The Bouncer

"'The Bouncer' sounds and looks mesmerizing, give or take a (large) handful of (very) negative (and redundant) aspects..."

Synopsis
'Bouncer' sounds and looks mesmerizing, give or take a (large) handful of (very) negative (and redundant) aspects. Square finally shows PS2s true capability, engineering a fabulous graphical movie experience, but fails to please the gameplay factor due to the shallow linearity that thoroughly makes this game a visionary masterpiece that lasts only so long.

Gameplay Elements:
This type of 'beat-'em-up' genre has always been a repetitive, yet unbelievably addicting. 'The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'Final Fight One' for the Nintendo seem to inherit this memory of 'beat-'em-up' adventures.

'Bouncer' is no exception. Exciting and repetitive, the selection of characters for the Story Mode remains as 3 bouncers called Sion, Volt and Kou. All of them looking quite rugged (to the exception of Sion), each of them inherit a past that is exclusive to their scenario. By all means, one may think that each character's scenario is completely different from the next... unfortunately, everything is the same except a few stills that are directed to the character you are playing moreso than the other two characters. Along with your character and their two A.I. friends, you will proceed with a 2 minute fight sequence, followed by a reward section, rewarding skill bonuses and status boosters. With your accumulative points which is based on the amount and efficiency of the foes you've slain, you have the option of raising status criteria such as strength, life or defense, or inheriting new skills to pit against your enemy, but nothing fancy. Immediately after, you are indulged in a beautiful cutscene.

Then the battles begin once more... and then you raise your character's points and buy more skills... with another preceding cutscene. *sigh*... Lather, rinse and repeat!

While this may seem pretty negative, the nostalgia of the 'beat-'em-up' series of yesterday may seem like a good thing, with all the pretty visuals and all.

However, Square has also added another feature to this rather linear game. You can pit yourself against your friend(s) in a VS type tournament mode where you can select all or more of the NPCs in the Story Mode. Enemies can be chosen to your free will as long as you proceed in unlocking their required locking technique. This is great entertainment in a party game, considering the controls are very simplistic and easy to understand. Your boosted character is also 'boosted' and 'superstrong' in the VS Tournament type mode also. However, it’s too short, and it completely lacks substance making these features only enjoyable for awhile.

The length of this gameplay, however, can only last so long. In dependence of how long your interest can last, this game can take from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Not a very impressive number, even for a beat-em-up action game.

What appalled me most about this type of game was that it was much too easy. The difficulty in this game never ceases to disgust. The game can be easily accomplished by simply button mashing your way through, and gamers who expect more challenge will surely feel disappointed in the lack of gameplay for the Bouncer.

To conclude the Gameplay Elements, 'The Bouncer' never ceases to impress the first several minutes of engrossing graphics and excellent animations, but as the game continues on... you realize there's nothing much more other than the engrossing graphics and excellent animations. 3/10

Visual Presentation:
Simply amazing, technically and in design. Square's work for 'The Bouncer' is sheer excellence in terms of graphical and visual presentation.

The faces, bodies, clothes, scenery... everything is detailed from the innocent eyes of Dominique to the last glimmer on Sion's necklace. Graphically, this game is done! It's movie-like animations make 'The Bouncer' an artistic masterpiece. It can be confidently said that it is the best visual presentation of its release date and of all before it.

The face expressions, movements and animations are realistic, enjoyable and impressive. An interesting technique that Square has used in this game is blurring certain edges of the screen to make it seem realistic and focused on the main visual. While some may find this a nuisance, it is actually an integral part in making 'The Bouncer' look more like an 'interactive movie', as it implies.

The small details are even edged to precise accuracy. The tattoos that Kou wears, the swaying vest of Sion, the mutated expressions of Volt. Nothing in this game is more impressive than the obviously hard-worked graphics.

To be completely brief... 'spectacular'! 10/10

Audio Presentation:
A Square game always contains the richest audio presentation: music or otherwise. Probably the main criteria that I respect Square of most.

While some may suspect that 'The Bouncer' music outshines all just as Final Fantasy Series or the Chrono Series did with excellence, it does not. But it is a tolerable and extremely suitable to the theme of this game. But again, it is not memorable and usually only adds to the action ambience.

What truly perfects the Audio criteria, however, is their amazing and stunning voice performances. Probably one of the best I've heard in a game. These voice actings may fall short in rare times (as all games do), but nevertheless, the voices can easily fit voice acting quality of now.

Audio-wise, this game has it all with the perfected voice acting, and while the music does not contain obvious memorable sountracks, it definitely executes it with greater finesse than other games, but ultimately hurts the final score. 8/10

Story and Composition:
Probably one of the most clichéd stories I've heard. Throughout all fairy tales, the villain, the princess and the hero have always existed. 'The Bouncer' does this with the variation of downtown roughness and ruggedness. Think Mario, Toadstool and Luigi saving Princess from Wario. This story has been reused several times and it is only so many times that we can hear this story again before getting tired of it.

Sure, there are areas of this story that seem original, but when looking at the big picture, things just... aren't original.

Nevertheless, this story has the tough and handsome hero (Sion), the two friends (Volt and Kou), the helpless princess (Dominique) and the villain (Dauragon).

Stories need to be original to attain the visual movie that 'The Bouncer' wanted the gamers to see: Play the Interactive Movie, am I right? 'The Bouncer', in this respect, contains a mediocre one. 5/10

Replayability and Extras:
Plenty of extras are in this visual masterpiece. With characters that are able to be unlocked by playing Story Mode, the extras in this are rather well done! The added modes are fun and help boost the replay value considerably, but there is still some major lacking issues in this game.

Let’s look at one major question in the Bouncer. Why is there not a two player mode? There are three characters, all able to hone different and original skills, and with the graphic capabilities the Bouncer is showing, why is there no two player mode? This lack of replay and the standard that action brawlers have already set shows that the Bouncer truly needs some innovative replayability. There is extras and the like, but no innovative two player mode, and the repetition is already an issue.

The replayability in this game is nicely done with the characters being able to 'keep' their skills and statistics for the next replay of the game and for the other modes, but the co-op mode is lacking and this takes away replay almost indefinitely. A poor man’s replay if I say so myself, because while there are extras, they are mini-game extras for two player and these mini-game extras simply will not hold you for the game long enough. 4/10

Conclusion
Keeping this short, it is recommended to simply rent this. With the sheer lack of difficulty and the inability to give anything new to this genre, 'The Bouncer' may simply collect dust in your PS2 library if you do not like it.

As always, renting first, buying after is always a good choice. With 'The Bouncer', the mediocrity in all aspects except for both presentations make this game a slight dull after collecting half of the skills, maximizing one or two statistic(s) and finishing 2 characters. Mediocrity is fine... but with the sheer plentiful amount of Excellent games in the PS2 library, the Bouncer can only BE considered as a party game.

To sum up 'The Bouncer', it failed to impress as much as it would have if not for the mediocre gameplay.

How it all adds up!
(average is determined through the importance of the criteria)
Gameplay Elements: 3/10
Visual Presentation: 10/10
Audio Presentation: 8/10
Story and Composition: 5/10
Replayability and Extras: 4/10
Final Score: 5

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/02, Updated 02/09/03