The Bouncer

"The Bouncer - A game deserving at least one play through..."

STORYLINE-
The Storyline is about a group of Bouncers at this bar called “Fate”. They are doing their normal shift at work when a band of Mikado’s group attacks “Fate” taking a girl named Dominique and what follows goes beyond what Sion, Volt, and Kou bargained for.

GRAPHICS-
The graphics have taken a slightly different approach with ‘The Bouncer’. From what I remember when before it was initially released in the US, Dream Factory developed a different visual style that eliminated most of the jagged edges present on a fair amount of PS2 games. The lack of Hardware Anti-Aliasing incorporated within the PS2 console, made it more difficult for games to utilize AA efficiently. The graphics have a polished, almost vaseline-look to them and in turn makes the whole game slightly blurry. The details and facial expressions of each character is clearly noted and executed. The lighting is another thing that shines through in ‘The Bouncer’, which only adds to the ambience of the overall game as a whole.

CHARACTERS-
The main characters are Sion, Volt, and Kou who are playable in the main game. Each one has a unique personality and way of talking to the others, and is helped by fairly good, expressive voice acting. There are the bad guys, like Mugetsu, Echidna, Jaldea Orchid, and Dauragon C. Mikado [CEO of Mikado Corporation].

BATTLE SYSTEM-
The battle system is reminiscent of old-school games like 'Streets of Rage' and other beat-em-up games throughout the years. The only noticeable difference is the incorporation of Skill Points, which you can use to upgrade your Life, Power, and Defense, as well as, other moves you can acquire by having the allotted Skill Points needed to learn the specified move. There are Boss Battles that you fight in the same “beat-em-up” form. Random Battles are fought with a group of enemies that you encounter. You only control one character and the other two are computer-controlled [AI]. Also, by upgrading your stats, you increase your chartacter in Rank, from ‘G’ all the way to the maximum of ‘S’ Rank.

MUSIC-
The music, I felt, was suitable, but not that memorable. The tracks are often more up-beat and electric. The addition of English and Japanese audio tracks really caters to your individual tastes in what you want to hear in the game. The orchestration of the music is done well and is worth listening to.

CONTROLS-
The controls in ‘The Bouncer’ are fairly straightforward. Each button—Triangle, Square, X, and Circle are mapped for a specific attack of the character you are using. Since the game utilizes the Dual Shock 2 controller [for PS2], the buttons are Pressure-Sensitive, meaning that the harder you press them, the more damage you make to the enemies on-screen.

EXTRA GAME-
After you beat ‘The Bouncer’ once, you are allowed to save your game at the end [after the credits]. What this does, is that you get to keep your collected stats and am able to play the game over again. The point of this, is to gain access to various story elements that you simply can’t see one play through. You can play through other characters and experience their ponit-of-view and unlock scenes that they experience.

OTHER MODES-
There are other modes you can play through besides Story Mode. There is Versus Mode, which up to 4 players can participate. You need the PS2 Multi-Tap to play again 3-4 people. You may use your developed characters from the Story Mode in this feature. Survival Mode is a one-player mode that you pick a character and then fight wave after wave of enemies. You can’t save your progress nor can you gain stamina in between. The points collected in this mode are represented as ranks afterwards.

BUY OR RENT-
I’d buy ‘The Bouncer’ only if you really like Squaresoft and/or beat-em-up games. For the short length this game provides, abeit having some replay value, there’s not a whole lot of reason to replay this game. You can buy this game for around $20.00 nowadays. I’m pretty sure if you were to rent this game, you can beat it in a rental period of 5 days.

FINAL NOTES-
I bought this game and I like it for what it offers. Man y people disregard this game as being nothing buy a “movie” with poor gameplay. Whether that may be true or not, this game does have a lot of cut-scenes, but like the recently released ‘Xenosaga Episode 1’, you can skip the cut-scenes if you desire. Last, but not least, ‘The Bouncer’ is on a DVD. I know some hate it when reviews like these don’t tell you what format the particular game is on [I know you’re pain].

Until next time...

FFF Out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/03, Updated 07/19/03