History YMMV / StreetsOfRage

** In ''Streets of Rage 2'' and ''Streets of Rage 3'', certain characters have an infinite combo that involves rhythmically using the first hit of their regular combo. [[BoringButPractical It's slow and not too flashy, but it can take down most enemies easily.]]

** ''Streets of Rage 3'', however, has Super Axel, who can be unlocked with a cheat code at the beginning of the game in all regions. It replaces both Axel's standing special and foward special with what is single-handedly ''the strongest move in the series'', a hybrid of his three-star special blitz and his dragon wing (standing special). Axel spins around in place with massively powerful strikes five times before concluding the move with his dragon wing. While it doesn't make Axel completely invincible like his blitz move in ''2'', this move can not only take out multiple hordes of enemies at once, but it can potentially take out bosses ''in one hit'' when landed close enough. To put it simply, unlocking this version of Axel essentially renders the game as a faux-very easy mode, regardless of what difficulty your playing on.

** Neo. X/Robot Y in ''3'' isn't that much better. Already under the struggle of a three-minute time limit, he's very fast and will actively avoid the player by swiftly spinning to the edges of the room. He's tough to combo without being pushed back, has powerful throws, and can shoot out long-range missiles. His collision detection is also awful, meaning that it's very easy to miss a hit which also leaves your character open for him to strike. If all of that wasn't crazy enough, he has ''seven lifebars'' (or ''eight when playing with two people'') in the international release's hard mode, and even using [[GameBreaker Super Axel]] isn't always a guaranteed win, especially if you're going for the good ending.

** Barbon returns with a vengeance in ''4''. He has the highest health of any boss in the game and moves around the stage absurdly fast, often running circles around the player and delivering fast attacks with long reach and tough patterns. [[TurnsRed When he reaches low health]], there's barely a moment where he isn't super armored. Also, each time any of the motorcycles break in the area, a heavyweight biker girl will appear to gang up on you while you're facing Barbon.

** Outside of the regional changes, there are other reasons why the third game's overall reception is usually contested compared to ''2''. The incorpartion of {{Timed Mission}}s in order to reach the good ending, the blitz moves have been nerfed and require stars earned through points (and not dying) to regain their full potential. The soundtrack went in a different direction from the first two, turning off some fans with its intense, experimental "dubstep-esque" tunes in contrast to the chill and funky tracks of the previous games. Not helping was the fact that in contrast to its predecessors which mostly had songs exclusive to each stage, the themes for this game's earlier stages are frequently reused during the later half of the game, with the very first stage anticlimactically sharing the same music as the sixth stage and ''the final boss''. Lastly, some enemies can even take food on the ground and heal up, which can be detrimental in the later stages.

** Outside of the regional changes, there are other reasons why the third game's overall reception is usually contested compared to ''2''. The blitz moves have been nerfed and require stars earned through points (and not dying) to regain their full potential. The soundtrack went in a different direction from the first two, turning off some fans with its intense, experimental "dubstep-esque" tunes in contrast to the chill and funky tracks of the previous games. Not helping was the fact that in contrast to its predecessors which mostly had songs exclusive to each stage, the themes for this game's earlier stages are frequently reused during the later half of the game, with the very first stage anticlimactically sharing the same music as the sixth stage and ''the final boss''. Lastly, some enemies can even take food on the ground and heal up, which can be detrimental in the later stages.

*** Mona and Lisa in both games they appear in. They have very high evasive skills, can throw you (with a VERY fast reaction time if they grab you), have jump kicks that can be quite tricky to dodge, and each of their attacks does a crapton of damage. [[DualBoss Oh, and there's two of them.]] Worse yet, they're the last of the BossRush you need to get through in the final level to confront Mr. X in the first game. Dick move, developers! If you try to beat them without losing a life, there's a high chance of the time running out and you'll lose a life anyway due to their high evasive skills.

* NintendoHard: The harder difficulties are pretty damn hard in ''Bare Knuckle III'', but ''Streets of Rage 3'' is outright cruel. The international release removed the Japanese version's Easy difficulty and bumped up the difficulty by one level each, meaning that Easy is the Japanese version's Normal, and Hard in the international version is Japanese's Very Hard). That's not where it ends though, as it turns out that many items placements have been altered from the original release, giving you fewer opportunities to heal up. In addition, the bulldozer in stage 3 only stops after a single punch instead of getting pushed back, enemies also have increased attack power as the difficulty rises, and they along with bosses have inflated amounts of lifebars (anywhere from four to ''seven or eight'') in the international version.The Japanese version's enemies do much less damage and is the same on all difficulties, meaning that ''Bare Knuckle III's'' Very Hard difficulty (missing from the overseas version) is not only easier than ''Streets of Rage 3's'' Hard, but the latter is the closest both games have to a '''''Mania''''' difficulty.

* NintendoHard: The harder difficulties are pretty damn hard in ''Bare Knuckle III'', but ''Streets of Rage 3'' is outright cruel. The international release removed the Japanese version's Easy difficulty and bumped up the difficulty by one level each, meaning that Easy is the Japanese version's Normal, and Hard in the international version is Japanese's Very Hard). That's not where it ends though, as it turns out that many items placements have been altered from the original release, giving you fewer opportunities to heal up. Enemies also have increased attack power as the difficulty rises, and they along with bosses have inflated amounts of lifebars (anywhere from four to ''seven or eight'') in the international version. The Japanese version's enemies do much less damage and it is the same on all difficulties, meaning that ''Bare Knuckle III's'' Very Hard difficulty (missing from the overseas version) is not only easier than ''Streets of Rage 3's'' Hard, but the latter is the closest both games have to a '''''Mania''''' difficulty.

* NintendoHard: The harder difficulties are damn hard. The American release of the third game is pretty tough, but on Hard mode, it is insane, with enemies doing massive damage to you and bosses having at least four health bars (sometimes seven). The Japanese version's enemies do much less damage and it is the same on all difficulties, and there is a Very Hard mode as well (missing from the American release -- Easy is Japanese's Normal, and so Hard on US version is Japanese's Very Hard). Pick your poison -- either Japanese Very Hard is way too easy, or US version even on Normal is tough.
* OlderThanTheyThink: Some see the Star Moves in ''4'' as new for the series. The Game Gear port of ''2'' was the first to use this gameplay mechanic. ''3'' had them as well, but not as pickups hidden by breakable items. You gained Star Moves (up to a total of 3) as long as you did not die and collect extra lives via scoring points. It's fine in the Japanese verion, but easier said than done in the Western versions due to [[DifficultyByRegion the change in difficulty]].

** Neo. X/Robot Y in ''3'' isn't that much better. Already under the struggle of a three-minute time limit, he's very fast, will actively avoid the player by swiftly spinning to the edges of the room, has powerful throws, and can shoot out long range missiles. His collision detection is also awful, meaning that it's very easy to miss a hit which also leaves your character open for him to strike. If all of that wasn't crazy enough, he has ''eight lifebars'' in the international release's hard mode, and even using [[GameBreaker Super Axel]] isn't always a guaranteed win.

** Outside of the regional changes, the third game's reception is usually contested compared to ''2''. The blitz moves have been nerfed and require stars earned through points (and not dying) to regain their full potential. The soundtrack went in a different direction from the first two, turning off some fans with its intense, experimental "dubstep-esque" tunes in contrast to the chill and funky tracks of the previous games. Not helping was the fact that in contrast to its prececessors which mostly had songs exclusive to each stage, the themes for this game's earlier stages are frequently reused during the later half of the game, with the very first stage anticlimactically sharing the same music as the sixth stage and ''the final boss''. Lastly, some enemies can even take food on the ground and heal up, which can be detrimental in the later stages.

** Axel's Grand Upper/GRAND UPPA! attack in ''Streets of Rage 2''. Toned down in power in ''Streets of Rage 3''. To explain a little, all characters had three specials: a standing A, forward A, and forward-forward-B. The first [[CastFromHitPoints took off some of your energy]] if it hit, the second regardless of whether you hit or not, and the latter was a power attack but didn't use energy. ''Axel's Grand Upper was more powerful than anyone's forward-A, his own included''. Axel is invincible for the entire animation (it could be used to slide straight ''through'' projectiles), it scored a hit on every single frame, hit anyone who touched Axel's sprite from any direction at any time, and slid forward until Axel hit something if he did it away from someone. About the only enemies who could deal with it were those with long counter-moves that could wait it out (so that'd be Abadede, R. Bear, and ''absolutely nobody else''), Shiva (who had roughly the same attack with the slide run out to most of the screen) and Mr. X.
** ''Streets of Rage 3'', however, has Shiva's "back attack." Unlike normal characters, he doesn't have the full range of attacks, so instead of a back attack he does a short swinging elbow to the face. This move is fast enough that you can infinitely combo it, with only the edge of the screen (or other enemies) stopping you from comboing almost any enemy to death.
** Shiva as a playable character in ''3''. His normal moves have a lot of range and are very fast, instead of the back attack he has a 2-hit punch that can combo infinitely (as mentioned above), and his special attack takes half of one health bar and is completely invincible. It's not like he makes the game a cakewalk, [[MasterOfAll but he outclasses everyone at everything]].
** In ''Streets of Rage 2'', certain characters have an infinite combo that involves rhythmically using the first hit of their regular combo. [[BoringButPractical It's slow and not too flashy, but it can take down most enemies easily.]]

** ''Streets of Rage 4''[='s=] incarnation of Shiva has an alternate moveset that, in short, blows not just his ''3'' version but ''damn near every other character completely out of the water''. Flying Kick, his alternate Blitz attack, has so many invincibility frames that they're even on the move's startup. Spirit Palm is an Offensive Special with such a low cooldown that it can be machinegunned, used in infinites, and in Survival, it's bugged so that it restores health under the Blood Thirst buff. Shiva is also [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter the only character able to air combo via repeated jump attacks]], which--if the player is [[SomeDexterityRequired skilled]] [[DifficultButAwesome enough]]--can be combined with Spirit Kick (his alternate Air Special) and the aforementioned Spirit Palm for potentially ''infinite'' air loops. He doesn't hold onto weapons (instead launching them at enemies), but given everything else, does he ''really'' need to?

** For starters, there's those Signal mooks who are able to slide and throw you, and the [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Garcia]] mooks who point their knives at you in any game.

** In the first game, there are the [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Hakuyo mooks]] who will repeatedly kick you, jump back to avoid a counter attack, waltz up and repeat. The second and third games have the [[HighlyVisibleNinja blue/yellow/orange/green Hanzo ninjas]] that will always jump around and sidestep to avoid your attacks, then they will either jump and punch you to knock you down or do a kick to knock you off your ass and throw shuriken at you. And then they become DemonicSpiders when they start to carry swords and kunai.

** Electras are usually easy. But this changes if there are other mooks backing them up, they can easily knock you out multiple times with their electric whip and jump kick attacks while the other mooks prevent you from getting close. They also will [[ISurrenderSuckers not get back up immediately]] if knocked out.

** Robo-X in ''3'' is pretty fast on the move, and on the draw. He not only has a machine gun attack (don't be on the same lane he is),but he also has a homing rocket attack (which leaves him open while the missile's on screen). Take too long to throw or slam him upon grabbing him and he will electrocute you a la Zan. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And he laughs at you every time you get knocked down.]]

* PlayerPunch: Fail to defeat Robot Y in time in ''3'' and [[spoiler:he ends up blowing up an entire city. With ''nukes'', if it's the Japanese version. While the Japanese version tries to make you feel somewhat better by saying that at least war with Lima was prevented and that the tragedy will be forgotten in time, the US version outright states that the citizens' trust in Axel and company has been greatly damaged]]. All because of your incompetence.

** Outside of the regional changes, the third game's soundtrack went in a different direction from the first two, turning off some fans.

* FanPreferredCouple: Though much more prevalent in the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis]] days, a lot of players assumed Axel and Blaze were an item, likely owing to their partnership both before and after resigning from the force. ''Fanfic/StreetsOfRageSaga'' making them an OfficialCouple may have also contributed to this perception. ''[=SOR4=]'' seems to have put a bit of a damper on the ship, what with Axel living out in the wilderness between games and Adam being the only character among the PowerTrio to have started a family, but it still has Blaze being the one to contact Axel as well as [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/streetsofrage/images/9/91/SOR4_Ending_08.png sling her arm around his shoulder in one of the ending stills.]] This even appears to have bled into a few ''SOR''-inspired [[BeatEmUp beat 'em ups]], most notably 2016's ''The [=TakeOver=]'' -- the game's Axel and Blaze equivalents, Ethan Rivers and Megan Brooks, are [[BattleCouple dating]] and have an adopted daughter [[IHaveYourWife whose kidnapping sets off the plot]].

** ''Streets of Rage 2 Except It Makes That Weird Creator/TimAllen Noise When People Die'' [[labelnote:Explanation]]When Creator/{{Sega}} published Steam Workshop tools for creating mods of UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} ports of UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis games (i.e. Sega-sanctioned {{ROM Hack}}s), one of the most infamous mods to come out was [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=674634532 one]] for ''Streets of Rage 2'' in which the death grunts are replaced with Tim Allen's memetic groan from ''Series/HomeImprovement''.[[/labelnote]]

** The ''Sega Vintage Collection'' (developed by M2, not Backbone Entertainment) on UsefulNotes/{{X|boxLiveArcade}}BLA not only compiles the entire Genesis trilogy, but also allows players access to each game from different regions, giving players the ability to play the original Japanese version of ''Bare Knuckle III''. It also offers a slew of customization options, from video adjustments with full 1080p support to fully re-mappable control scheme. You can also save your progress at anytime, save replays, play trial modes, play online multi-player, and listen to games' soundtrack at your leisure (including the unused tracks).

*** The [[DualBoss double Souther]] fight in Stage 6 of the original, particularly in single player mode. Fighting one of them's no big deal for an experienced player: just approach him from the top or bottom of the stage, grab him and use a grapple combo or suplex. Try doing that when there's another one to deal with -- he'll simply come to his brother's defense and claw you off in the middle of your combo. Essentially, you'll end up having to shift your attention back and forth between the two bosses constantly throughout the fight, and their fast movement speed leaves you little to no margin for error, especially if the stage timer is low.
*** Mona and Lisa in both games they appear in. They have very high evasive skills, can throw you, have jump kicks that can be quite tricky to dodge, and each of their attacks does a crapton of damage. [[DualBoss Oh, and there's two of them.]] ''Does not help'' that they're the last of the BossRush you need to get through in the final level to confront Mr. X. Dick move, developers! If you try to beat them without losing a life, there's a high chance of the time running out and you'll lose a life anyway due to their high evasive skills.

*** The [[DualBoss double Souther]] fight in Stage 6 of the original. Fighting one of them's no big deal for an experienced player: just approach him from the top or bottom of the stage, grab him and use a grapple combo or suplex. Try doing that when there's another one to deal with -- he'll simply come to his brother's defense and claw you off in the middle of your combo.

** The clawed twins in the original, Mona & Lisa, Abadede, R.Bear, and Shiva. Most players are guaranteed to lose at least one life against these bastards.
*** The clawed twins. Fighting one of them's no big deal for an experienced player: just approach them from the top or bottom of the stage, grab them and attack. Try doing that when there's another one to deal with.

** Nora and Electra to a degree. Aside from [[EvilIsSexy their appealing designs]], they managed to net [[AscendedExtra ascended roles]] games after the Genesis trilogy possibly because of their popularity, the former getting a MookPromotion as a boss in ''4''.

* EvilIsSexy:
** If you manage to replace Mr. X as crime boss while playing as Blaze, then in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=323S2dEGDQw#t=2m28s her "evil ending" cutscene]] she qualifies as an example of this.
** Nora, the {{whip|OfDominance}}-cracking, [[HellBentForLeather leather-clad]] {{dominatrix}} seen in the first and fourth ''Streets of Rage''. In the second and third games, she's replaced by [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Electra]], who has the same traits as Nora, but also [[LeotardOfPower bares more skin]] and wears fishnet stockings.
** Mona & Lisa count in both of their appearances. In the original ''[=SoR=]'', the twins are merely {{Palette Swap}}s of the undeniably attractive Blaze. While they're no longer carbon copies of Blaze in ''Streets of Rage 3'', [[FanservicePack their redesign]] gives the duo [[FormFittingWardrobe tight-fitting]] [[HellBentForLeather leather]] [[SpyCatsuit catsuits]] that highlight their slinky figures and acrobatic movements.

** The 1-Up jingle at the end of the stage for EveryTenThousandPoints; especially if you hear it mid-stage.

** ''Streets of Rage 4''[='s=] incarnation of Shiva has an alternate moveset that, in short, blows not just his ''3'' version but ''damn near every other character completely out of the water''. Flying Kick, his alternate Blitz attack, has so many invincibility frames that they're even on the move's startup. Spirit Palm is an Offensive Special with such a low cooldown that it can be machinegunned, used in infinites, and in Survival, it's bugged so that it restores health under the Blood Thirst buff. Shiva is also [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter the only character able to air combo via repeated jump attacks]], which--if the player is [[SomeDexterityRequired skilled]] [[DifficultButAwesome enough]]--can be combined with Spirit Kick (his alternate Air Special) and the aforementioned Spirit Palm for potentially ''infinite'' air loops.