• Tag Archives Gamecube

  • Streets of Rage III

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    Bare Knuckle III / Streets of Rage 3
    Publisher: SEGA
    Developer: SEGA AM7
    Platform: Mega Drive / Genesis, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, Xbox 360, iOS
    Year: 1994 (MD), 2005 (JP PS2/GCN), 2009 (NA/EU/AUS PS3/360), 2011 (iOS)

    Streets of Rage III was the last in the original trilogy of Streets of Rage side-scrolling beat-em-up games for the Genesis and the last to be released for 25 years. The first Streets of Rage had been released in 1991 and the second in 1992. This was an extremely popular series despite the massive gap in releases after the third game.

    Streets of Rage 3 included several changes from the previous two games in the series. It had a more complex plot including more character dialog and cut scenes, not that I think those things are especially important to this type of game. It also featured longer levels and faster gameplay. There were also additional complexities such as unique moves with certain weapons, hidden characters and more.

    Speaking of the plot, Mr. X, the series protagonist is back again and has started a research company called RoboCy as a sort of shell company for his criminal empire. His secret goal is to create an army of robot replacements for key city officials and then control them. His henchmen also plants bombs around the city to distract the police. The key researcher, Dr. Zan, brought in to develop the robots finds out about their intended nefarious use and contacts Blaze Fielding who contacts Axel Stone and Adam Hunter, the heroes of the series.

    Though there are some improvements and changes, game play is similar to the previous games in the series. Up to two players can play at a time, battling waves of enemies. Every playable character can now run and perform a dodge roll and blitz attacks can be upgraded. Weapons an be picked up and some have special attacks but their use is limited before they break.

    All of the Streets of Rage games were generally well received, including this one. It has also been re-released in various collections over the years so there are a varieties of ways to play it. It was included in the Japanese version of Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PS2, it was included as part of Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PS3 and Xbox as well as Sega Genesis Classics for Windows, Linux, MacOS, PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch. It also appeared on Steam both as a standalone game and as part of Sega Genesis Classics Pack 5. It was also included as part of the Genesis Mini 2 released just a couple of months ago. If you are a fan of the genre then this is definitely worth playing and there are plenty of ways to play it. The same goes for the first two games as well.

    After 25+ years, a new sequel, Streets of Rage 4, was finally released in 2020 for a wide variety of platforms. I haven’t played it but reviews indicate that it has done a pretty good job of both updating the game for newer systems and maintaining the same general feel as the older games.


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  • Nikki Connors (Rogue Ops)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Nikki Connors (Rogue Ops)

    Rogue Ops is a third person action adventure game that was released in October 2003 for the Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2. I suppose it would fall within the “stealth” genre though I don’t know that I ever really got into this kind of game enough to consider it a separate genre. Strictly speaking, stealth is just an option anyway. If you prefer, in most cases you can blast your way through the game though that may not always be the easiest approach.

    Rouge Ops fits roughly into the same category as games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear (at least the Metal Gear Games from 1998 and beyond). Rogue Ops consists of a variety of levels or missions. A variety of tactics can be used but at least in a few cases stealth is required as a prerequisite for completing a few missions is to not set off any alarms. Game play is typical 3rd person actions stuff but there are a variety of gadgets and weapons to use, including a fly cam, retinal scanner, throwing stars, sniper rifle, remote controlled mines, and so on. And of course you can always use your hands to get up close and personal with your enemies.

    The protagonist is a female ex-Green Beret. She witnesses her husband and young child die as a result of a car bomb in Turkey. The perpetrators are a terrorist organization called Omega 19. Later, Nikki (the protagonist) finds out that here husband was really part of some secret counter-terrorist organization when she herself is recruited. This ultimately gives her an opportunity to exact her revenge. There are a number of other plot twists and turns but that is the basic story.

    Unfortunately, while Rogue Ops might fit into the same genre as Splinter Cell and Metal Gear, it is not as good as those games. As the Girls of Gaming image at the top might indicate, sex was used to sell this game more than its game play attributes. It’s not a terrible game, just mediocre. Despite its flaws, it was original enough that you might expect a sequel but one never came. I suspect it was because sales were just not that great. If you love this genre of gaming and haven’t played this one, it is worth checking out, just don’t expect triple A quality. However, it is a nice change of pace from endless iterations of Splinter Cell and Metal Gear. The version that seemed to get the best reviews is the Xbox version so if you can, that is the one you probably want to try. However, I don’t think the differences were huge or anything so if you have a PS2 or Gamecube instead, I’m sure it is worth trying there too.

    The screen shots above are from the PS2 version of the game.


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