The Bouncer

"Short but entertaining movie game"

''The Bouncer'' has unmatched imagination and innovations brought to you by Squaresoft and Dream Factory. They have made a first in console gaming: a watch 'n' play movie. The game combines Rpg, Action, Fighter, and Adventure style games with a movie. The overall outcome of this is a beat 'em up type of gameplay, yet you have a tendency to watch the game as much as you play it.

Background:
'The Bouncer' takes place in the future in an unnamed town. A large company named Mikado seems to be running things around this part of the world, and has it's eyes set on larger domains. You start by playing one of three bouncers (Sion, Volt, and Kou) for a bar named Fate on Dog Street. As you advance the FMV sequences (which you can skip if it if you do not feel like watching), the story unfolds and when there is a fight in the story, you take control. You can battle with any one of the three bouncers in each battle in which that character is available. Each bouncer has a slightly different story, but for the most part, they all end the same way.

#1. Graphics: 10/10
The graphics are stupendous. Square follows up its last game release of FFIX with a graphical masterpiece of movie quality FMVs and excellent in-game graphics. The characters look the same from the FMVs to the fights. The characters in the game have a Final Fantasy look to them and are each unique in appearance and style. Sion has a punk/fubu style of clothing with the spiky hair hero look to him (you can also notice that he has a Band-aid on his forehead). Volt looks evil. From the metal implanted horns on his head to his red devilish eyes, he looks like a demon from the depths of hell that raided a biker's wardrobe. The final bouncer, Kou, has black tattoo design all over his body. He has the style of an Americanized ninja in cammo pants. Even the bosses and enemies have great detail put into them. I would indulge more, but I don't want to spoil anything.
Not only are the graphics well designed, but they are clear and crisp in every scene. There is a lack of pixels everywhere, and you will not hear me complain. Never once have I seen a frame-rate drop. This is one of the first games to truly use some of the potential power of the PS2.
As is the case with most Square games, they paid attention to details. I have yet to notice a wall painting, text, or sign in the background that is in Japanese (the conversion from Japan was great). There are neon signs and posters on the wall, multi-layer levels with smooth scrolling graphics, and broken glass on the floor. In some areas, it is hard to see your character if he is in a dark corner due to the shadows, and their clothing and hair moves with each character instead of staying in place like grandpa's starched pants.
Furthermore, this game has the most realistic explosions I have ever seen on a console. They like look like scenes from a 'Die Hard' movie.
Graphics overall rocked. A ten all the way.

#2. Sound: 8/10
I must say that I am not a fan of voice overs but this game is an exception. The subtitles go perfectly with the voice overs as well as the on-screen characters no matter which language in which you choose to listen. They choose very talented voice over actors and varied the kind of voices that the different characters have. The voices are not corny or boring (even though some of the lines they say are), and dynamics are included in the voices. You can feel the emotions included with the character's lines. They used the DVD function of the PS2 very well including the option to listen to voice overs in English or Japanese as well as the subtitles in the same way. Dolby Surround Sound was included for some but not all of the cinemas. It would have been nice to hear the whole game in surround sound, but this is at least a start.
The sound effects were on cue with everything in the game. Everything from punches to footsteps went with the game and added to the feel of the game. Grunts, from receiving or giving a kick, happen when they are supposed to so you don't have the hit-sound delay like in the old Japanese Godzilla movies.
The music is good and contains some good tracks, but no track exactly affected the mood of the game like the soundtrack did in games like 'Crono Cross' or 'Tekken Tag'. The music has good a mood fulfilling sound and a quality beat. The music, however, does get annoying after a few hours. The song at the end of the game (The Bouncer's theme song), ''Love is the Gift'' is an entertaining and touching soft rock song to merit the game an eight in sound.

#3. Controls: 7.5/10
This has to be one of the weakest points, yet it isn't horrible enough to ruin the game. The fighting in the game is fun but lacked fluidness. You are required to use Dual-Shock 2 controllers due to the pressure sensitive controls. I had trouble with some aspects and getting them to work to my advantage. Blocking was hard to get used to due to the delay in its releasing for some of the characters (there is a delay in the time that you release the button and the release of the block by the character). It was also hard to get used to the analog button moves, but that probably could be my lack of experience with the use of analog buttons. It did add a nice effect and gave the game a way of including more moves without using multi-direction button combination moves like in 'Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore' or 'Tekken Tag Tornament'.
Another problem I ran into was fluidly running combos together. It is hard to lightly press triangle then jam square and then lightly press triangle. One thing that was very useful was a way to test how hard you normally press buttons along with a way to adjust the sensitivity of the buttons.
Other than my lack of motor skills, the controls are rather easy and the additional skills are easy to add into your fighting style. The basic button commands for each character's basic moves are the same, but they all do different things depending on which character you use. You do have to adjust your fighting style to match each character's moves (the difference between say strong vs. weak damage or short vs. long range), but you don't have to re-learn the game for each character. Navigating the menus is Square simple (some times tedious) and running around in the scenery is easy and responsive. The controls overall take abit of getting used if you haven't used the analog buttons before, but after you do get a feel for it, you'll be whipping Mikado Special Forces in no time. Eight marks of an X was earned here.

#4. Gameplay: 8/10
The story of 'The Bouncer' is simplistic in nature but is good nonetheless. It is the normal save the girl storyline with the added feature of seeing it through three different view points or character roles. You have Sion, who has had a lost earlier in life and has start to lighten up since a certain someone has come into his life. He maintains a hero 'no lose' attitude through out the game. There is Volt, who's facial piercings are down right scary. He seems to know a lot about Mikado and maintains the general bad-ass point of view. Kou has a very sarcastic, smart-ass personality. He tends to be the comic relief for the group of bouncers. There is also something about Kou that he isn't telling the other characters. It take three times through this short game (1-3 hours depending if you skip the cinemas) to get the whole story. All though the story doesn't change very much from character to character, you do learn more about each character by going through the game with that character, and the over-all game's story is depthened by going through with each character.
As I said before, you get to choose which character to play with before each fight, but in order to be able to learn the story it tends to be better (at least the first three times) to go through using only one character. From time to time, depending on which character you choose, your path through the game changes, and you get to see new FMVs depending on which bouncer is chosen. Each time you knock an enemy out you get bouncer points (BP) that you can use to increase you stats or obtain new moves. The more BP you get the higher your rank goes (F-S). I cannot find any use for the rank other than the show 'n' tell ability. The actual gameplay is unchanging and gets boring after a while, but the gameplay is enhanced by the other two modes: Verses and Survival.
In the verses mode, you and up to three of your buddies by use of the Multi-Tap can duke it out in an arena of your selection. You can use most of the Named characters in the game including your beafed-up story mode characters and the final boss. The ranks of the NPCs (Non-player-characters) are base on how many times you ravage the game with each character. There are two modes in which you can battle your friends or the computer if your social life is dragging: Free-for-all, and team battle.
In the free-for-all mode any mix of players (1-4) and/or computer players (1-3) can duke it out to see who is king of the kill. You have control over how long you fight and how many rounds one player has to win before winning the match. Though enhancing, it still is just your normal Vs. mode with a different style of fighting.
A good addition to the game was survival. You duke it out on several difficulty increasing levels. Each level is taken from the game as well as the enemies. The survival mode was the most fun for me for I love survival mode in any game. Neither Survial nor Verses affects your Story mode characters.
The only really bad aspect of gameplay is in the lack of continuing quickly. You have to go back to the title screen every time you die, then had to reload you game, and finally you have skip the FMV's if you what to get right back to the action. The game is alot of fun to play but lacks a layup from the super-model ten. Eight was then best the game offered me.

#5 Replay Value: 8/10
Three characters, three slightly different stories, three modes, and the ability to use the same characters over and over: Sounds like a winner. Verse mode rocks, because you can use so many of the characters, and Survival is ,well, a never ending challenge to beat your own or another's score. You can also think of it like a movie you like to watch over and over, and once you get your characters maxed out you can pretty much watch it like a movie. Eight years of replay deserves this game.

Is it worth the money?
Yes. I don't feel like I was cheated out of 50 bucks like I did with Donkey Kong 64.
Should you buy it immediately?
No. Rent it first, it is not for everyone.
Who should play this game?
Any Square, beat 'em up, movie fan that likes fighting and beat 'em games.

Overall 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/01, Updated 05/22/01