Japanese	American
Different title screens.

Japanese

In the Japanese version, there is a short cutscene before the title screen appears which shows a city being blown up. This is not in the American version.

Japanese

After the above, the Japanese versions has this animation of Axel turning around and punching the screen. Again, this is not in the American version.

Japanese	American
The main menu is slightly different between versions.

Japanese	American
The options menu is also slightly different. But the main change is with the difficulty, as the options for that were messed around with for the American version. Basically "normal" in the Japanese version is "easy" in the other versions! Bare Knuckle III has a "very hard" option that none of the other versions have -because "very hard" is "hard" in Streets of Rage III!

Some of the speech was re-recorded for the American version.

Japanese	American
At the character select screen, the Japanese version uses the stars system for rating character's stats, as with the previous game. The American version changes this to a bar system, and also changes the format for the heights and weights of each character. The other big change is the outfit colors for 3 of the 4 characters. In the Japanese version, Axel has the same colors as he had in the previous game. For the American version he gets black denims and a yellow shirt, which seems to be paying homage to what Adam was wearing in the first game.

Japanese	American
Streets of Rage Online mentions that SEGA stated the reason for the color changes was so they were "gender sensitive".

Japanese	American
As with the previous game, this character is called Sammy in the Japanese version and Skate in the American version.

Japanese	American
The kangaroo, one of the game's hidden characters, is called Victy in the Japanese version and Roo in the American version.

Japanese	American
In the battle mode, even the alt colors for characters were changed.

Japanese	American

Japanese	American

Japanese	American
Swapped around words.

Japanese	American
Bare Knuckle III has character specific win and lose quotes in the battle mode. These were removed entirely from Streets of Rage 3, and replaced with animated stars. Bonus points if you can spot the typo in the left image.

Japanese	American
Score points are in different colors between versions, and there are also a couple of other minor text colour changes. The female enemies wear much more revealing clothing in the Japanese version.

Japanese	American
At the end of the first part of the first stage there is a wall with a hole in it in Bare Knuckle III. There is no wall at all in Streets of Rage 3.

Japanese	American
A lot of the weapons also have different names depending on the version.

Japanese	American
In the second part of the first level you'll reach a point where bad guys jump off a boat to fight you. The driver of this boat is Ash in Bare Knuckle III, but he was replaced with Shiva in Streets of Rage 3.

Japanese

You actually get to fight Ash in the Japanese version, but he was cut out of the American version. However his sprite is still in the American version, and you can even play as him via using a Game Genie code.

Japanese	American
More sprite edits to show less skin in Streets of Rage 3.

Japanese	American
The first boss, Shiva, has green clothes in the Japanese version and black clothes in the American version.

Japanese	American
Rounds became stages for the American version.

Japanese	American
Several of the cutscene images were also edited. Rather than just change the costume colours however some pictures had other edits, check out the faces. Bare Knuckle 3 also has a gray background for cutscenes, Streets of Rage 3 has black.

NOTES

-This page isn't complete yet -there are a lot more differences I'll get around to adding some day.