Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend

"Solid Kung Fu Action in this Sleeper Title."

Introduction
The life of Bruce Lee ended in 1973 but his legend still lives on thirty years after his death. To this date five games have been made but none have compared to his incredible style. This sixth game is the latest to try and live up to the name and legend that is Bruce Lee.

Gameplay/Control
Stripped down to the basics. Punch, Kick, Jump, Block each to its own respective buttons which, when smashed or in combination with the directional buttons make for some nice and easy combos. Once you get the hang of what combos work best you'll be knocking enemies off ledges, through doors, and into crates and other enemies. Along the way you'll also pick up nunchucks, wooden staves, and throwing knifes. With fluid fighting controls and entertaining fights, Bruce Lee Return of the Legend falls far too short in some areas. Not enough enemies (more than often you'll find yourself in rooms or hallways with one or zero guards), breakable doors and crates, and out of the 9 levels of beat-em up action you’ll find this bullet train ride crashing to a halt at the ''infiltration'' stages. These stages have you bypass enemies without being seen or engaging in combat, certainly no fun there.

Story
If you’re looking for a deep engaging story don’t bother looking here. This is classic 1970's Kung Fu movie. Hai Feng (played by the legendary Bruce Lee) hunts down the man who killed his master and along the way uncovers an international group of assassins, yet nothing will stand in Hai Feng's way . . . for REVENGE. After finishing the game you'll open up a Director's Cut mode for a slightly different ending.

Graphics/Sound
Nothing great or mentionable. You can unlock different colour outfits for Bruce Lee as you play, yet nothing that will jump out at you. Enemies are similar, there are only six types of bad guys and different colour for them so there's a variety of looks. Graphical detail is scaled down which may sound disappointing until the camera pans out for big fights, then you won't really care at all since you will not be able see the small detail if it was there before.

Play Time/Replay Value
About an 1 ½ hours to go through it once. With three modes, Easy, Normal, and Director's Cut there's about 4 ½ hours of game time here, and a fourth Time Trial mode.

Final Recommendation
Rent
Bruce Lee Return of the Legend could have been much, much better, but sadly it's only good for a quick beat-em up. Though I wouldn't mind seeing an improved sequel in the future.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/04