The Bouncer

"A blast of a beat em-up but with HEAVY gameplay problems."

The Bouncer could have easily been new flag ship of the beat em-up genre for the new generation consoles because at the beginning it seems everything that a new generation beat em-up should be, with a nicely structured and interesting plot and a deeper gameplay, but sadly this deeper gameplay also includes a ridiculous length that make this one an extremely intense yet ephemeral experience, this game is as intense as short, and this is not a good thing.

Story:
In a beat em-up the story is probably the last thing in importance, and rating the plot is one of these games is ridiculous, but in The Bouncer everything is different, completely different because the story is excellent, I was intrigued to see what as going to happen next, that is what kept me playing, and this is because has well developed characters that interact a lot with each other and are all the time talking and doing things. Yet, the ending was extremely unsatisfactory, it is very frustrating when a story is great and the ending so mediocre, but well, this is mainly because of the ridiculous length of the game more than anything, and I will go on that later.

The plot is nothing new or specially inventive or anything, but it is well done and has a lot of spectacular moments, that is why it is so good.

Graphics:
It was said that this game was only made to show the PlayStation 2 potential as we can see magnificent CG sequences every five minutes, well, even if this was one of the first PlayStation 2 games, the graphics are way ahead 90% of games out there, and what is more, no matter for which console. What I didn`t liked about them is their style, most of the characters, enemies, and well, the overall look of the game is pretty ugly, hard to define, mmnnn it is some kind of underground futuristic punk style, if that exists, very odd.

Music:
Very little music, which was exactly what I was expecting, and also as expected there is a lot of voice acting, and it is very good, and we can ever use the original Japanese voice acting, so no complaints here.

Gameplay:
Honestly, although in essence this is a beat em-up, ``interactive movie`` could have been a better category for this game, if you read about this being one of those titles where you are more time watching videos than playing those who said that sure were right, with this game happens the same than with Metal Gear 2, only that being The Bouncer the game it is, the problem is a lot worse, and if we add that the game is even shorter than Metal Gear 2 (and not only is shorter, it is like ten times shorter) the result is a barely playable game.

In this game what we do is playing the different parts of the story, for example the game begins with rumble in a bar, after tons of videos and dialogues, we have to kick a bunch morons, once we get rid or them we can`t continue by going down the stairs to get out of the bar and continue kicking, because we have see another five minutes of videos that once finished will leave us in another place where we have to kick ass again. And so on, this is not like for example in Final Fight we start in a place and we have to make our way through all the baddies. As far as I can remember, there was only one part where we were able to explore a bit and play like a regular beat em-up, but only for about an hour.

I have to say that I like those games with tons and tons of videos, I don`t mind watching videos for more than ten minutes without touching the control pad, but this is a beat em-up, not an rpg or Metal Gear, and for that reason after ten minutes of videos there should be at least one hour of non stop ``beating the hell out of everything`` immediately after that, and sadly that is what doesn`t happens in The Bouncer, you are ten minutes watching videos, you play for two minutes, and right before you turn your PlayStation off for after playing the game for the first time to rest a while, the game ends. If the game were A LOT longer, and with A LOT I mean at least a hundred times longer, this wouldn`t be a problem, but as it isn`t, the problem is huge.

We are able to pay with the three main characters, and depending which one we choose there are alternative paths and some other things, never enough to replay the game again in my opinion, but if you have bought this game then you will have no choice but to play again with other characters to try to recover all the money you paid for it.

The beat em-up parts are not all that good because of the controls, the controls are not all that easy to use, in fact they are tough as hell, it is a bit slow as we can`t move as freely as we use to do in these games, but after a while you will get used, they are not bad, not exactly good either, only tough, and what makes them so ineffective is that way the game works more than anything, with an standard more beat em-upish development this controls would have been ok.

The good thing here anyway is that the more ass we kick the more points we get, and after a battle sometimes we are able to exchange our points for abilities and special techniques or more health, strength, defence, etc.

Replay Value:
There is a lot, loads and loads of replay value with hidden characters, play modes, and a huge etc, but only if you have someone to play with, because while you can play some of them alone, they are fun only when played with a lot of people. Considering all the multiplayer options I guess this game was made to play with friends more than anything.

Overall:
The Bouncer is a game with lots of potential, it is the first beat em-up I have ever seen with a story, and this gameplay better made could have been terrific, but the game is too extremely short above everything, if this game were, like I said before, at least a hundred times longer it could have been the definitive beat em-up, but as it is not, rent it, it is going to leave you craving for more, that`s for sure, and I would love to see a second part because while short and all of that, while it lasts, The Bouncer is amazing.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/04