The Bouncer

"Play the Movie? I'd rather watch a movie..."

Past

The Bouncer is one of those games that gets hyped up the wazoo, but ends up disappointing many. Let me start with the beginning. I remember seeing this game in an old (insert random playstation magazine here) and thinking.. ''Hey, this might actually resurrect the beat-em-up genre.'' I remember seeing the great graphics, the extensive articles on all these features. I was determined to get a Playstation 2 just for this game. And now the hurdles. First I hear a major part of the game, the interactive backgrounds were being scrapped. To paraphrase Homer ''No interactive backgrounds, It's still good, It's still good.'' Then I hear the bad ratings in the Japanese Version reviews. As one would expect, my anticipation for this game greatly dwindled. Finally, I decided to give the game a chance. What could possibly go wrong?

Present: And here my troubles began..

Touch Sense - Controls

The execution of attacks and special moves suffers from ''Shenmueitis'' i.e. Character A is doing a super flashy move, but Enemy 1 sticks out his filthy hand to punch in the middle of the move and Character A is rendered flat on his ass. Another problem is that the controls are simply sluggish and unresponsive. The collision detection in this game is horrible too. For some odd reason a falling enemy 10 feet away causes me to fall too. I would also be in front of an enemy , with another one behind me, and just end up punching the air in between them. Second this doesen't even control like a true beat-em-up. Where are my running attacks, running jump attacks, vertical running attacks, front throws, back throws. All that is missing in this game. This was probably the worst part of the game. Score : 4.5/10

Sight Sense - Graphics

I will admit, this game had some great graphics. My only gripes were the over use of the crappy fog/fuzzy effect which I believe was used to mask some of the ''jaggies'', but that's a different story... Another crappy part was the unrealistic portrayal of the fight scenes. Honestly If I were to sweep kick someone, they would not fall back and land with their leg halfway around their head, and arms folded backwards. A simple fall on their back would have worked fine. Other than that, I'd say the graphics was the only fine point of the game.
Score : 8.5/10

Sound Sense - Sound

The sound for this game was real, and it was nice, but it wasn't real nice. It had some pretty good music, nothing special. Something you would expect to hear at your typical dance club... The fight sounds are of your typical ''Matrix'' fare, substituting the deep rich impact noises, for the more subtle ''muffled'' hits. Overall I think it flowed with the environment pretty well. Like I said, it's not grade ''A'' material, but it gets the job done.
Score : 8/10

Taste Sense - Gameplay

Last but not least... the most important aspect of the game, flawed. Let me start by saying the replay value of this ''movie'' is next to nil. Spare me all the crap about ''3 endings'', ''Learn New Moves'' and ''Power Up Your Character''. Honestly if the game were fun to play those features would actually matter. Then again there isn't much room for gameplay either. Its an ''interactive movie'' pretty much. Means it's all watered down. It's pretty much 69% cinema and 31% actual play time. I didn't pay 50 bucks just to watch some stinking movie. The controls and overall watered down beat-em-up feeling makes this game a not so fun game to play. I'm being nice when I give this section:
Score : 6/10

Future

Alas there is hope for this game. If Square goes back to the drawing boards on this one and addresses all the problems that I and others have mentioned, they could crank out a very solid game I wouldn't mind giving a second chance.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/01, Updated 04/09/01