The Bouncer feels like an action movie in both gameplay and length, but nothing less a worthwhile experience.
User Rating: 7.5 | The Bouncer PS2
The Bouncer was a launch game for the PS2, and I remember my first time playing it. The graphics are truly great, even now they do not fail to impress, but the gameplay can be better. Basically, all the gameplay consists of are battle sequences. You can control one of three characters, (Sion, Volt or Kou) throughout any of these battles. I like that, the fact that you can basically choose which one of these three characters you want to be the main character. This game feels and plays out like an action movie. The story gets unfolded throughout the game, and each character you play as reveals more about the story. One thing I liked the idea of, but could have been a lot better, were flashback conversations during loading screens. Each character has different ones, but the thing is, they are up there for such a short time. Some have more than a paragraph of dialog but breeze by in less than ten seconds. Not a major flaw, but just something I feel like I should point out. The battles can be repetitive, but they are good for a PS2 generation beat-'em-up. Adding some RPG elements make it better too. I think a big way they could have made this game better, is making it longer. I took my sweet time and completed the game in under an hour in a half, and when I tried to beat it fast, under an hour. There isn't a difficulty setting, so re-trying doesn't have any replay value unless you use a different character, which even in that case, repeats many of the same battles. This game really felt like an action movie, and played out as one, in both gameplay and length. It was a worthwhile experience, but it could have been a lot better if there was some more.
