Bloody Roar Extreme
Score: 50% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Konami Developer: Hudson Soft Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Fighting
Graphics & Sound: Fans of the 'old' Bloody Roar games can rest assured that nothing has really changed from the game's original form. I mean this in a completely literal sense since nothing has changed in the game from its previous incarnations, making Bloody Roar the next generation console equivalent of the Street Fighter II series. Bloody Roar: Extreme is an enhanced port of Bloody Roar: Primal Fury on the GameCube, which was an enhanced port of Bloody Roar III on the PS2. They may all have different names, but it's the same old ball game in the end. Visually, Bloody Roar Extreme isn't very impressive. The character designs are neat, but have an almost 'haven't we seen this before' (which we have) feel. The character models themselves are also nice to look at, but it's fairly obvious that they weren't built with the Xbox in mind. Arenas try to spice things up a bit by including breakable walls and objects, but it's just not enough. About the coolest things in the game's entire graphical package are the special effects, especially when it comes to lighting and special moves. The beast transformations are also neat to watch, but are nothing outstanding. Sound is just as abysmal, featuring bland music and terribly lip-synced dialog. It's also fun to note that even though characters may speak during the game, they all become mutes during cinemas.
Gameplay: Among the 'improvements' to Bloody Roar: Extreme is a new intro movie. Instead of the animated sequence found at the beginning of the GameCube version, the game now features a newer, 'hipper' CG-animated sequence. Regardless of this change, it should be noted that this new sequence does nothing to further the game's story, and can feel like a 'hey -- look what I can do' sequence. The lack of a coherent story is something that has always stuck in my craw about fighting games, and it doesn't look like things will get better anytime soon. Sure, Barbarian had a great Story mode, but look at how the rest of the game turned out. The same goes for games with great fighting engines. Whether it's the random quotes found between matches in any of the Dead or Alive games ('You are my brother? Now we must fight!'), or the 'I can choose 50 random words out of a dictionary and have them make more sense' endings in the Versus series of games (ie: Street Fighter vs Marvel, Capcom vs Marvel, Street Fighter vs the cast of Friends), story and a good fighting game seem destined to never meet. Sadly, Bloody Roar Extreme provides neither. The play modes found in Bloody Roar: Extreme are the same, familiar set of old stand-bys found in nearly every other fighting game on the market. These, of course, include Arcade, Versus, Team Battle, Survival, Time Attack and Training. For the most part, all of the modes are played just how they sound. Arcade has you fighting your way through about 14 different matches before you face the big, bad-ass at the end, Versus allows you to take on your friends, and so on. There's really nothing here to spice up the formula, which leads to an incredibly boring game. I was especially disappointed in the Team Battle option since it reverts to the old 'wait-in-line' approach, rather than the more current 'tag' mode where you can call new fighters in to save your ass during matches. As you complete the game (which is really no chore at all), you'll be able to unlock a variety of extras. These run the gamut from hidden characters (only one of which is exclusive to this version) to fighting game standards like Hyper Fighting mode and big head codes. Zzzzz.
Difficulty: For whatever reason, Bloody Roar: Extreme's AI is completely erratic and rarely fights the same way twice. One round the AI may maul the hell out of you and make you cry for mercy, only to come back in the second round and take a dive. This makes it really hard to gauge anything in the game since you really don't know which AI you're going to face in any given round.
Game Mechanics: Players who were raised on fighting games like Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter will find themselves easily mastering Bloody Roar: Extreme's control scheme. The same can be said for just about anyone since the game is about as basic as they come. The setup is very easy to pick up on your first try, which is good, but it lacks the depth that makes fighting games fun to play. The layout is straightforward, and features a single button for kick, punch and block. A fourth button is available and allows you to activate your 'Beast Form', and the shoulder buttons allow you sidestep. Simplicity is always a good thing, but this won't appeal to hardcore fighting fans, and doesn't lend itself to giving the game lasting replay ability. Once you complete the game, which can be done with all of the characters over the course of a weekend, there's little else to play the game for other than unlocking the bland extras. In the end, the only word that comes to mind when I think about Bloody Roar is 'meh'. Though the game's graphics may look next-generation, the overall style and feel of the game feels like something akin to older fighters. The game's lack of depth, combined with an AI that can only be described as bipolar, makes this one just another game in a genre that has come to expect more.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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