| [ Bare Knuckle 3 ] |
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Bare Knuckle 3 is significantly different from Western counterpart in terms of gameplay, graphics, sound and plotline.
- Gaming Differences |
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Bare Knuckle 3 Gaming Differences
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Presentation Screens As usual the Japanese version's title screen is far more detailed. |
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There is an intro before the title screen that shows a bomb blast in the city. This is not featured in Streets of Rage 3 in any way. However, the intro sequence showing Blaze's letter to Axel (which you get if you leave the game on the title screen) is present in both games.
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The next screen shows a nuclear explosion!
If you are wondering what this intro is supposed to be about please visit the Bare Knuckle 3 Translation for full information on the Bare Knuckle 3 storyline. |
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The title screen is obviously going to be different, but in Bare Knuckle 3 there is a cool animation of Axel smashing the screen that is missing in Streets of Rage 3.
Axel puts on his bandana... |
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Turns around...
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And punches the screen!
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At the start of the game before the bomb is defused this screen appears, which isn't in Streets of Rage 3 at all. Please visit the Bare Knuckle 3 Translation for full information on this screen and the rest of the Bare Knuckle 3 storyline.
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| The cut scenes feature sound effects - eg. you can hear Skate running towards the bomb in the cut scene at the very start. These sound effects are missing in Streets of Rage 3. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Character and Enemy Graphical Differences The main characters in Bare Knuckle 3 sport their Streets of Rage 2 costumes, so Axel is blue and white and Blaze is in red. Also, some the enemies have different costumes; in Round 1 Shiva has the dark green costume that he wears as the final boss in SOR3 instead of his normal one. Also, the Electra-women and the new woman punk enemy are somewhat scantily clad in Bare Knuckle 3 and were covered up by Sega of America for Streets of Rage 3.
 
 
 
 
 
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Character and Enemy Name Differences As usual BK's Sammy becomes SOR's Skate. But this time around the Japanese and Western names are quite different. BK3's punk names are very similar to those of SOR2, with Galsia instead of SOR3's Garcia. Sega of America for some reason saw fit to rename them all pretty badly. The weapons are also heavily renamed, this time for the better. Anyway if you're really interested, check out the complete list of character and weapon names extracted from the two ROMs:
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Technical Differences Instead of being called Stages the levels are called Rounds in Bare Knuckle 3.The characters' height & weight is given in metric in Bare Knuckle 3. Also, the blocks that represent the fighters stats are shown using the star sprite (as in SOR2) rather than the yellow block used in SOR3. The fighters stats are given using 10 stars (as in SOR2) instead of the bizarre system used in SOR3. The in-game font is slightly different also, with the numbers being blue instead of yellow. When an enemy dies it flashes in BK3 (like the previous games) but just disappears in SOR3. The motorcycles' sparks are always the same colour as the bike sliding in BK3. In SOR3 this has been fixed and the sparks are always yellow. In addition, sometimes the bikes in BK3 defy the laws of physics and slide backwards. This bug appears to have been removed for SOR3. Thanks to Anton Berglin all for these. Significantly, Bare Knuckle 3 is much easier than SOR3 - it is comparable to SOR2's difficulty. SOR3's bosses often have several life stars more than their BK3 counterparts. Bare Knuckle 3 also features a Very Hard mode which is missing from SOR3. Clearly this shows that Sega of America decided that the game was too easy, and moved all the difficulty settings up one, so Normal mode in Bare Knuckle 3 is the equivilent of Easy in Streets of Rage 3 (this is proven if you load a BK3 save state into SOR3). This was a bad move in my opinion, as SOR3 is just too hard and the difficulty prevents you from keeping the special blitz attacks for any length of time. More info on the difficulty differences; in SOR3 enemy attack damage rises with difficulty levels, whilst in BK3 it remains the same. Example - the damage done by Galsia's punches in BK3 is 2 on all diffciulty levels, whilst in SOR3 it is 2 on Easy, 4 on Normal and 12(!!) on Hard. Cheers to Anton Berglin for figuring that out. However, not everything is easier. The health penalty for using a special attack without a full power meter is much heavier in Bare Knuckle 3 compared to Streets of Rage 3. In SOR3, Blaze's throws and quite a few other of her attacks are stronger that Axel's, in spite of him having a higher strength rating (this is never so in SOR2). [Anton Berglin] All the playable characters roll much further in SOR3 than in BK3. Roo also jumps higher. Unconfirmed: Shiva and Ash. [Anton Berglin] After a Duel in BK3, there is Japanese text (a taunt?) under each of the characters, kind of like after a match in SFII. This is not in SOR3, instead there is an animation with stars. [Anton Berglin] In BK3's Duel the winner is free to move after he has won. I haven't found any reason as to why they changed this, but it could be something like you can kill your opponent when the time has run out. [Anton Berglin] |
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Sound and Graphical Changes Many sound effects are different. Axel's blitz attack is the most noticeable, as in BK3 he says "Grand Upper!" (as he does in Streets of Rage 2) rather than "Bare Knuckle!" as he says in SOR3. Also the ninjas have the sound effects from Rage 2, which were changed in SOR3. Annoyingly they removed Shiva's "Final Crash" sound as well...Several of the cut scene pictures have been slightly redrawn as well as recoloured. This is most noticeable on the picture of the team shown at the end of Round 1. When playing as Shiva in SOR3, a shock from Electra's whip shows his bones; in BK3 this doesn't happen. Electra's whip also causes more damage in SOR3. Thanks to Annette for this. |
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Round 1 and Ash 
Round 1 is noticeably different. Firstly, a smashed door in the warehouse (which leads onto the harbour area) was removed for Streets of Rage 3.
Also, there are more Galsias on top of the crates in BK3's Very Hard than there ever are in SOR3. [Anton Berglin]
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The level features Ash (see screenshot). This guy drops the punks off from the boat rather than Shiva, and then fights you himself. Ash was replaced by a group of punks for SOR3. I wonder why...
Ash is available to play as a secret boss character in Bare Knuckle 3 - he can only be accessed in SOR3 through some technical trickery. See Cheats & Tips to see how to play Ash in both the emulated and cartridge versions of the game! |
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Round 2 The girl punks dancing in Round 2 disco fluff their hair in BK3, in SOR3 they do some strange thing with their elbows instead. [Anton Berglin]In Round 2 of BK3's disco there is a table containing an apple - in SOR3 this was replaced with an extra girl punk.[Anton Berglin] |
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Round 3 In Round 3's bulldozer stage the barrel that hits the punk driving the bulldozer remains on screen - in SOR3 it doesn't.In BK3, the barrels in Round 3 drop slower than the barrels in SOR3. Also, in SOR3 Sega of America added one more place where barrels drop - this place is located right after you get the chicken between the 2 pits. Cheers to Annette for this. The bulldozer in BK3 retreats after one hit; in SOR3 it requires several attacks to stop it advancing again. There are some slight changes in wall layout in this stage. For example you can reach the second wall with a jumpkick before the screen has scrolled in BK3, in SOR3 that wall has been moved further away. Credit goes to Anton Berglin for these. |
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Round 4 The ending cut scene is extended to show the bomb blast from the intro while Axel and Zan talk.Visit the Bare Knuckle 3 Translation for full information on this cutscene and the rest of the Bare Knuckle 3 storyline. |
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Round 5 The elevator stage in Round 5 has different music in Bare Knuckle 3. |
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Round 6 When you meet Adam at the end of Round 6 in BK3 his top is orange, in SOR3 (and SOR1&2) it is yellow.
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Round 7(A) In Round 7(A)'s factory BK3 has 3 crates at the beginning (containing points & 2 chickens) - in SOR3 only the points crate remains. [Anton Berglin] |
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Round 7(B) Round 7(B) is the White House instead of City Hall. This is pretty obvious even in Streets of Rage 3, despite the conversion team's lame attempt to hide it with a sign reading "City Hall".Visit the Bare Knuckle 3 Translation for full information on the Bare Knuckle 3 storyline. |
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Endings In the ending where you find Mr X but do not defeat him in time to defuse the bombs, the pictures are different. A shot of the devastated city appears, and the scrolling text found in SOR3 doesn't appear. Also, you still get the see the credits and pictures of the characters with this ending - in SOR3 the credits are only seen if you beat Mr X and defuse the bombs.Visit the Bare Knuckle 3 Translation for full information on the Bare Knuckle 3 storyline. |
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In BK3's Good Ending Blaze wears somewhat less than she does in SOR3. All you Blaze fans out there can thank Skate's Twin Sis for this one.
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In Bare Knuckle 3, instead of rescuing the Police Chief you rescue a General, and you must stop his duplicate speaking at the White House instead of City Hall - see