Project Justice

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed"

Perhaps my unhealthy obsession with anything Capcom fueled my buying the original Rival Schools. However, I found the original game to be great. What was especially great about it was the amount of extras that both discs had. So, I was expecting a lot of great things with Project Justice. Sadly, It has SOOOOOO much less than the original. It's variety of modes fails to live up to even the Genesis Super Street Fighter 2. It pains me SO much to have to say this, but I would never be biased, even against a company like Capcom, who, until now, has never disappointed me.

Gameplay- 8/10
The game is obviously not meant to be too hard, and it has a nice rhythm to it. The variety of characters also is good, meaning that say, Yurika, and Gan, each are very unique characters. The characters moves are well refined, and the addition of dozens of new faces made the game better. However, one confusing part was the placing of Roy and Tiffany as secret characters. It was quite akward to see Boman teamed up with students who aren't even from his school.

Graphics- 10/10
The graphics are in sharp contrast to Rival Schools's blocky characters. Each character is very smooth, and has a whole lot of detail. It's amazing that these games were in the same series, it's that different. The backgrounds are fully 3D, and the stages are well detailed, and have some motion going in the background. It's no MvC, but hey....

Sound 6/10
The sound effects and voices are great, but the music is bad. The tracks aren't as upbeat as the ones in the original. There are, however, some very nice tracks. However, most of the tracks are easily forgotten.

Replay Value- 4/10
I owned this game for about 3 days before I was back playing something else. The variety of characters is something special, like the characters found in MvC2. But the lack of modes is really frustrating. It seems that they spent all the time on the characters without focusing on the modes or extras.

Challenge- 8/10
Of course some characters are harder than others. It also may be harder depending on your characters. I've found that characters without projectiles have a harder time beating most everyone. Of course, long range is always better, especially in the fight against Demon Hyo.

Conclusion
If you liked the original (and I mean REALLY liked it), you should definitly pick this up. But if you didn't like the original, or didn't play it, I suggest you pass this one in favor of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. unless you own MvC2, in which you should pick this up. But don't expect to be up all night playing it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/01, Updated 06/21/01