Bloody Roar: Primal Fury

"The lack of competition with help this one to sell"

Introduction

Having first been introduced to the Bloody Roar series on the Playstation I enjoyed idea of being able to turn into some blood thirsty beast before ripping the heart out of your opponent. It was all done slightly tongue in cheek but nevertheless it was something that no other fighting game had come up with, allowing it to immediately stick out from the crowd.

Since then however, I came to enjoy the weapon-heavy Soul Edge before moving onto the jewel in the beat-em-up crown - Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast.

Since then, any and every beat-em-up game I have played has been measured against this considerable benchmark and if this was not the case, I may have warmed to this first outing on the Gamecube more than I have...

Story

Hmm, that's a good question! I saw the intro for this game running in my local Electronic Boutique. It was in anime style and looked pretty good. It seemed to be showing each character and setting a little bit of story in place for eac at the same time. Or so I thought.

I got the game about a week later and loaded it straight up when I got home. I have always watched the intros to games, dunno why, always have and always will, it's a habit. So I sat through this one and my initial thoughts that I had in EB were confirmed, that this was the opening sequence to each character in brief, with a story that would follow each character through to the end. I also imagined that once a character was selected, it would detail their particular story in more detail so you knew exactly why they were in this fight.

How wrong I was :( No matter which character you select, you are greeted with a single, static picture of some sort of temple, which some generic story text scrolls up the screen, identical for each. Yup, text. Why no voiceover? Why no history to the characters?!? Still, I figured that maybe on completing with each character I would get to understand more. Wouldn't I? Well, yes and no. Fair enough you do get an ending that is specific to each character, but none of them (without exception) make the slightest bit of sense and you are left more confused than when you started.

As a result of all this, I didn't care who I was playing as, who they were fighting, and whether I got my face kicked in. You are robbed of any opportunity to give a stuff about what happens to who. Take even Mortal Kombat as an alternative. Personally I think the gameplay aspect to that franchise was pretty rank for the most part, but you certainly can't argue that they have a hell of a lot of thought behind the characters, with history and drive behind each one.

The Activision web site has a comprehensive character breakdown and history for each character so why this couldn't have even been included in the game guide is beyond me...

Gameplay

Well, it's a beat-em-up, so you pretty much know the drill. Two combatants stand apart from each other and at the count of three they beat each other senseless. You can alter the usual options such as time for each bout and damage per blow but there is nothing startlingly original that hasn't been done before.

Where originality does shine through is in the aforementioned ability to transform into an animal alter-ego. However, this one trick pony was first dragged out the stable back on the PSX so surely by now it would have been refined and spruced up for todays more demanding market?

Well, not exactly. The thing I don't understand is - just how large is the animal kingdom?! It's a vast, vast library of ideas to draw from. So why then do we have two characters that turn into tigers? Why then, do we have not only a mole character (great choice guys) but... wait for it... a mechanical mole too!! Wow!!

Maybe it's just be but it just seems like they had a good idea and didn't know where to take it. Like in the PS version there was a character that turned into a warthog. She was a pretty butch woman who did a lot of wrestling moves and a move that would pick your opponent up on her tusks before running with him/her and ramming him/her against the walls. This time around they use all those same moves on a character that turns into... can you guess?... that's right, a beetle. A beetle?!!? Well, why not have a guy that is a complete powerhouse that can knock you unconscious in one hit? Lets think now... oo I know! He can turn into a tadpole! It's just plain silly and ruins the one main selling point of the game.

Graphics

It has to be said that Bloody Roar at least looks the part. The characters are well animated and move quite fluidly. The backgrounds can look a little grim, with quite dull greys and flat textures, but if this has been done in order to put the processing power into the fighters then it's a fair trade. To be completely honest, my first impression was that Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast had more of an initial WOW factor, but the more I've played BR:PR the more it's graphics have grown on me.

One thing to mention though, if you're expecting the blood bath you have had in previous incarnations you will be disappointed. The version I played (UK) had been sanitised with sparks instead which was quite a disappointment. It wasn't like disbelief hadn't already been stretched to breaking point.

Sound

Another mixed bag here. The sound effects in general are well done but the music is for the most part, grating. I recommend you set the options to 50% music volume or lower, so you can still crank up the volume to get the hard impacts without feeling like you're have tin foil stuck on your fillings...

Re-playability

I would say this comes down to personal taste really. You have the usual initial temptations, such as unlocking characters and arenas, but not many. Other than that you get to unlock 'Cheats' which involve things like Big Head mode or No Walls. It's all novelty and little substance but if you enjoy the game anyway, then these would come and welcome additions.

I personally keep returning to it but only in short bursts. I'm talking 20 minutes at a time and then I'm tired of it. Obviously if you grab a friend and play head to head then the replay factor will increase considerably.

Buy or Rent?

If you are a fan or the series then you would most likely lap this up. However if like me you are a fan of the genre then it will depend on how much alternative choice you have. I would perhaps recommend you rent it, try it on for size, and if you enjoy it, buy it. It wont last you forever but it just might last you until Soul Calibur 2 comes out at which point you probably wont open the case for this again...

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/02, Updated 05/14/02