I'm a Streets of Rage 3 apologist (it has a kangaroo), but after repeatedly being told the unbastardized Bare Knuckle III is the superior version in every way, I figured I had to give it a try. As it happens my repro guy wholesaler of legitimate Sega products happened to have an English patched version of the game. It even lights up! Like, really bright. Looks like the cart is reaching criticality in my Genesis.

I tried to replay a bit of Streets of Rage 3 so I could have a direct point of comparison between the two versions, and some differences were immediately apparent. Take Ash, for example. He's a mini-boss appearing in the first level of Bare Knuckle III that was cut from Streets of Rage 3 due to being an offensive leather daddy stereotype. At least that's the reason that's been given and repeated for years, and I can certainly see how it holds water as Ash does read like the butt of a joke.

There's a multitude of other differences both big and small, but the majority manifest in tweaks to difficulty balancing. Bare Knuckle III seems easier overall and much faster compared to its American counterpart, which was so difficult I could only push through it with a second player and a generous amount of save states. Comparatively, Bare Knuckle III took me one credit and about 45 minutes with the majority of my deaths being to the bulldozer, which I forgot I could push back with my fists - my bare knuckles as it were. That's really on me, and even with one measly life left, I was still able to complete the rest of the game. It's just a way smoother experience overall and makes it a lot harder to recommend Streets of Rage 3 to anyone who wants to play through the trilogy.

Unfortunately, I had to forcefully remove the Bare Knuckle III cart with my bare hands before it vaporized us all, exposing me to over a 1,000 rads. It won't be much longer now before radiation poisoning ravages my body. Please take a piece of chalk and mark where you're standing. Farewell.