
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Playstation 2 Genre Fighting Publisher Activision Developer Eighting ESRB T (Teen) Released Q1 2001

- Very nice character designs - Good animation

- Shallow gameplay - Annoying music - Bad AI - No debug mode - Uninteresting level design

Dead or Alive 3 (XBox) Review Tekken Tag Tournament (Playstation 2) Review
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Bloody Roar 3

Score: 6/10

Depth is a very important aspect in making a fighting game work. Without it the game can fall flat all to quickly under the deluge of mindless button-mashing that prevails. There needs to be a learning curve of some sort to add a sense of "Oh, so that's how you do that move, now to string it into a combo..." There are only prefabricated combos and a whole lot of button-mashing in Bloody Roar 3. It may look pretty, but that's not nearly enough to make this a worthwhile title.

The whole premise of being a human that can transform into a humanoid monster is back once more, which looks neat but doesn't really make for a huge reason to get the game on its own merits. There are about a dozen characters to choose from, some familiar and others new. Nonetheless the models look very nice, drawing upon raw sex-appeal with a tenacity comparable to that of the Dead or Alive series. The clothing billows and flows well in a comic book manner, at least for characters that have enough clothes and it's loose-fitting enough to billow in the wind. The animal forms too are very nice, but without the sex-appeal (that's a good thing). The way that their forms are mixed between man and beast looks very natural and flow together nicely. Unfortunately some of the creatures look more like people dressed in Halloween costumes than human/animal hybrids, it's bad enough to start to lean on the cheesy side. Level design is ho-hum as they're all levels that we've seen before with sewers, airstrips, city streets and whatnot, but while the details are there a lack of pop is still there. No wow factor. When the levels do take a shot at being different they just feel contrived. "Ooo, a dinosaur that's cool." Right. The visual quality of the game, which is still served up in large portions, is generally seen in the character design and the smooth animation. What hurts the graphics most in Bloody Roar 3 is the uninteresting level design, otherwise it's pretty snappy to look at.

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Music in Bloody Roar 3 is no where near as good as the visuals in the game. Riddled with cheesy metal guitar music with an 80s flare it is amazingly annoying. A word to the developers: Randy Rhodes styled wanker solos are dead, accept it. Sound effects are your typical mix of thumps, pows, blammos and such with some yells, screams, and shouts thrown in. Nothing new here, move along.

While the music is terrible, it's the gameplay that kills the title. The

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moves available to the characters are largely a series of different pre-arranged combos and old fashioned semi and quarter circled movements. On top of this there is only one punch button, one kick button, a throw button, and a button for transforming into the animal. It's very annoying to be limited so much in what you can do with the characters. Just repeatedly hitting one of the attack buttons causes a combo to take form more often than not cementing the brainless approach to fighting that infects Bloody Roar 3. While a simplified fighting scheme makes the title more inviting to newcomers to the genre the lack of depth makes the gameplay run out of steam in a hurry. We need those extra moves to prolong the enjoyment of the game. While the simple moves add instant gratification early on, after a few hours your left wanting more and start scrounging around for Soul Calibur, Capcom vs. SNK, or some other meatier fighting game alternative.

Fighting the AI of the computer controlled opponents in Bloody Roar 3 is often very annoying. The computer is very dependant on the stronger animal forms of the characters and will not waste time transforming into the beast and attempt to wear down your character. It's easy to deal with except on the highest difficulty settings and it is very predictable. On top of this the computer likes to use its super move any chance it gets which eats up a ton of energy and comes at all too inopportune moments. However, after all of this the computer character is all out of juice and then you just need to transform into an animal and lay it on the opponents for an easy victory. It's a very aggravating trip from frustration at the computer being unstoppable to being a pushover.

Probably the last minor qualm with this game is the lack of a debug mode. The Japanese edition of the game had this feature and allowed players to modify the position of any character in the game having them strike a pose. While it's understandable that Activision removed the feature from the North American version to keep young'uns from putting the already scantily clad characters in compromising positions, it's still a disappointment to see the debug mode gone.

When compared to all of the fighters out there like Soul Calibur, Tekken, and Capcom's cornucopia of fighting games, Bloody Roar 3 just doesn't stand up. If you're looking for a new game in this genre, keep on looking because this one isn't worth it.

- Mr. Nash

(July 26, 2001)