Bloody Roar

"So this is what happens when they don't make Bomberman games..."

Bloody Roar is a very nice fighting game which may not compare to the Street Fighter series, gives pretty much every other fighter a run for their money.

Known as Beastorizer in the arcades, Bloody Roar was a game where you picked one of eight characters and beat other people up to fight the final boss, some girl who turned into a giant monster. Of course you could turn into a giant animal yourself, so giant monsters are no problem.

Anyway, the graphics of this game are good, characters don't look blocky, no even during the victory poses. Fluid animation, each move flows nicely. No fireballs here, you'll have to actually get close to them this time. The transformation into animal is quick and the animals themselves look quite cool.

Music is good, but I frankly don't care for music anyway. =) Basic grunts, wall breaking and such are sound effects.

Controls are finely-tuned and easy to play with. Circle turns you into a beast and allows you to use another attack when in beast mode which opens up more moves. Square punches and X kicks. Special moves are easy to pull off and response time is quick.

Gameplay is what makes this my favourite 3d fighter. The action is usually quick and frantic with teleporting, charging attacks and side-steps (L1 and R1 if enabled). You can only turn into a beast when your beast meter reaches a point and you lose beast mode when that meter is drained (after too many attacks or you used Rave mode for too long) and are knocked down by an attack. Rave mode is a useless feature. It merely speeds you up when in beast mode by pressing triangle but it drains your beast meter.

Hudson has already released Bloody Roar 2 at the time of this release and I have yet to play it, but it should improve on the game, we'll have to see. I'd reccomend getting this game but this game might be showing signs of age. Rent it at least, unless you have Bloody Roar 2, that should be like this anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99