Bloody Roar 4

Ever wondered what an Altered Beast fighting game would be like? Keep wondering, and in the meantime here's something not far off...

	Version PS2	Developer Hudson	Publisher Konami	Genre Fighting

By Joseph Jackson

It was interesting to see the latest installment of the Bloody Roar series under the Konami umbrella, as this hyper beast fighting franchise has seen its fair share of different publishing arms and distribution channels since the release of the arcade original in 1997.

Known as Beastorizer in the arcades, the original Bloody Roar broke new ground in the fighting game genre by introducing some very unique gameplay features that enabled its characters to morph into powerful beasts during play and pummel each other senseless while engaged in some real savage battles. The original contained a nice selection of characters to choose from, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Interestingly enough when Beastorizer made the trip to the PSone, it did so without its name intact and became known as Bloody Roar. Regardless of that, Beastorizer was a very fun 3D fighting game that pits a cast of humanoid characters against each other within the confines of interactive 3D arenas. But unlike all other fighting games, the key element of Beastorizer's gameplay was the ability to morph into powerful beasts, giving them combatants the edge during battle.

The series has seen its ups and downs, due to some hurtful additions and subtractions to the character roster, as well as its 'tweaked' gameplay engine. Fortunately the one thing that has remained a staple of the series is the ability to unleash the beasts lying within each of its characters.

We've been getting some hands-on with Hudson Soft's metamorphic beast beat-'em-up, and from our initial playtest we can say that Konami is set to publish quite a solid fighting game with Bloody Roar 4.

The background story of Bloody Roar 4 is still unknown, the reasons for the characters fighting each other remains a mystery for now, but when finally released the game will sport a Dramatic Story mode for each fighter to help shed some light on their motivations.

Playing through most of the game's single player bouts revealed a fighting game that controlled well and played quite solidly. It's no Virtua Fighter or Soul Claibur, but then again what comes close? Bloody Roar 4 provides its own unique style of play to keep it in its own class.

The 3D fighting system offers a variety of offensive and defensive fighting moves such as blocks, counters, aerial juggles and chain combos. There will be 17 fighters to choose from, including 3 new characters. There are also 9 modes of play which include the Arcade mode and Character development mode where players can customize the moves of their characters to fit almost any style.

During fights, players will be able to rack up "ability points" which can be used to improve the abilities of their characters and even acquire their opponent's moves after defeating them.

From initial play, the gameplay is good, but wasn't what fighting game dreams are made of as it lacked that special something to really make it stand out. The game's difficulty was lacking in contrast to its predecessors; there's almost no waiting period between reverting back to human form and morphing back into a beast. That's one of the advantages previous Bloody Roar games had over Bloody Roar 4, the balanced gameplay. Whereas previous Bloody Roar games made you sweat before your beast meter completely refilled itself, enabling you to morph, Bloody Roar 4 practically hands it all to you on a platter.

Nevertheless, the gameplay is still solid and provided a modicum of fun even though it wasn't anywhere near as addicting or special as the original.

What had me personally miffed with the series after the original was the removal of the one character that made the original so highly enjoyable to me. A butch, masculine female character wearing overalls and could change into a powerful Boar-like animal, bull dozing her opponents from one side of the arenas to the other. She rocked.

It's that along with the slightly different perspectives of the sequels that has kept the original Beastorizer a personal favorite of the series. Still, that didn't stop us from deriving some enjoyment from Bloody Roar 4, and it certainly packs enough gameplay to compete against other fighting games.

Graphically, Bloody Roar 4 looks quite good. Even though the graphics aren't something to go screaming to the heavens for, they do a fine job of showcasing the large, well animated characters that look darker, bigger and meaner than ever before.

The character designs look cool for the most part, with some nice, detailed textures used on the characters and throughout the impressive environments. There are nine well rendered interactive levels sporting some sharp details and subtle but nice lighting effects used throughout the fights as the characters pummel each other into the ground.

Overall, while Bloody Roar 4 won't win any awards, the novelty of the hyper beast fighting aspects of the game should keep it in the limelight because of its uniqueness. Stay tuned to Kikizo for more on Beastoriz- err, Bloody Roar 4 as the game nears its November release.