2. Half the fun of max was jump powerbombing hordes of dudes left and right, and watching the screen shake like crazy.
Even if SOR3 is the technologically best one in the series, my favorite ones will always be a tie between SOR1 & SOR2. The music & level design was so much better in the first two games. Although from a gameplay perspective, its easy to see why SOR3 is the best.
@@miamimagicians even a lesser one is still a great one. more so aquired taste. If you really love one part of these games that doesn't mean the others are bad. I would say maybe more so like god of war where they totally flipped the series.
I guess club/rave music was dying out and evolving towards the mid 90's, and Yuzo Koshiro's SoR3 soundtrack reflects that. Personally I like it, not quite as mainstream as the first two games, but good non the less.
Good review, but you forgot to mention the special atacks with weapons. You also omitted the main changes Sega of America did. SoA deleted the major scene of the original intro (Axel's punch) and change for worse the main Sfx of the game (Axel's yell during the grand upper) and excluded one character of the game entirely.
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but since SoR3 was the first one I played in the series I always loved the soundtrack. Even at an early age I thought the dissonance of the tunes and quasi-random nature of the song structure was really cool because it was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. When I eventually got around to playing the first two titles I fell in love with their soundtracks as well for how beat driven they were, but the innovation behind SoR3's soundtrack still makes it my personal favorite of the bunch.
I remember back in 2007 when there were a lot of negative comments about SOR3's music on the Internet. Nowadays a lot more appreciate what the music was trying to be, and it's much more relatable as a music style. I've always loved the soundtrack :)
Me too, yeah alot of those comments are still there ( it's annoying ) I dislike it when folks don't comprehend that there's different genres of house music
The music is Lit AF just saying, it was made by a program created by yuzo and reflects the background story of this entry with all the automatization, cyborgs and A.I
Just so you guys know, if you use bandcamp, all soundtracks from all 4 SOR games are available there digitally and they are cheap. Regarding SOR 3 music, I personally love it. Actually, I got into electronic music and industrial music because of this game.
I think I'm the same way because I'm very eclectic tastes in music. I completely understand why a number of the tracks would be completely unbearable to some people though. The unofficial Streets of rage remake really made the music in 3 even better in a lot of cases but not all.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I haven’t been able to play the remake. I’ll give it a try. Yeah, it’s definitely not for everyone. I like experimental/drone/noise music so this is right up my alley.
They did so much right, but the one thing that I struggle with from its launch to this day are the sound effects when you hit enemies. They don't have the same impact as 2 and sometimes they seem to randomly just not play. That aspect of the game has always just felt broken.
Yes that really puts me off 3. Sound is VERY important to me in fighting games. 2 has fantastic punch and never cuts out. In 3 the constant audio drops and weak hit sounds just turn me off. It feels like you're hitting a wet paper bag.
While I don't *love* the soundtrack to SOR 3, it has grown on me. Especially since reading an interview where Koshiro explained the weird mechanical sound choices in the compositions as representing the replacement of humans with machines. While I don't think that entirely comes across in game (without this tidbit of information) it has given me more appreciation that he was trying something different. Looking at it from his perspective it must've been almost impossible to live up to the expectations of fans, create something appropriate to the game AND keep it on tight memory and performance budget. Speaking of; if you wanna see a truly gimped version of the game play the PAL version of Streets of Rage 3. It's not optimised for PAL so the music and gameplay are slower. And because of that we get one of the only instances I've heard on the Mega Drive of music 'slow down'. Clearly whatever artistic merits the music did or didn't have, it was definitely asking a lot of the old Mega Drive, because there are moments where - even when just playing the music without gameplay - the tempo slows intermittently as if being played on an old vinyl record player with a dodgy belt. Once you're actually in the game, aside from the usual unoptimised PAL speed difference, you'll notice the music audibly slows down when new batches of enemies enter the screen. This all while playing on a punishing difficulty that I'm yet to be able to beat without cheats. I've just patched my Bare Knuckle 3 game with the English translation and I'm looking forward to playing it as was intended =)
Imo nothing was gonna live up to SOR2. It just wasn't possible. SOR3 did improve gameplay in terms of run and roll etc. Amazing graphics and actually I've come to like the soundtrack. Tho again, what could live up to SOR1&2? If SOR2 didn't do perfection this would get 100% love. As it is i give it 89% love.
I 1000% agree that adam and max should've been playable. I'd of traded zan, roo and skate for those two and a shiva with the full move set. The music to me, wasn't terrible but the sound effects were. SoR 1=Best Music SoR 2=Best overall/top 5 beat em up SoR 3=Best gameplay
This is my favourite streets of rage/Bnkuckle3 The music I love it provides great atmosphere tunes like shinobi reverse and poet's 2. The game just has speed and flows fast paced compares to the rest of the series.
Interesting take. The difficulty in the US, in my opinion, added much needed challenge to the game. Bare Knuckle was a walk, with no challenge at all. I have to agree about the music. I was a bit of a club kid back then, so I know what was going through Yuzo's mind, but it didn't translate to Genesis very well. That being said, all other aspects were improved. The lack of parallax scrolling was due to the upgraded sprites, and improved animations. A shame, I know, but honestly thats a minor gripe.
You really don't like the music ?!? That's real trance bruv! It's not as good as "Back to The Industry" from sor 2, but it's a game about cyborgs and shit. It fits the story better than, say, Yuzos work on "Eye of The Beholder" for the Sega CD.
I like the experimental base of the sor 3 Soundtrack. Much soundesign was way ahead of its time. Remember me at autechre and the likes. But overall I like the first two Soundtracks better. The third one is still quality because of the Genre defining and experimental Sound.
You are spot on about the difficulty being raised up in North America to encourage people to buy it rather than rent it. As awesome as it is Streets of Rage 2 is it really was the perfectly rental as u cud probably beat it 2 or 3 times over a weekend. I never had a compulsion to buy it.
Dub Slash being a stand out in this soundtrack and the Remake version that came after it, is one of my favorite tracks in entire library. I understand why people don’t like the soundtrack . It’s electro-industrial and trance influences were new at the time and weren’t popular until much later in the 90’s. Don’t forget pop-techno was still getting radio play at the time and was much more palatable.
Funny how the general complain about Genesis music is that composers didn't know how to work with the chip and were not using its strengths, resorting to default GEMS patches. But once the chip is really used to its strengths and basically get pushed to the limits, it is 'painful to listen'.
@@MrKshahdoo But he was already removed from the US version before. SoR3 was censored when it came out stateside. You had to use a Game Genie to access him at all.
I realize SOR 3's soundtrack is a point of contention for many, but I think it's absolutely amazing, and quite frankly, it's mind-blowing that it was even pulled off on Genesis' hardware. Far-and-away, the biggest problem with SOR 3 is its difficulty. The game is artificially elongated, and turns it into a slog at times, especially some of the bosses. It's virtually impossible to defeat the final boss and get a "good" ending without resorting to spamming jump kicks. Yeah, the story is ridiculous, and the costume changes were completely unnecessary, but I still adore SOR 3 and play it often. I only put Bare Knuckle III in when friends are over since it's much less demanding. Great review btw.
SoR 3 is so awesome game! One of my favorite for Genesis and maybe in top-10 video games of all times. Beat it hundreds of time. I just could not to play SoR or SoR2 after I play this one. The routes, the gameplay features, the control, the sound - everything is head and shoulders above than in the previous parts. Especially in Bare Knuckle 3.
I remember renting this and being excited because I loved SoR2. The soundtrack had me confused and irritated. I thought that maybe it was my console, so I tried putting the cartridge in a friend's Genesis with the same crappy music. It's unfortunate that the gameplay was improved because I couldn't handle the music for more than a few minutes and I just quit before I even had to take it back to Blockbuster. At least SoR4 put the franchise back on track. I think I played through that game 40+ times with and without my kids.
I don't have a problem with a music in this game. It's different, but it's a game lot different. It feels a lot of darker, than the previous games. I had japanese version at my childhood and i really like it. And i beat it in Steam BARELY (US version), with second player help. They had to release Streets of Rage 4 on Saturn, but sadly it never happen. Not on a Saturn or Dreamcast, but much later.
No soundtrack was ever going to compare to SoR2 so they took it in a different direction. I loved it. SoR3 is the best playing game in the series but SoR2 is the all time classic.
SOR3 took what I liked about SOR2 and amplified it. This includes the music which is truly original and mature... Loved it and is my favorite game in the series.
I had fun with all the original streets of rage games. Yes I missed Adam too, he was my main for SOR1 but I learned to adapt I guess. Regarding music in SOR3 it has it's moments, I remember being weirded out by it as a kid but as an adult now, I can appreciate it. I even make use of it, when I work out. ^_^ Overall a good video. :)
Also the move-set is insane: I tried counting every single move, some years ago, and iirc each character has or something like 45 moves.. Way more than previous SoR games, and more than pretty much every game at that time. It’s really incredibly fluid controls and moves...
@@JamesChessman I played through it because it was free on Game Pass. It's pretty decent, but yeah the art style doesn't appeal to me, the music isn't quite as good as the first 2 games and I think in terms of gameplay it's easily the worst in the franchise.
@@thenonexistinghero you know what’s an awesome tribute to the series, the streets of rage live-action movie, on TH-cam, I’m not affiliated with it, but I just love it lol. Music is from the first two games and they have hilarious action that’s faithful to the games. It’s appealing while SoR4 just doesn’t pull me in .
Exactly the music why i loved this far more. First two has some catchy generic music except one in the 2nd that was awesome. Now here it is the 3rd with all these fantastic experimental and agressive music never heard before. I replayed it over and over and over enjoying the tunes. Unfortunately my renting time run over.
My main problems were: Having Zan rather than Max or Adam, the overly hard difficulty & the color changes. There are some songs in 3 I hate & others I really love & the hit sound fx aren't as hard-hitting & satisfying as 2.
SOR3 is my favorite SOR (before 4 came out). It is superior to the previous 2 games in every way. The only stumble is the music, but I urge people not to skip it just because of that. Get a translation of Bare Knuckle 3. It's more balanced and the story is more coherent.
This was a great, and fair, review. Honest and well thought out, as well as researched. Personally, I rank the series: 1. Streets of Rage Remake (the best all around, just simply is). A close 2nd: Streets of Rage 4. Tied for 3rd: Streets of Rage 2 and 3. 2's music is completely awesome, but 3's use of the special meter bar, rolls, combos, and Zan push it into a tie for me. Especially if you play Bare Knuckle 3 instead of the US version. And lastly fairly obviously is SoR1. It's a solid game, but you won't see anyone choosing it over any of the others. And if you need your Adam, well. That's what SoRR and SoR4 are for :)
As for 16-bit fighting beat em up games this is my favorite of that genre on the Genesis and as far as Super Nintendo I think Final Fight 3 is the best beat em Up game on the system in my opinion anyways.
SoR 3 and Golden Axe 3 go to the same support group on Wednesday nights.
🤣🤣
Final fight 3 hosts the group.
@@gjergjaurelius9798 Final Fight 1 SNES would host as a lot was cut from that version.
So funny 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don’t get the backlash over SOR3.. honestly I always loved it maybe more than #2! I really liked the teamwork moves
This game had a really mature atmosphere. The sprites and the music made me feel like i was entering a dangerous place. It was my first SoR game and the controls felt really good. Good times.
>Mature Atmosphere
>Kanga-freaking-roo with boxing gloves xd!
I think the series just had a darker feel thanks to the OST's and visual presentation.
Yeah the controls are very satisfying
yeah the whole game is kind of hardcore, including the music
if you think about the total package, it's kind of arty
I'm one of those rare beasts that LOVE this soundtrack.. Cycle 3 and Happy Paradise are my favorite.. i like the experimental madness
More and more people are discovering how cool and interesting the music in SOR3 is.
SHINOBI REVERSE!!!!💯
You're in the rare minority. There's a handful of tracks that are tolerable, the rest haven't stood the test of time.
Well. It fits well to the game and today I really enjoy it.
make sure you have a good hardware revision like Genesis 1 VA3
or Mister FPGA core
makes a big difference
Streets of Rage 3 was amazing. It's so hard to go back to Streets of Rage 2 after using the running and dodging. The soundtrack was just more hard hitting. People were just hoping for more Ace of Base and 90s pop music riffs. I loved the harder music. More energy and felt just right. Similar to Contra Hardcorps music. I loved 3. The only thing I didn't care for was Dr. Zan. He's not as fun to use as the others.
I think its time to release a Streets of Rage Trilogy remaster using the Streets of Rage 4 game engine, allow Yuzo to re do the music how he sees fit and it would sell like hot cakes.
i never hated the music of 3 just that dr boss' song that was irritating but i would love that
@Kyle From Florida what part of use Streets of Rage 4 game engine did you not understand shortbus? 🤔
the gameplay in 4 is great, but visually I thought it was puke garbage, so I like your idea.
My brother is 8 years older than I; he was all Sega and I grew up playing Nintendo. Still, SoR was always something that brought us together. Watching your channel is like talking to him lol! Good work, love the content.
they had a kangaroo playable character in this game over adam. WTF!
The soundtrack was written by a program Yuzo created called "Automated Composing System". It was a program for generating heavily randomized sequences in Tracker compositions. You can basically say the soundtrack was produced by Yuzo inputting small inputs of music and a simple A.I. 'created' the music.
Which is presumably why the resulting sound is artificial and lacking any soul.
Frankly this game has one of the dullest sountracks composed by Koshiro... Truly a pity for the third entry of Street of Rage.
Well that's one way to avoid his tendency to plagiarize.
@@happyspaceinvader508 that was the point with that soundtrack. It needed to hit more then sound very melodic. They aimed for that harder edge this time. More eminicent to early hardcore/hard techno at that time.
@@MrSerpico145 true!
Part 3 is so underrated.it’s better then most beat em ups ever made.
I actually didn't like it as much as the second one until I beat the game maybe 6 years ago, I put it above one but not as great as two but once I beat it I thought it was the best of the three and even better than the newer one I beat.
Sor 3 is actually a downgrade in comparison to sor 2
The difficulty makes it annoying .
@@Bazimagle strangely it is .
Streets of Rage 3 is hard af
long and hard
@@n0isyturtle long, hard, and thicc
always hated hard games. i don't wan't a job. i want entertainment
The Japanese version is easier so I heard.
The Western version has very hard as the default normal.
Personally the track "Moon" is one of my favorite tracks from SOR3. comes second to Fuze and Cycle 1
i love the ost for this game.
Sor3 is my favorite ost. The fast pace tracks stole it for me!
In an interview, Yuzo Koshiro said he used a sort of automated composing musics software for Streets Of Rage 3, that's why the musics are so weird.
There was another interview where he said he was trying to bring across a transition between human and machine-like sounds. That's why as the game progresses the music gets weirder. It's clever; probably a bit too clever =)
@@JohnnyThousand605 i still like it 🤷♂️📻🎧🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊
I loved the street of rage 3 soundtrack!
Everyone always loves 2, but 3 are the Streets I grew up on.
And we shall pity you for it
Oh god...rough entry into the series, lol. I grew up on SOR2 and was disappointed when i played SOR3 for the first time, the music and the difficulty were off putting.
I’m so glad people are finally talking about the original Bare Knuckle 3. I Suggest everyone that’s a fan of the series to get a translated copy of the 3rd one. The story is creepy and amazing. Way ahead of its time. Loved this review.
Yea BK3 was definitely much better than the gimped SOR3 for sure.
'Random cross' sounds awesome to me
Yeah, I liked all those tracks!
Love crazy train
@Handsome_Hero. I thought the exact same thing. Ransom Cross, Fuze, The Poets I & II were awesome tracks.
It has a real Detroit Techno sound to it. TBF all the Streets of Rage tunes are Detriot Techno which I love
@@Lister81g Nope. Some tracks took inspiration from real life songs. Some of which happened to be by UK artists.
I can't remember the exact source, I think it was in a copy of a Mean Machine Sega magazine but they mentioned that the reason why Adam wasn't playable in the game was that he was supposed to turn into a bad guy. Either becoming the final boss or something akin to Shiva.
This was probably written during the beta stages of the game as I can remember certain screenshots of the game at the time being different to what was in the final.
I know I am in the minority here but 3 is my favorite soundtrack in the series. Love how much it sounds like a lot of the Detroit House music coming out at that time. I can totally understand why other don't like it though.
I actually love it as well
FINALLY SOMEONE THAT GETS IT !!!!!!!!!!!!! Detroit House music !!! Do you remember this show called " The New Dance Show " ?
@@Tiripsroirraw Its not a show I grew up with when it was around but I've seen clips online and they are all super awesome. Detroit is such a fascinating city and has had so much amazing music come from there
@@andydunlap4519 Agreed !!
I think all of the songs are decent other than the song for the tunnel in stage 4
The poets I and II.
Mostly II, that song is pretty much my go-to when I think of streets of rage.
Poets II deffo my favourite from SoR 3. But Dreamer from SoR 2 is the quintessential Streets of Rage track imo.
The music being much more aggressive quite fits the bleak and more violent settings and gameplay.
But I suspect Yuzo Koshiro going to far beyond what the Genesis could handle in electro music...
Anyway, it lacks the funk and jazzy electro vibe of the two 1st episodes.
I suspect Adam was not added because his gameplay would be too similar to Axel.
But hey, he is in SORR, SOR2X and SOR4
I'm under the impression Yuzo tried to move from house to techno and the latter is more mature. From a only musical perspective, it isn't bad techno!
@@leendo23 it's pretty damn good music. It has a rougher edge like hardcore and harder techno had in around that time. In holland we grew up with house,techno and later on hardcore. These elements where what the scene back then represented.
I was thinking the same thing. The Genesis just couldn't handle Koshiro's vision.
@@leendo23 This was a futuristic experimental soundtrack. I really liked it. I know most people hated it. But it does grow on you. At least it did for me. There were a few sub par tracks but most of it was still awesome in my opinion. It wasn't superior to SOR 1 & 2. But it was still an amazing effort.
Koshiro really had "carte blanche" on this one. Blatantly showing his tremendous standing in the business at that time.
I really like the music on SOR3. Its more experimental and glitchy, reminding me of stuff like Aphex Twin and Autechre....theres a lot of crazy frequency modulation on the synth sounds and bit crushing in the hi hats to make it more agressive and industrial. All of this is to complement the robotic/cyborg nature of the story from the game. As you said in the vid, its definetly an acquired taste.
Nintendo in the 90s: "Japanese releases too hard, make easier alternate versions for western market"
Sega in the 90s: "Japanese releases not hard enough, make harder alternate versions for western market"
Nintendo was worse actually. Check out Ninja Gaiden 3 for example. Sega actually sometimes made things easier for Americans like when they turned Tatsujin into Truxton.
From a business perspective it was the right move. Millions of dollars were to research the difficulty issue. When they deemed a game beatable on a weekend rental severely hurting sales potential they had to do what was best increasing the difficulty.
Unfortunately some of the ways they did this made the American versions too hard or just tedious. Thankfully with the Japanese developed games their home versions are easier. For the American versions that made it to Japan next to none received the treatment of making them easier. Games like The Ooze, Comix Zone, Ecco the Dolphin, Lion King could have benefited from an easier difficulty making them more accessible to the average gamer.
@@supersexysega The Ooze and Comix Zone have steep learning curves, but in terms of overall difficulty they are about right in my eyes.
@@wadestoss3325 Comix Zone I agree completely. Especially because it's a short game. Just bringing it up because alot of casual players complain about the difficulty.
The Ooze I don't agree with. I really like the game but it will absolutely punish most players. It's also a really long game so they didn't need to make it such a challenge. Also trying to collect all the DNA strands for the good ending is sadistic.
Either way I really wish the Ooze got more respect. Sega's fault I guess for not pushing most of their later 16-bit games. To think this was supposed to he a packin in with the Nomad and it didn't even end up as one of the games advertised on the box 🤷🏼♂️
Yeah from what I understand Contra Hard Corps had a much more enjoyable Japanese version, it gave you a life bar that let you take 3 hits per life instead of one.
Streets of Rage 3 was dope AF. I loved the grittier feel and harder difficulty, extra special moves(especially with the weapons) and the hidden characters and different routes you could take not to mention the endings that was possible. It was definitely some good tracks to the game. My personal favorite of the classic trio.
The gameplay mechanics like roll and universal dash were a warm welcome that was sorely missing in SOR4. Music was weaker than 1&2, but still some greats, my personal fav being The Poets I.
I think they added to perfection and it detracted from the gameplay. The same way MK3 didn't need dial a combos, Streets of Rage 3 didn't need rolling and dashing. Maybe still better than the first game tho, but 2 just plays much better IMO. And I have played the Japanese version of 3 as well.
Totally agree. I can't play any other character and really enjoy it except Skate in SoR 2 these days because the dash is just too good to lose and he was the only one who had it.
I think Disco has its charms and Fuse certainly sets the tone its name suggests.
The music sounds like it was going for a more techno or electro style. I like the moon song that was sampled
It has an “industrial” take. It was common for electronic music of that period
@@TheProgressiveStyle It's actually very advanced for the period.
Yuzo must have been of the bleeding edge type.
I find it very interesting from an art point of view. But as a soundtrack for a game it really can get annoying. If Yuzo saved some of that music for a cd album, maybe it would be more appreciated.
@@rodrigojbc1 definitely it would have been way better all in all I like the new direction I get it especially with the backgrounds and settings it’s mainly the quality of the sounds I bet it sounded way different before it was compressed for Genesis
Yuzo Koshiro apparently frequented nightclubs during the making of Streets of Rage 2 and 3 so that’s where a lot of his influence came from
Always loved the SOR3 ost since it introduce me to harder and more experiments sounds before that slight electronic music boom of the late 90s
Electronic music was pretty underground during the 80's too
For those of you that don't know, Ash is still in the American version but to access him you need to use a game genie or PAR code to use him. A simple google search will find the codes to play him.
well the opening scroller sez Adam is busy so he sends an under aged kid to help with an evil empire,makes sense.
😅😅😅
He had already proven himself in SOR2..he had plenty of faith in him
one thing I am surprised you didn't mention when showing the differences between Bare Knuckle and Streets of Rage is that, for some reason, they decided to take away the flicker effect when an enemy dies. I also recall that when you go into the club in level 2 the strobe effect is way worse in SoR vs BK. In BK you just get a slight dim effect but you are still able to see everything on screen, whereas in SoR the screen goes completely dark and you can't see anything.
SoR3/BK3 was actually my introduction to the series, so I always prefer it to the others (though I'm the weirdo, I find SoR2 to be the least enjoyable of the series) but when TH-cam was brand new and I saw people playing translated versions of BK3 (thanks to ROMs and emulators) I was so shocked to see how different SoR3 was. You look at BK3 and you can see the devs were just upping the ante for the story consequences, but then kept everything else largely the same. Axel and Blaze are still in their same colour scheme and same with the enemies. It always felt to me like when it was being prepared for its NA release, management insisted on changes that didn't make any sense. Why is Axel now wearing Adam's clothes? It looks absolutely awful, and Blaze's silver made playing difficult in some places because now her model doesn't pop thanks to a more muted palette.
Just change, for change sake and it didn't make anything better
Crazy train was pretty cool because it was basically dnb on the genesis. You don't hear that a lot on the console.
I feel a lot of the music sets the tone and mood of the strange, new and unknown techno threat the heroes are facing with the machine fights and robots replacing people. I feel it fits the game setting really well!
It does this guy just doesn't like techno.
I always felt Streets of Rage 1 had the best music out of the bunch. Streets of Rage 2 was the most balanced. Streets of Rage 3 was a improvement from SoR2 with great variety but with a lackluster soundtrack.
Another great review and thank you for explaining what the stars meant. All this time I played the game I had no idea why there were there. I may be in the minority here but I actually liked the soundtrack. To me it had more of an electronic/robotic feel to it that added to the whole idea of robots trying to take over. Again, keep up the great work!
*THANK YOU!* Never stop with the SoR content!
Honestly the first time I played SOR3 was last year... so no nostalgia here. The music was weird at first but I do think it is an acquired taste, and I've grown to like it a lot. It much less melodic than SOR2, and trades that for an industrial vibe. It sounds a little more hardcore to me, and changes the vibe of the game in a refreshing way.
The tracks Poets I and II are GOAT status for me. I think a lot of the backlash to the OST is from people that don’t have a lot of familiarity with hard techno. No idea who Underground Resistance or Jeff Mills are? Well then, this probably isn’t for you
I can definitely see the Detroit techno influences in this soundtrack. Also the he beginnings of trance are represented as well.
No idea who those bands are, but Poets 1 is definitely incredible. I also really love the samurai boss battle music.
Inga Rasen is one of the greatest pieces of chiptune techno on earth, period.
Hell yeah!
I’m with you on that!!
By far some of the best ost's of our generation came from Yuzo. Expander by Motohiro is one of my all-time favorites.
Signed!
YES !, that's my favorite it reminds me of the club theme from the movie " Blade "
man its a good soundtrack
In terms of rom hacks/game edits, there's a patch that adds
- Playable Max and Adam
- A roster with 9 characters
- English translation
- A functional version of Shiva
- Original color palettes
Also since it's the Japanese version it also retains things like
- Ash (both as a boss and playable character)
- Reduced difficulty
- Original Story
- Uncensored enemies and Blaze sprite
Or you can always pickup SOR Remake, specially since it just had a recent update
What romhack is that? I've played SOR:R a lot but a playable Adam in an authentic SOR3 experience sounds nice
@@Guthixian_ "Bare Knuckle 3 Project"
Finding it was a pain in my behind
@@SaikouShiva thanks, sorry to hear about your behind, I hope it heals soon
@@Guthixian_ No problem, and thanks lol
As polarizing as it is, it's my favorite of the Genesis trilogy.
i love the character select song. overall i felt the soundtrack was closer to a movie soundtrack this time. very fitting for the levels and situation
i missed having a dedicated grappling character in the lie-up. it would have been nice to get a max character that got special throws using the 6 button controller.
Dr Zan is the grappler
@@SonnyBCreative didn't like playing zan as a grappler. His over the shoulder throw is quick but his powerbomb had that twitch animation that made it less fun to use than max's jump powerbomb from 2. Half the fun of max was jump powerbombing hordes of dudes left and right, and watching the screen shake like crazy.
Play the remake. There's even a secret special move you can do as Max... 😉
Even if SOR3 is the technologically best one in the series, my favorite ones will always be a tie between SOR1 & SOR2. The music & level design was so much better in the first two games. Although from a gameplay perspective, its easy to see why SOR3 is the best.
Agreed sor 1 and 2 are damn near perfect
Much like the DKC series you can’t go wrong
SOR1 = Best Music
SOR2 = Most balanced presentation
SOR3 = Best gameplay
@@miamimagicians even a lesser one is still a great one. more so aquired taste. If you really love one part of these games that doesn't mean the others are bad. I would say maybe more so like god of war where they totally flipped the series.
Replacing World leaders with Robot lookalikes. aka Bill Gates and J oe B iden.
I don't give a damn but that soundtrack is insanely good and underrated!
it's kind of like a live set you'd hear at a rave
maybe yuzo was in a k-hole
I guess club/rave music was dying out and evolving towards the mid 90's, and Yuzo Koshiro's SoR3 soundtrack reflects that. Personally I like it, not quite as mainstream as the first two games, but good non the less.
Good review, but you forgot to mention the special atacks with weapons. You also omitted the main changes Sega of America did. SoA deleted the major scene of the original intro (Axel's punch) and change for worse the main Sfx of the game (Axel's yell during the grand upper) and excluded one character of the game entirely.
This was my favorite one of the series. Especially the music. Great review.
Mixed Bag of Rage 3. By that I mean most players I’ve heard from either love it or hate it. I love SoR 3
Those songs were lit!
@Matthew Smith. I thought I was the only one who loved the soundtrack to SOR 3. I'm not saying it's superior to Rage 2 & 3. But it was still awesome.
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but since SoR3 was the first one I played in the series I always loved the soundtrack. Even at an early age I thought the dissonance of the tunes and quasi-random nature of the song structure was really cool because it was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. When I eventually got around to playing the first two titles I fell in love with their soundtracks as well for how beat driven they were, but the innovation behind SoR3's soundtrack still makes it my personal favorite of the bunch.
me too
I remember back in 2007 when there were a lot of negative comments about SOR3's music on the Internet. Nowadays a lot more appreciate what the music was trying to be, and it's much more relatable as a music style. I've always loved the soundtrack :)
Me too, yeah alot of those comments are still there ( it's annoying ) I dislike it when folks don't comprehend that there's different genres of house music
The music is Lit AF just saying, it was made by a program created by yuzo and reflects the background story of this entry with all the automatization, cyborgs and A.I
Some of the music are genre of Minimal, Electro, Electronica etc
Just so you guys know, if you use bandcamp, all soundtracks from all 4 SOR games are available there digitally and they are cheap.
Regarding SOR 3 music, I personally love it. Actually, I got into electronic music and industrial music because of this game.
I think I'm the same way because I'm very eclectic tastes in music.
I completely understand why a number of the tracks would be completely unbearable to some people though. The unofficial Streets of rage remake really made the music in 3 even better in a lot of cases but not all.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I haven’t been able to play the remake. I’ll give it a try. Yeah, it’s definitely not for everyone. I like experimental/drone/noise music so this is right up my alley.
Sor3's soundtrack is absolutely amazing and way ahead of it's time, what are you smoking bro
This music would be amazing at a rave.
It definitely has 90s acid techno elements
They did so much right, but the one thing that I struggle with from its launch to this day are the sound effects when you hit enemies. They don't have the same impact as 2 and sometimes they seem to randomly just not play. That aspect of the game has always just felt broken.
Yes that really puts me off 3. Sound is VERY important to me in fighting games. 2 has fantastic punch and never cuts out. In 3 the constant audio drops and weak hit sounds just turn me off. It feels like you're hitting a wet paper bag.
It makes the game feel so Janky and broken and unrefined/finished. I get 100% what you mean. That's why 2 is so fantastic. It feels solid.
While I don't *love* the soundtrack to SOR 3, it has grown on me. Especially since reading an interview where Koshiro explained the weird mechanical sound choices in the compositions as representing the replacement of humans with machines. While I don't think that entirely comes across in game (without this tidbit of information) it has given me more appreciation that he was trying something different. Looking at it from his perspective it must've been almost impossible to live up to the expectations of fans, create something appropriate to the game AND keep it on tight memory and performance budget. Speaking of; if you wanna see a truly gimped version of the game play the PAL version of Streets of Rage 3. It's not optimised for PAL so the music and gameplay are slower. And because of that we get one of the only instances I've heard on the Mega Drive of music 'slow down'. Clearly whatever artistic merits the music did or didn't have, it was definitely asking a lot of the old Mega Drive, because there are moments where - even when just playing the music without gameplay - the tempo slows intermittently as if being played on an old vinyl record player with a dodgy belt. Once you're actually in the game, aside from the usual unoptimised PAL speed difference, you'll notice the music audibly slows down when new batches of enemies enter the screen. This all while playing on a punishing difficulty that I'm yet to be able to beat without cheats. I've just patched my Bare Knuckle 3 game with the English translation and I'm looking forward to playing it as was intended =)
music for me is ok, problems are "voice & yells" sound effects
You gotta get the japanese rom then English patch it.
Imo nothing was gonna live up to SOR2. It just wasn't possible. SOR3 did improve gameplay in terms of run and roll etc. Amazing graphics and actually I've come to like the soundtrack. Tho again, what could live up to SOR1&2? If SOR2 didn't do perfection this would get 100% love. As it is i give it 89% love.
I 1000% agree that adam and max should've been playable. I'd of traded zan, roo and skate for those two and a shiva with the full move set. The music to me, wasn't terrible but the sound effects were.
SoR 1=Best Music
SoR 2=Best overall/top 5 beat em up
SoR 3=Best gameplay
SOR3 is massively underrated, the gameplay is a solid improvement on SOR2 to the point playing SOR2 now seems kind of 'slow' somehow
This is my favourite streets of rage/Bnkuckle3 The music I love it provides great atmosphere tunes like shinobi reverse and poet's 2.
The game just has speed and flows fast paced compares to the rest of the series.
Thank you so much for this review! I love SOR 3 so much and feel it deserves a lot more respect than it gets. 👍
Interesting take. The difficulty in the US, in my opinion, added much needed challenge to the game. Bare Knuckle was a walk, with no challenge at all. I have to agree about the music. I was a bit of a club kid back then, so I know what was going through Yuzo's mind, but it didn't translate to Genesis very well. That being said, all other aspects were improved. The lack of parallax scrolling was due to the upgraded sprites, and improved animations. A shame, I know, but honestly thats a minor gripe.
Bare Knuckle 3 is on my top 5 of my favorites Megadrive games and is my favorite beat em up for sure!
You really don't like the music ?!? That's real trance bruv! It's not as good as "Back to The Industry" from sor 2, but it's a game about cyborgs and shit. It fits the story better than, say, Yuzos work on "Eye of The Beholder" for the Sega CD.
I actually enjoyed the “Crazy Train” track because I remember it most fighting the super difficult Jet, which seems very fitting lol Great Review!
I personally i enjoy the soundtrack
It's very reminiscent to the type of EDM associated the 2010's
Watching your videos is like watching my favorite show everyday! Always looking forward to the next. Thanks SLX
I always thought the guy who made the music for this game was on some hardcore psychedelics at the time.
I like the experimental base of the sor 3 Soundtrack. Much soundesign was way ahead of its time. Remember me at autechre and the likes. But overall I like the first two Soundtracks better. The third one is still quality because of the Genre defining and experimental Sound.
You are spot on about the difficulty being raised up in North America to encourage people to buy it rather than rent it. As awesome as it is Streets of Rage 2 is it really was the perfectly rental as u cud probably beat it 2 or 3 times over a weekend. I never had a compulsion to buy it.
Dub Slash being a stand out in this soundtrack and the Remake version that came after it, is one of my favorite tracks in entire library.
I understand why people don’t like the soundtrack . It’s electro-industrial and trance influences were new at the time and weren’t popular until much later in the 90’s. Don’t forget pop-techno was still getting radio play at the time and was much more palatable.
Maybe the soundtrack is just ahead of its time... like way ahead, like we re not quite there yet still
Funny how the general complain about Genesis music is that composers didn't know how to work with the chip and were not using its strengths, resorting to default GEMS patches. But once the chip is really used to its strengths and basically get pushed to the limits, it is 'painful to listen'.
Imagine, if Streets of Rage 3 was released now, and they will remove Ash. That would be a catastrophe of worldwide size, haha :D
Do you mean not include him at all in a Japanese version?
@@ENiceGeo
Nope. I ment, if they do not include him in US version of the game.
@@MrKshahdoo But he was already removed from the US version before. SoR3 was censored when it came out stateside. You had to use a Game Genie to access him at all.
@@ENiceGeo
I know -_-
I realize SOR 3's soundtrack is a point of contention for many, but I think it's absolutely amazing, and quite frankly, it's mind-blowing that it was even pulled off on Genesis' hardware. Far-and-away, the biggest problem with SOR 3 is its difficulty. The game is artificially elongated, and turns it into a slog at times, especially some of the bosses. It's virtually impossible to defeat the final boss and get a "good" ending without resorting to spamming jump kicks. Yeah, the story is ridiculous, and the costume changes were completely unnecessary, but I still adore SOR 3 and play it often. I only put Bare Knuckle III in when friends are over since it's much less demanding. Great review btw.
SoR 3 is so awesome game! One of my favorite for Genesis and maybe in top-10 video games of all times. Beat it hundreds of time. I just could not to play SoR or SoR2 after I play this one. The routes, the gameplay features, the control, the sound - everything is head and shoulders above than in the previous parts. Especially in Bare Knuckle 3.
Same bro. SOR3 is the best!
SoR 3 sucks
I'm going to be honest here. This might be my favorite video you've ever made.
I remember renting this and being excited because I loved SoR2. The soundtrack had me confused and irritated. I thought that maybe it was my console, so I tried putting the cartridge in a friend's Genesis with the same crappy music. It's unfortunate that the gameplay was improved because I couldn't handle the music for more than a few minutes and I just quit before I even had to take it back to Blockbuster. At least SoR4 put the franchise back on track. I think I played through that game 40+ times with and without my kids.
I don't have a problem with a music in this game. It's different, but it's a game lot different. It feels a lot of darker, than the previous games.
I had japanese version at my childhood and i really like it. And i beat it in Steam BARELY (US version), with second player help.
They had to release Streets of Rage 4 on Saturn, but sadly it never happen. Not on a Saturn or Dreamcast, but much later.
No soundtrack was ever going to compare to SoR2 so they took it in a different direction. I loved it.
SoR3 is the best playing game in the series but SoR2 is the all time classic.
SOR3 took what I liked about SOR2 and amplified it. This includes the music which is truly original and mature... Loved it and is my favorite game in the series.
I had fun with all the original streets of rage games. Yes I missed Adam too, he was my main for SOR1 but I learned to adapt I guess. Regarding music in SOR3 it has it's moments, I remember being weirded out by it as a kid but as an adult now, I can appreciate it. I even make use of it, when I work out. ^_^ Overall a good video. :)
i think for SoR 3 a computer or some random sound generator was used which is why the soundtrack is the way it is.
yeah i think they were experimenting
After being able to run, it’s hard to go back.
Also the move-set is insane: I tried counting every single move, some years ago, and iirc each character has or something like 45 moves.. Way more than previous SoR games, and more than pretty much every game at that time. It’s really incredibly fluid controls and moves...
There is a reason why SOR4 feels sluggish and too old school despite being a beast of beauty and fun (For what it is)
@@Leynx-Et-Fenrir I have not tried it because the art style doesn’t really appeal to me...
@@JamesChessman I played through it because it was free on Game Pass. It's pretty decent, but yeah the art style doesn't appeal to me, the music isn't quite as good as the first 2 games and I think in terms of gameplay it's easily the worst in the franchise.
@@thenonexistinghero you know what’s an awesome tribute to the series, the streets of rage live-action movie, on TH-cam, I’m not affiliated with it, but I just love it lol. Music is from the first two games and they have hilarious action that’s faithful to the games. It’s appealing while SoR4 just doesn’t pull me in .
Love the streets of rage content. Keep em coming. So much nostalgia
Exactly the music why i loved this far more. First two has some catchy generic music except one in the 2nd that was awesome. Now here it is the 3rd with all these fantastic experimental and agressive music never heard before. I replayed it over and over and over enjoying the tunes. Unfortunately my renting time run over.
My main problems were: Having Zan rather than Max or Adam, the overly hard difficulty & the color changes. There are some songs in 3 I hate & others I really love & the hit sound fx aren't as hard-hitting & satisfying as 2.
thank you so much I've been saying that for so long lol I can't stand that guy
SOR3 is my favorite SOR (before 4 came out). It is superior to the previous 2 games in every way. The only stumble is the music, but I urge people not to skip it just because of that.
Get a translation of Bare Knuckle 3. It's more balanced and the story is more coherent.
This was a great, and fair, review. Honest and well thought out, as well as researched. Personally, I rank the series: 1. Streets of Rage Remake (the best all around, just simply is). A close 2nd: Streets of Rage 4. Tied for 3rd: Streets of Rage 2 and 3. 2's music is completely awesome, but 3's use of the special meter bar, rolls, combos, and Zan push it into a tie for me. Especially if you play Bare Knuckle 3 instead of the US version. And lastly fairly obviously is SoR1. It's a solid game, but you won't see anyone choosing it over any of the others. And if you need your Adam, well. That's what SoRR and SoR4 are for :)
the music producer must have visited a few detroit warehouse parties while he was writing this
How many times I rented this through a friend's parent's money because of "sleepovers". Good ol' days!
You should do a review on Paprium, I’d love to see you do it. I especially want to hear what you think of the game, as your own opinion.
As for 16-bit fighting beat em up games this is my favorite of that genre on the Genesis and as far as Super Nintendo I think Final Fight 3 is the best beat em Up game on the system in my opinion anyways.