Ask anyone what their favourite beat ’em up is on the Megadrive/Genesis and they will probably reply: Streets of Rage 3.

Released by Sega in 1994, Streets of Rage 3 is the jewel in the crown of a brilliant trilogy of scrolling fighting games.

It has four playable characters (Axel, Blaze, Skate and Zan), each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and can be played either single or multi-player.

As you scrap away you can pick up barrels and throw them at enemies (knocking over small groups in one hit) and also pick up a variety of weapons (knives, swords, baseball bats) to help give you an edge in the battle against the bad guys.

Streets of Rage 3 plays faster than its predecessors; the enemy AI has been expanded to allow more enemies to pick up weapons; players can team up to perform powerful ‘team attacks’; in general the game is much harder, and there are also multiple endings.

Graphically, Streets of Rage 3 is a work of pixel artistry. Everything is crisp, colourful, and beautifully-drawn, with superb 2D animation and backgrounds.

Other than it being a little repetitive, there is very little to fault about Streets of Rage 3 and it still pops-up on various retro game compilations and services from time to time, and probably always will.

Note: The Japanese original contains quite a few differences to the North American release. The story is different, and the English version is censored in some places. These grabs are from the North American version.

More: Streets of Rage 3 on Wikipedia