Streets of Rage 3 is a controversial entry in the series, because both of some censorship present (most notably the removal of a character that used gay stereotypes), but more notably some major revisions in the gameplay from the Japanese version.

For some reason, the difficulty was bucked up to an extreme level. The enemies strike with swift speed, and almost all of them have unblockable attacks that they don't hesitate to use almost every time they face you.

This doesn't totally kill the game, but those who aren't well-versed in the beat-em-up genre will soon find themselves very frustrated.

That's a shame, because what is present here is good for the most part. The characters look great (besides some dumb choices in their outfit colors) and are animated smoothly. There's several new moves to use, which, along with some multiple paths you can take, add a nice bit of depth to the game.

If you're a die-hard beat-em-up fan and want to see how this series ends, then Streets of Rage 3 is worth a download. More casual players will probably just want to stick with the first two games.