Bloody Roar 4

"The beast is back!!"

Bloody Roar 4

The fastest and most brutal fighting game is back with more characters, more moves, and more blood. Fourteen fighters return to the fray, and 4 new beasts join them for the zoanthrope cause. Hudson/Eighting continue to deliver pulse-pounding action as fighters who turn into beasts battle for balance and their own personal ambitions, regardless of the bad reputation that has followed this series since it's conception. With the addition of new characters with new move sets and Career mode, where you can customize your fighters in ways you never thought possible, Bloody Roar 4 is back up to snuff in the modern fighting game realm.

Graphics…8
Visually, this game is very appealing. Little to no jaggies, fluid frame rates, and a brilliant array of colors that gives your eyes a work out. The stage arenas are more detailed than they used to be, and one stage even adds a motion blur effect to your characters in battle. The downside, however, reveals itself when you play a couple of the new characters on specific stages. A semi-dramatic decrease in performance may turn you off of this game, but it's a minor impact on game play and the conditions are quite strict. Shadows are also done cheaply, the low amount of detail on the shadows stemming from the characters is evidence of this, but you want to fight, not watch your shadow.

Sound…6
Well, this is somewhat of hit and miss category. The action sounds during battle are punchy and sweet, makes it sound like your opponent just smacked his head against a hard tile floor at full force. During game play, sound is well balanced and keeps you coming back for more, with every “smack” from a punch or kick and every “swoosh” from a missed swing. The soundtrack best fits this game with its hard-up attitude and style, though not as well orchestrated as in past Bloody Roar games, but it fits the mood.

Character voices are the biggest disappointment. Dubs are horrendously under-developed and the actors themselves put little to know effort into portraying the characters they were responsible for, and many of the voices just don't even sound like they're coming from their associated characters. The soundtrack is good and battle sounds are great, and that's more important, in my opinion.

Story…5
Represented in arcade mode, the story unfolds after you complete 6 or 7 stages per character. A brief in-game sequence develops the tension while the conversation reveals what each fighter's goal is. As in past Bloody Roar games, the story is developed but lacking some details, though not necessary to the plot, but some things you'd just like to know. There's even a little drama with some character sequences which makes the plot more like an epic story of good versus evil.

Gameplay…7
The combo system hasn't changed much from one game to the next, and this one is no exception. The fastest fighting action around has about the most intuitive and unique system that I've ever played. All attack combinations are predetermined but a little thing called ''cancel points'' makes all the difference. At certain points in a combo you can change it by inputting one of six or more moves that will keep your opponents guessing and always giving you an advantage. You can even punch in the combos faster than the game displays, but you'll still get the complete combo. It's easy to start off with this game, but with practice the games' depth shows itself as a fast, fluid, precise combo system, which requires you to know exactly what you're doing, which the infamous ''button-mashers'' don't offer. There are five different guard types: light guard (which is effective as long as you're not moving or attacking), heavy guard (stops all attacks at the press of a button), guard evade (lets you side-step when attacked), fast evade (tap the guard button just before an attack hits you and you'll dodge it with no recovery time), and counter evade (hold guard to dodge all attacks and release to counter attack). Everyone gets light and heavy guard, but the different evasion types depend on the character.

Then there's Career mode, the world circuit of Bloody Roar. There's a map of ''nodes'' which gives you DNA points when you win the battle at each node. These DNA points let you equip abilities to enhance the capabilities of your fighter. Some abilities increase damage to certain attacks, some give you new combos and some let you make additions to existing combos, you can choose what type of evade skill you want, and you can even ''borrow'' moves from other fighters and add them to your own.

Final...7
Overall, this game is worth hours of brawling goodness, and career mode will keep you busy for at least a month, but you'll always want to come back for more bloody action. Though the game is a little under-developed it's still got a lot of action and replay value under the belt. Rent it sometime just to see if you like it, and have fun, that's what's most important about any game. Hope you like it, I know I do.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/17/03