The Bouncer showcases wonderful graphics, but is only satisfying on a quiet night in.

User Rating: 7.8 | The Bouncer PS2
With my deep menacing voice, ladies and gentlemen, sarcastic brats, I present to you the Bouncer. A terribly received Squaresoft creation that's often been labelled as one of the worst PS2 games ever. Lets be honest here, The Bouncer never stood a chance. That it was a break away from a successful genre Square helped largely put on the map immediately brought out the cynicism in the media. The Bouncer may well be a passable game, but in Square standards that isn't good enough. Part of the problem seems to be that people in general expected the Bouncer to be as good as Final Fantasy - but it isn't an RPG, so that's quite unfair.

The Bouncer is a hybrid fighting/adventure game in the vein of old arcade classics, revolving around three main club bouncers in a typical Double Dragon-esque plot; Sion Barzahd, an inward teenager, undercover agent Kou Leifoh and Volt Kruegor, a muscular ex-agent of a dangerous organisation. During a quiet night at the bar, a handful of Mikado ninjas break into Sion's home before making way to the bar where they assault the bouncers and kidnap Dominique. Naturally, the three join forces and set off to rescue her. This sets up a confrontation between the bouncers and Mikado forces as they infiltrate their headquarters in search of their friend.

Depending on what character you use for each level, there are three different viewpoints to the story which set up different plot development right to the ending. True to Square fashion, all of the characters are typically interesting, notably the antagonists. What the developers do really well is take the traditional elements of a Double Dragon and infuse them with a fairly sophisticated plot for much more depth.

You'll progress to Mikado through levels littered with enemies, advancing to the next stage after pulverising them all. Based on your kills, you are awarded experience points that can be used to increase your stats in order to make you stronger and to purchase special moves with these points. Since the three Bouncers fight together, whoever you choose will need to make sure they get the kill for the points, or else the others take the credit.

When it comes to the actual brawling, the flaws are heartbreaking. Punching an enemy has real weight on the controller, giving this strange sense of realism, much as in the way you can be knocked to the ground yourself. The problem? The controls are slow and way too heavy that everything becomes unbearably sluggish. And when you're (unsuccessfully) trying to tank some of the bosses, that can be a real kick in the arse. It's such a pity that on one hand The Bouncer has the right feel of a good punch up (stunning choreography and moves) and on the other suffers from Tomb Raider syndrome.

Another fatal flaw is that if you happen to be standing next to a Bouncer that is knocked to the floor, you'll be taken down with him. When a barrage of enemies surround you, this can be extremely annoying. The execution of moves is also slow and frustrating, even worse when you try to maneuover from an attack into defense, or even move out of the way to avoid being hit. These stipulations aside, levels tend to be repetitive, with only around two of them posing any threat.

After completing the Story mode, there's the VS and Survival mode to keep you occupied. In the VS mode, you have the chance to play all of the characters in battle with each other. This is mild fun, as all characters have different styles of fighting, and you can have up to four of them brawling with each other. In the Survival mode, the difficulty is increased as you choose any character to go into a succession of battles with no health replenish as you complete each level.

Graphically, The Bouncer is beautiful prophecy of what's to come from the PS2. Lush, moody colours fit the 3D polygons beautifully well; the characters benefit the most from the PS2's power - emotionally enhanced facial expressions, fluid animation, interesting designs such as Sion's skater look to Echidna's avant-garde fashion. The FMV is also quite breathtaking and given the amount of cutscenes that are thrown at the gamer, perhaps the Bouncer would have made a more entertaining animated film. Whatever you think of the Bouncer's gameplay, the graphics are unarguably spotless.

Musically the soundtrack comprises of one battle theme to another, upping the adrenaline stakes somewhat. Composed by Takahito Eguchi and Noriko Matsueda, in my opinion it's a mixed bag. There's some generic themes used for the lighter set moments in the game, including an excruciating R&B ballad, "Love Is The Gift" by a woman who hits some very, very high notes on this song. To be honest, and I know it's a redundant point, the song doesn't fit the game's content. The voice duties for the characters are subpar, but a little wooden in places. You may want to hit the mute button whenever the squeaky Dominique has something to say, too...

It ain't no masterpiece, and therein lies the problem with The Bouncer. If you're a serious devotee of Square, then you're most likely walking into this with high hopes for a grand adventure and, yes, you will be disappointed. The Bouncer is flawed and shortlived, but for the time you spend with it it's actually not a bad game to mess around with for a couple of hours. I played this game while eating Chinese food and downing wine with an old friend during a quiet night in, and I was able to complete the game by the time he left, leaving us both entertained. I don't think I can say the same about Final Fantasy, no matter how awesome we all say it is.