I was a bit dismissive of Bare Knuckle III when I first played it, the flow of the game being much faster and aggresive compared to 2 caught me by suprise and I couldn't really get use to it very well. After giving it a proper play, I found stuff that I end up liking more that it's predecessor and began to apareciate it on it's own merit; more and faster enemies, a new and more flexible implementation of your desperation attack, and even the weapon pick ups have some more depths to them as they give new moves to the characters, except the Kangoroo, who can't pick them, because he's wearing boxing gloves.
I would like it more than Streets of Rage II by a fair share, but the game has a fascination for throwing worthless gimmick at you, which only become more aggravating in subsequent playthroughs. The loader segment might suprise you the first time you see it, and you'll feel good figuring it out the second, but then you gotta do it a third, fourth, and a million times, without alteration or any actual risk, it becomes a big time sink. Same could be said about the train section with the ninjas, or when rescuing that kidnaped guy, or when you end up fighting a literal claw machine for some reason. I would have preferred if the game focused more on "consider the place you're fighting in" like the level with pits or the first part of the train level, instead or "stop fighting to do this other thing."

I decided to play the Japanese version of this game because I heard many times over the years how the Western version got fucked by being really difficult. In spite of that, I'll be calling this game Streets of Rage 3 from here on, for the sake of consistency with the past two games I played.

Streets of Rage 3 is in a lot of ways better than its prequel.
Faster gameplay, the ability to run, the removal of the time limit, a more involved story, and the ability to upgrade overtime your abilites!

That last one is actually pretty awesome as, for example, Axel's Grand Upper can become even more destructive and last longer! No wonder they nerfed the base move compared to the previous game.

I also like how the Special Move button has a meter that builds up, and when that meter is full, you can do your special move without health cost, which is great!

You have a ton of options of how you wanna approach your enemies, and I really like Streets of Rage 3 for that!

I do have a few issues with the game though.
For starters, I didn't find the soundtrack to be as memorable as 1 and 2. It's not like the OST is bad or anything, I just kinda didn't care for it as much the previous two games.

Additionally, I'm not the biggest fan on some of the gimmicks that this game's stages add, like the spiked truck moving towards you in Stage 3.

And the final stage's bosses can go kick my ass.

But in terms of presentation, it's even better than Streets of Rage 2, and really goes to show how much Mega Drive graphics evolved over the years.

Overall, I did enjoy Streets of Rage 3, but not as much as its predecessor.

So, I decided to go for the Japanese version since I heard the Western release had a lot of censorship, and this has definitely become my favorite one yet!

Being able to run and roll either up or down by double tapping the D pad in the direction you want makes all the difference. You can even use it to avoid enemy attacks—such a fantastic new feature!. 
Even the special moves got an upgrade since you can now use them without getting hurt; all you have to do is wait for the special meter to refill overtime, which is a great idea since it doesn't let you spam them all the time. Even weapons have specials now if you try different input combinations, that's so cool!

AND you can unlock a character that's a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves?! 
All you have to do, (and the game actually gives you a hint on this) is to defeat his owner instead, since it's him who's forcing it to fight you by hitting it with a whip. I think that's a super smart design on the game's part.

The sprites are not as big and impressive as the last game, but what you get in return is more space to move, which I think is not a bad deal at all. Having more room also allows the game to have more variety in its level design, like the subway level in which you have to watch for the trains... Oh, and there's a new elevator level in which you can throw enemies off the stage!!! Streets of Rage 3, I love you so much. 

Yeah, the music is not as good and the final boss being under a timer were not very cool, but overall, I think this is the most replayable in the franchise.

Also, I almost forgot to mention it, but by using specific character combinations like Blaze and Axel or Jet and Skate, you can perform special team moves. I need to find someone to play with ;;