'You can turn into an animal!' they said, 'It's great fun!' they said, 'you'll be playing it for years to come!' they sa
Why so? Am I some ultra-modern casual gamer fanatic who can fail to see a games worth once it's been sitting on the shelf for longer than 12 months? Not at all. It's a very simple reason – aside from its admittedly rather interesting and clever unique selling point (again, the animals), Bloody Roar did next-to-nothing to distinguish itself from any other fighting game of the time. And as the years roll on, and I begin to sound more and more like I belong in a cosy residential home somewhere, unique selling points get very old, very quickly. So what does that actually leave a gamer with?
Well, you get your 8 characters, no more, no less (don't expect any unlockables), a handful of different stages, and as always, a variety of play modes, including practice and 2-player option. Fairly limited, isn't it? The actual controls and gameplay are all fairly decent, with each character having a list of their own unique combos and the ability to turn into their own 'animal'. Ahhh… we get onto the animals. Well, truth be told the ability to turn into a 'beast' as the game refers to them, is the strongest part of the gameplay. Tap the square button when the gauge is full to go into beast mode, and watch your character get suddenly that much more stronger, faster and agile. Keep the gauge up and you'll even be able to go into a special rage mode which, as you can probably guess, ups the ante that bit further.
All this talking of faster, stronger and upping the ante, however, may create some false illusions. Whilst there's no denying a beast in full rage mode is the game at it's fastest and most intense, even that feels a little sluggish in comparison to 99% of today's fighters. An older game feeling old is to be expected, of course, but even so, it is particularly noticeable when you're fighting in human form that the movements and controls feel far too cumbersome – even the much older street fighter titles don't feel this dated and plodding.
So what of the technical aspects? Well, I'm not going to go into how the graphics and music don't compare to today's fighters, to do so would be ridiculous and utterly irrelevant – if you're reading this review because you are contemplating getting an early PS1 release, you know it's going to look and sound pretty ugly in comparison to the Gears of War and Uncharted's of today.
Ultimately, this review may feel a little one-note, and some may say particularly harsh or unfair. I don't take any pleasure in giving a rather negative overall review to a game I've owned since it was released and have a lot of happy memories playing with friends and family. I do, however, have to remind myself that the purpose of this review above all, is to inform and aid anybody who may be considering buying the game, and unless you are an enormous beat-em-up obsessive or serial hater of all things Greenpeace and WWF, then you would probably be better off looking elsewhere to the likes of Tekken 3 etc. for your Psone kicks. If you do have all the Tekkens, Street Fighter's etc. and fancy something different, or happen upon Bloody Roar going for a steal though, then feel free to indulge – it's not dire any means, and is arguably worth it if only to try and spend time figuring out whether madames Fox and Mitsuko should really look that buff…