"Easy to play, hard to beat, simple fighting game."

I will say this first off: This is a fighting game designed for people who are new to the genre.

For those of you who haven't played the other games, I definitely reccomend the first one. But this isn't the first one, it's the third one. You're either reading this because you bought it without thinking, or you're thinking about playing it.

I reccomend you do play it.

On with the review.

Graphics: 7/10
Compared to other fighters of it's time (the tekken seiries, ect.) the graphics are pretty ho-hum. But, it's a well done ho-hum with an anime feel to it - bonus points in my book. Moves looked cool, characters have 3 different costumes each (and while they're mostly the same, they all look fairly interesting.) At times, yes - the animation is jerky. However, that doesn't seem to detract from the game that much. My one complaint graphics-wise was that Shenlong, the Dark Tiger, had a major glitch in his model: His shirt, always flared out at the bottom, was often phased through by his arms (IE, like his arms were ghosts and his shirt was a wall.)

Might I add that most of the special attacks and moves are really cool-looking and fun to watch. Combos flow decently, it gives you a sense of reward for learning to execute them.

Sound: 3/10
The music? Thank god you can turn it off. It's the classic Bloody Roar rock & roll, however, it sucks anyways. I reccomend popping in a good heacy rock CD and playing to that instead. Sound effects were decent, fighter fare. Punch, kick, nothing bone-breaking but nothing wussy-sounding, either. The trash-talk is okay for the first couple of hours, unless you always play as the same character: Victory sounds get annoying, as do the intro lines (Shenlong's "I'll KILL you!" is enough to turn the volume down after five minutes of play.) The animal sounds, however, were pleasing to the ears. The roars and such were a cool touch, and done well.

Gameplay: 7/10
The concept of the game: You are a Beastman (or Beastgirl.) As you attack and are attacked, your Beast Guage will fill. When it reaches a particular point, you can use the Beast Button to transform into your stronger, faster, and regenerating Beast Form. While in the Beast Form, you take less damage, deal more damage, heal your health, and can use the Beast Attack button (the button that uses your claws or raw strength that you only have in Beast Form.) Attacking is simple at first: You have a punch button, a kick button, and a beast button. The fourth button is simply a grapple button. Very short combos can be executed simply by repeatedly pressing a single attack button. But, combos get more complex as you learn to play.

Initially, button-mashing works. Most people fail to progress beyond this stage of skill, because it works. However, the combo system is a little tricky: Particular points of each combo (starting with a one-button repeat press or a two-button chain) allow that combo to be interchanged with another combo.

For instance, you could press punch, punch, punch. And you can press kick, kick, beast attack. Those two combos are fine in and of themselves, but if you press the first two punches of Punch, Punch Punch and then press Kick, Kick, Beast attack, you can link your combos together. A part of that third combo can link into other combos. Thus, as you play, you start mashing buttons and noticing patterns of buttons leading to patterns of attacks and you can chain those patterns together from anywhere between a 3 hit combo and a 52 hit combo. Button mashing is fine and all, but if you like skill-based games, this can deliver quite satisfyingly.

Blocking is a bit difficult, due to the way the combo link system works. High, med, and low blocks are difficult to pattern against combos because combos can be interchanged at will.

It's got the standard gameplay modes: Survival, Arcade, Versus. As you play and win, you can unlock other, more unique modes - Sudden Death Survival (first person to land a hit wins) and Knockdown Fight (every attack knocks the opponent down if it connects.)

The computer is very cheap, I will admit this. But no amount of cheapness is impossible to counter with either an equal level of cheapness, or a greater level of skill.

Replay Value: 4/10
12 characters, plenty of costumes, but very few game modes. I suggest Versus, honestly. Playing against a human opponent is much more fun.

Overall: 6/10 (not an average)
Like I said before, this game is great for people not familiar with the fighting game genre. Younger kids will have a blast watching the special moves and attacks, as well as listening to the Beast Mode's sound effects and watching the flashy graphics. Hardcore gamers would be better off finding a different game to play. I personally bought this game used, and found it worth my 10$. It's fun to just sit down and relax while playing versus mode, and the more you realise that you can chain combos the more stuff there is to learn.

I had fun. Might just be me, but I had fun.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/05