Bloody Roar 4

"A fun, stylish beat-em-up!"

I've been a fan of the Bloody Roar series since the first game. Something about a bunch of people transforming into anthropomorphic animals to tear each other apart attracted me. Anyway, I couldn't wait to get my hands on BR 4 after playing Primal Fury. But enough about me, on with the Review!

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GRAPHICS [8/10]:
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While not as good as Primal Fury, they aren't bad. It's kinda disappointing, though, that a new PS2 Bloody Roar could not top the graphics of the Gamecube BR. Oh, well. Another bother is the noticeable, annoying slowdown. It's some pretty significant slowdown, too. One addition to the graphics is blood...and lots of it. Some attacks, especially Beast Drives, cause buckets of the red stuff to rain everywhere. Overall, decent, but there's room for improvement.

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CHARACTERS [6/10]:
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Mmm...another disappointment. The two characters from Bloody Roar:Primal Fury, Ganesha and Cronos, were removed, and replaced by three new characters:Ryoho and Mana, a tough old man and a small girl with the ability to transform into a fox, Reiji the Crow, a silver-haired punk, and Nagi the Spurious, who's beast form appears to be some kind of demonic form with a bladed hand. It would have been nice to see Ganesha and Cronos, but at least all the characters from the previous games are there.

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GAMEPLAY: [9/10]:
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It may not be the deepest fighter on the market, but it's plenty of fun. You choose a character and fight a one-on-one match against an opponent. Each character has the ability to transform into a mighty beast form, making your character stronger and tougher and giving them powerful new attacks, including the ultra-strong Super Combo-esque Beast Drives. The biggest change to the fights are separate health meters for the human and beast forms. The meters can be built up while in the opposite form, and when you lose all health in one form, you automatically transform to the other. This new double-meter set-up adds a strategic edge to the game. Another addition comes in the form of the oddly-named Career Mode. In Career Mode, You choose a character who you use to fight your way through a huge map-like area by winning battles. As you progress, you earn DNA Points that you can spend to gain new abilities for you fighter and unlock new characters. You can even use your customized characters in other modes! This makes things fun, as you can outfit you character with another character's attacks. As for the controls, they are smooth and responsive, so no problems there.

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REPLAY VALUE [7/10]:
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Not a whole lot there. There are some hidden characters to unlock, and you can go through Career Mode to customize some of those characters, but that's about all.

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RENT OR BUY?
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I think you should always rent a game before you buy it, since you may not like it. However, if you're a BR fan, I think you will enjoy this game. If you're not, rent it first.

Overall, I went into BR4 with big hopes, and it delivered. Some decent, if lacking, graphics, fun and refreshing gameplay make it a blast to play, but some disappointing character choices and lack of replay value bring it's score down. However, it's still a worthy successor to the Bloody Roar name and is recommended for any BR fan.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/03