Bloody Roar: Primal Fury

"Deceptively fun"

Super Smash Bros. Melee (SSBM) was an innovative step when it came to fighting games. It featured the idea of smashing your opponent out of bounds as opposed to depleting a life meter (which was also from the equally innovative Super Smash Bros. (SSB)). It had a plethora of single player modes, some of which had nothing to do with fighting at all - the Target test comes to mind, where you merely smashed 10 targets. But the graphics and animations were ''cartoony'' lending some to say that it isn't a true fighter. It didn't even have complex button combinations for certain moves. But at heart, it is a fighter and is classified (by me) as such.

Which brings us to Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (BRPF). This is a true fighter in every sense of the word - the power bar's present, there are complex button combos and the gory (well, only so much since it is rated Teen) animations are back. The many modes found in SSBM are gone too, lending one to believe that this isn't a deep fighter. But, upon playing it for a while, you'll discover that it is.

Story/Presentation (7/10)

Fighters don't really need stories - SSBM and SSB are proof in that regards.

But most fighters wind up having them anyways. And the one for BRPF is a deep and well written one - even the story of the characters is a deep one too.

The story goes something like this: Humans and so-called Zoeanthropes - humans with the ability to transform into beats - live in harmony. Since the Zoeanthropes are strong beings, their main job is to protect the humans. However, rumours spread of evil masterminds performing strange experiments on Zoeanthropes - lending some to believe that there is some dissention amongst the ranks of the Zoeanthropes. So the Zoeanthropes decide to hold a fighting tournament to prove that they are still a cohesive unit - but unaware of the true evil at hand.

If you play the game, the rich back story is revealed, but doing so here would reveal some spoilers, so I won't do so here.

Still, there is a problem: I had to access the Arcade mode to get the story's plot. That's because, if you watch the opening sequence, all you see is an animated sequence that's beautifully animated, but super-thin in terms of explaining things. You don't even get to learn any of the characters in the game's names. It's a miss in terms of presentation. But everything else is good, albeit unspectacular

Graphics (10/10)

Beautifully done. Each fighter, every background is beautifully drawn. Hudson, the game's designer, went to great pains to make sure every detail was done properly. There isn't a single blocky element in the entire game. All of the characters are believably realistic and certain elements in the character's physique (like muscles) are drawn well. Some of the lighting could use work - the glass in one of the levels doesn't reflect the characters' images - but that isn't a major blemish.

In terms of the FMV sequences, they are breathtaking. All of the Full motion video's (FMV's) are drawn in Japanese anime style drawing - a drastic departure from the game's realistic animations during game play - and beautifully detailed and colorful. It's like watching a movie in anime - and you're surprised that all of this is on a console.

Graphics, on a whole, were very well done.

Play Control (8/10)

The beauty in a game like SSBM was that simplicity led to complexity. All you could do was run, walk, Smash, grab-and-throw and jump and press the A or B button in combination with these moves (like pressing UP+A while in the air). But that gave the fighter a wide range of moves and mixing up these moves could produce a facsimile of combos in other fighters.

In some respects, SSBM has taught BRPF well. Simple A or B button moves combined with (or without) a single controller combination will give your fighter a good variety of moves that you'll have to mix up if you want to win. It's not as deep as SSBM, but it works.

But the traditional fighter game complex combos are present as well. These are challenging - but not ridiculously so. The game features a training mode where you can practice the game's combos so that one can use them in battle - and believe me they are important.

The buttons used aren't misplaced and the whole scheme becomes intuitive. There's a controller configuration option, but it's not needed. (Players can transform into beast alter-egos, whose only importance here is that the ''Hyper Beast Combos'' that only the beast can perform, are difficult to pull off, but not impossible).

Challenge/Fun (10/10)

This game is deceptively fun. There seems to be quite a bit to unlock - including secret characters and more play modes. But the game play options aren't as deep as SSBM, but this is not a concern.

For one, learning and performing well as all of the characters will take a long time. Figuring out how to maximize your favourite character will take a while to do in itself. And the game's play modes are challenging, thanks to the game's excellent progressive AI.

You have the standard Arcade mode, a Time Attack mode- where you try defeat all of the characters in a given time period, Survival - which counts how many times you can win before you eventually lose, the standard two player mode and a Team battle mode - where you pick a team of three/five fighters and try to advance Arcade style, through the field of other teams. This mode is also a two player mode. They all start easy but get really difficult as you move on. You can even tweak the power of your player and of the computer, which has no doubt been done before, but is nevertheless done well here as it does at a lot to game play.

What's more, characters can transform into different beasts. They don't gain many new moves - just more power. A player can transform into a normal beast or a Hyper beast, which allows you to perform a Hyper Beast Combo (once you can pull it off) and stop the clock. Even though this doesn't sound like much, it is a lot. Fights featuring a normal character and a beast don't usually end in favour of the normal character, since as a beast, the character's power bar gets replenished as long as the player is the beast (players can remain beasts forever, but getting hit will deplete the beasts' ''transformation time'' which when zero transforms them back into players. What's more, the ''transformation time'' meter has to be yellow to allow for a transformation. It's difficult to explain, but easy to see. Yet another thing that gives the game some depth).

Sound/Music (9/10)

The music is some sort of blend between hard rock chords and other musical styles. It's not impressive, but it does set the mood perfectly. And, as always, the FMV's music is done well, adding to the allure of watching them.

As for the sound, it's pretty realistic. Background noises seem non-existent, but the character's sounds are never repetitive and a joy to hear. They all sound different for the most part and are voice-acted well. I do have a small complaint. At least two characters seem to yell ''Sheik!'' when they perform a certain move. Is this in homage to SSBM or an oversight of the designers? Still, it doesn't detract from game play.

Overall (9/10)

Despite the game's perceived lack of depth, the little extras make this game that much more enjoyable. The game has a great AI and absolutely gorgeous animation. It's not revolutionary like SSBM was, but it's a good game nonetheless.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/02, Updated 10/14/02