Bloody Roar

"Animorphic Fun"

-Visuals 8/10-

If you're a fan of the Ani-morph type comic books, then this game is simliar to what you would find in the series. Giving you several types of fighters to choose from, each animated with their own special style and moves, they all have a special animal alter-ego that will remind you of those crazy animal/human hybrids of the popular series.

Each character is drawn, in a polygon form, to near perfection, not giving an ounce to blocky, pixalated visuals, a true treat for the eyes. The frame rate at which the game moves is a work of art, also never giving way to slow down or image break-up. Exceptionally detailed, you'll have a hard time not locking your sight onto just one thing going on during the game itself.

Speaking of detail, the areas that you fight in are of your basic size and shape, a giant square with a surrounding boundary. While this sounds like a run of the mill standard for a 3-dimensional fighting game, there is a semi-replay of the battle if you nail your opponent hard enough to blast through perimeter of the area, giving you a shadowed effect and several camera angles that highlight the hard hit.

The special moves and the Beast Gauge transformations are the true stars of the game. Each character gives you the opportunity to change into a seperate alter-ego with a fierce animal quailty. This leads you into a new set of moves, one for the 'human' character, and then another set for the 'alter-ego Beast' character. While the button presses are the same, the animations for the two seperate characters are slightly different.

Nicely done.

-Audio 8/10-

A heavy hitting soundtrack for a heavy hitting game, the music track for Bloody Roar relies more on your 'need' to feel a power to fight, rather than just a symphony of music to take up the background. This is done in a rather nice way, giving you those heavy metal guitars, the heavy drum beats, and the general moody tone of wanting to kick ass.

The sound effects also compliment the game's action nicely, fitting each and every action with either a swishing sound, a thud of a heavy hit, and even the character giving a battle cry when they extend a move into a heavy ending hit. This comes through a good stereo system with rather crystal clear clarity, and you'll blink the first couple of times when you hear the roar of a larger beast transformation coming through your speakers.

Again, this was nicely done, and very very nicely put together, but not quite perfect.

-Control 9/10-

Hoo boy, this is really a nice change of pace to have everything at your fingertips, and not have to worry too much on lazy and un-responsive control. You have a punch, kick, guard and transform button, all on the front of the PSX control pad. It can be switched up, either through a couple of different pre-sets, or through a customizable control setting.

This comes in handy if you want to have all of the throw combinations handy at the shoulder buttons. Much like the Tekken series, it's nice to just have them there instead of having to twist your fingers around to get one off.

The special moves also come off the PSX control with good response. Very few times will you have to use much effort to get a two-in-one special to flow from the control onto the screen, or even throw a good sized combination. This is a relief from some other fighting games, where it takes near masterful control to get off a simple 4 hit combination.

-Gameplay 8/10-

Pitting you against other morphing opponents, your main goal is to fight your way through a myriad of other beasts to find out who and what you are...and to stop a mad man from overtaking the world. Sure, it sounds like your general fighting game of an evil person in control, and your duty to stop him at all costs. While this is true, that it is a general storyline as of late, the little subtle similiarities between games stop, the minute you start fighting.

This game is fast paced, and your main form of attack is that of combinations, big ones, small ones, and medium sized ones. Bloody Roar is not so much a game about strategy, but about running in, and doing as much damage as you can with what you've got at hand. While this may seem easy, it's not...your computer controlled opponent has got just as much skill, and more, to put you through the ground if you don't utilize the blocking button enough.

This also brings the fact of human versus beast...when in beast form, you'll find that your hits do more damage against a 'human' opponent, this is very much true, and this shows a sort of in-game physics that most fighters don't have. But, the downfall to this is, every time you make an attack in your beast form, it takes away from the Beast gauge in the lower corner of the screen...when you get hit, that also takes away that beast energy, before dropping you back into your human form.

The game offers you several different types of play to choose from, a story mode, arcade mode, versus mode, and a training mode...all of these round out a good fighting game, giving you several types to choose from, and to play with. A nice added touch to an already killer game.

-Overall 8/10-

While the game is near perfect, it has stiff competition in the likes of Tekken, Soul Caliber, Soul Blade {or Edge if you play it in the arcades} and various other 3-Dimensional fighters. Giving you good control, and various combination moves, and several good visual qualities along with an awesome sound track, it fends off these other powerhouses in it's own right.

Bloody Roar has many of the fighting game quailities that you would look for in a solid weekend rental, or even a video game purchase from your local gaming store...don't be put off by the speed of the game, nor put off because it doesn't have a Namco logo stuck to it, it can hold it's own in a fight.

You have many hours of good playing time with Bloody Roar, and alot of time spent on learning the finer movements of the game in terms of combinations and special moves..and there are several things to unlock as well. All in all, this rounds up to a pretty good fighting game, in an already oversaturated market.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/00, Updated 04/02/00