Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

"Jojo's Bizarre Adventure on Dreamcast..."

Capcom have returned to their roots in this game. With some crazy thing called '3D' around, it seemed that all their future games would progress into the extra dimension... Even the mighty Street Fighter seemed in danger of becoming totally 3D.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure then represents a step back to the roots of the genre. Without the endless tweaks Street Fighter has been subject to and a completely different cast and play mechanic, this game has the opportunity to revitalise the fading 2D scrapper.

With a typically weird story revolving around a man named Dio - the JoJo of the title actually refers to a group of people who must stop this man from doing great evil. Something like that.

The game plays quite dissimilar to the Street Fighter series, mainly by the introduction of a 'stand' system. Each character has a psychic alter ego which can be activated by pressing A and this new character can perform new attacks and special moves. The stand system is not a defined addition to each character - some characters can only portray a stand for a limited time or their stand takes the form of a permanent weapon like a gun.

For example, Joratrio, is your typical character, who has a generic stand that can extend his attacks and guard him from damage. Another character has a puppet with a meat cleaver... this puppet actually is quite a legitimate character in it own right because when activated, the other guy becomes a stand for it.

In essence the stand system is welcome addition to the game and it gives a whole new dimension to the gameplay. It remains to be seen how many people will actually learn to use the stand system to its full potential.

There is a wide range of characters, both under the JoJo banner and in comparison under the banner of Dio. Some of these are crazy - a Mexican dog about a foot high with a giant robot dog as a stand, a dismembered head that can change into cars and trucks - the list is so bizarre and twisted that you could spend ages mastering them all.

With the usual modes present like Vs. and all that this is certainly a good fighter. It even includes the previous game which is pretty similar, but with less characters. Graphically it is a scruffy beast. It looks pretty lame in comparison to Street Fighter even which is no looker itself. All in all it is good fighter, but with the unknown cast it could have a hard time breaking into the U.K. market.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/00, Updated 07/22/00