Project Justice Hands-On

After two years, Capcom is finally ready to release Project Justice, the Dreamcast sequel to the PlayStation fighter Rival Schools. Like its predecessor, Project Justice follows the exploits of young, up-and-coming fighters from rival high schools who are attempting to climb to the top of a secret fighting league.

Anime-inspired schoolgirls, school administrators, and the stereotypical high school crowd such as jocks, nerds, and punks are all included in the 30 available fighters. Each of the six schools is represented by one of these cliques, and each of their fighting styles vary accordingly. The jock school has fighters who attack with sporting equipment, while the intellectual school uses more-distinguished weapons, like violins. Returning from the original Rival Schools are all the teenaged brawlers, along with several new ones.

The main mode in Project Justice is the tag-team story mode. After choosing a fighter from one of the six schools, you begin your quest in solving the riddle of violence that is plaguing the local institutions of learning. After choosing your base fighter, the computer chooses a second one from the same school. A third fighter joins your clan after you win the first bout. After your first fighter is defeated, you must choose from one of your remaining fighters for the next round. While three fighters are on your side for each bout, they do not simply fight one after the other. It's important to call upon the other fighters waiting in the wings to perform special attacks. The party-up technique calls in all three fighters at once for a group beat-down. One attack lets all three fighters join in a loop to roll over opponents while others consist of all three working over the competition in some good, old-fashioned fisticuffs. There is also a team-up attack that lets two of your fighters work in tandem for a variety of attacks, including double-team juggles and healing maneuvers. If you're on the receiving end of the team-up attack, one of your fighters may jump in and attempt to break it up by winning a short one-on-one throw-down in which the first hit wins. As you progress through the story mode, anime stills with text bubbles are shown to advance the plot.

Project Justice also includes a tournament mode, versus mode, and league mode, as well as training and network compatibility. The tournament mode lets eight teams enter a single-elimination tournament, which is perfect for parties; the league battle mode, on the other hand, lets you choose a team and build a record of wins and losses. The training mode allows you the luxury of practicing all the moves and team-ups against a single opponent with no resistance - it comes complete with a moves list to help you along. Our copy of Project Justice does not have a functioning network mode, and it's still unclear whether online battles or just a scoreboard for bragging rights will be included. The board game and character edit mode, which were present in previous versions of Project Justice, are absent in this most recent burn, so it's unlikely that they will be included in the final version.

While falling short of the excellence achieved in Soul Calibur, Project Justice still has some incredible 3D graphics. Discarding the grave presentation of Soul Calibur, Project Justice instead attempts to create a comedic feel. Many of the fighters carry amusing weapons into battle, and these weapons may be used for both attack and defense. One female fighter uses a camera as a blinding attack or to humiliate her opponent with snap shots during compromising situations. Another uses a tennis racquet to whack opponents with or to pelt them with tennis balls. Yet another, dressed in swim fins, uses them to paddle through the air for high-flying attacks. The animations are fast and smooth, which results in a convincing perception of impact. Everything, including character-swapping, goes off without a hitch. The visual flair of each attack is accentuated by swooping camera angles that switch at the drop of a hat. Each of the ten stages is completely 3D, and each ranges from rooftop environments to dockside settings. Interaction with the stages is kept to a minimum, but they are piled with detail and motion. Large trains chug by, and massive portions of a stadium stage rotate.

The sound is just what you would expect. There are plenty of taunts, and the punches sound like a baseball bat being struck against a slab of meat. The harmonica-riddled music seems slightly out of place, and there are only a few different songs included in our version of Project Justice. There are some nice ambient sound effects specific to each level, and this helps to set the mood.

With its quirky story mode, unique battle system, interesting fighters, and over-the-top attacks, Project Justice is looking like yet another excellent Capcom fighting game. Between the stockpile of gameplay modes, healthy selection of fighters, and robust amount of moves to perform, Project Justice is a fighter with a great deal of staying power. Currently scheduled for release early next year, keep your browser pointed to this gamespace for future updates.