Bloody Roar 4

"It returns, once more...."

Alrighty, she has come back. Bloody Roar 4. What can I say aside from ''OH MY GOD.''
This game has improved graphics, all your old, favorite characters with some new, interesting ones, and mixes in the new mode of play, ''Career Mode.''
Trust me, your gonna love it.

Graphics - 9/10
In short, the game is beautiful. The levels are done well, some of which have multiple floors, and the characters are smooth and lovely. The only drawback is the lack of real walls to bounce your opponents head off of. It has improved a lot since 3, even though 3 had awesome graphics.

Gameplay - 9/10
Well, you have your basic ''Arcade'' mode, sort of like a poor story mode. ''Time Attack'' and ''Survival'' modes, of course, are included, as is the ''Practice'' mode. Now, they gave us a ''Sparring'' mode where you can fight with a computer opponent infinitely. They also included a new mode, my fav., the ''Career'' mode. In this mode, you fight masses of opponents and collect DNA points to affix abilities you earn from certain levels. You can give a Career character certain power-raising abilities, defensive increasements, new attacks, copy attacks from other characters, add stall time to your attacks, edit your command attacks, etc. Basically, you can make one hell of a character here. The fighting system is different from 3's, since you now have a ''Beast Life Bar'' instead of just a ''Beast Gauge.'' You must deplete both bars to win. Also, now, in order to perform a grapple attack, you must press Gaurd and forward at the same time. This gets to me, since I am not used to it. Also, the ''double duck'' is gone, now those are the evade counterattacks. Which brings me to the evade system. If you have the ''evade'' ability ecuipped, when you hit the ''Guard'' button, you assume a stance and cannot be hit. So very unfair!
I personally don't like it, since the matches are usually only 10-15 seconds long, even with ''Attack Power'' set to 1.

Sound - 7/10
They still have awesome music to beat some face in with. The only biff I have is the still-horrible voice-acting. Yugo calls Nagi ''Naggy'' in the intro, for crying out loud! But some improvements were made, like Xion's ''You IMBECILE!'' when you defeat him (since he was such a pansy sounding guy in 3). Still, this doesn't kill the game off THAT much...

Overall - 9/10
If you are a fan of the BR series, like I have been, you'll love it. Short and simple, you'll love it. If you don't like fast paced fighters, you won't, since it is fast. Not as fast as 3, but still fast.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/03