reviews

This Beast is No Burden
The graphics are the definite centerpiece of this game, from the stunning character development to the interactive and intricate backgrounds (in one arena, the air is so cold that you see the puffs of air rise from each breath). Each level is destructible, with walls that disintegrate after repeated damage, and floors that fall out from under you. This game even does a great job with the special moves and hyper modes, where fighters change into their beast form and slaughter the competition with animalistic fury. It’s a brutal and bloody game that’s so much fun that you easily stay with it for hours.

The controls augment the graphics with an ease that makes the game infinitely more playable. The pick-up-and-play controls (one button for punch, one for kick, and a beast change button) do a good job of fooling newbies into the arena – pros will find that the game has a rich and variable combo system that requires plenty of practice and patience to master completely (read the manual and you’ll understand what we mean when you see the combo ladder for each character). As with any good fighting game, the skill level of your opponent will definitely determine the outcome of the match, so two newbies will battle for hours by furiously pressing buttons – two pros will dance around the arena awaiting opportunity and miscalculation for their win.

Soothing the Savage
The game’s one minor weakness is the voice over for the various characters. They are so lame and ridiculous that they make you cringe – and then make you laugh outright each time you hear them. One character spews, “Don’t tell my mommy, okay”, while another says, “You’re lucky there’s no full moon”. An option to hear the original Japanese would have been a nice addition. Besides the voice, however, the rest of the game remains crystal clear, with resounding slaps, punches, thuds, and groans. The sound effects on the super moves will split an eardrum, and the music remains in the background where it should be.

Bloody Roar 3 brings your favorite animal fighters into the next-generation of video gaming, and it does so with style. But if you’re looking for lots of added new features and new additions, you’ll be disappointed. There’s even a couple of characters missing (Greg the Gorilla, Mitsuko the Boar), and unless they show up as hidden characters, that’s a loss that’s hard for fans of the series to accept. It’s almost a complete recreation of the second game, including most of the same combos and moves, but for those who haven’t tried Bloody Roar yet, this is the perfect version to start with. Bloody Roar 3 is a nice addition to any fighter’s library, and one that you’ll enjoy playing for hours on end. Lawrence Neves

Bloody Roar III
For Playstation 2
By BRKenikoFan (Tiger5913@juno.com)

Okay, I'll start off by saying I love the Bloody Roar game series, but the third installment was a disappointment. Bloody Roar I and II for Playstation were great, the only things I would've changed about those two were to add a little more romance into the stories, but that's another subject. I'm such a devoted BR fan that I bought a PS2 solely for the purpose of getting BRIII, but now that I have it, I'm glad that there are other PS2 games out there worth getting. Now, down to the hardcore review…

Gameplay ~ rating: 6/10
The gameplay in BRIII is below average. I mean, after you've seen BRI and II, it makes you wonder what happened to the producers of Hudson Soft when they were developing BRIII. It's not very hard to control the characters, although air combos are a mean thing in this game, and when you get knocked down to the floor, you stay down for a couple seconds, which could be bad for your health bar. Blocking is too easy, just push back or hold R2, and the down-down moves in BRII have to turn into R2+down+down in BRIII, which took a while for me to get used to. Actually, I'm still not used to it, because the player really doesn't think about holding down buttons and pushing two additional ones while the opponent is trying to cream her/him. I can button-mash, but I stick to mastering Uriko the Half-Beast because she's a combo-queen, and I don't do very well with non-combo characters. And even though I say that, my second best character is Kenji/Bakuryu the Mole. I'm a hypocrite, sue me. Characters with cheap techs that do hella damage such as Xion the Unborn and secret character number two Uranus the Chimera are hard to defeat if you don't think fast. Those two, along with secret character number one Kohryu have incredible speed, so I recommend using a character with rivaling (Kenji) or better speed (Uriko) when fighting against them.

Story ~ rating: 2/10
…Big disappointment. Two words that BRIII needs in which BRII fans will recognize: STORY MODE. Story Mode was the BEST feature in Bloody Roar II, in my opinion, and I keep going back to play BRII even nowadays because I enjoy reading the stories over. But in BRIII, all you get is a total of four pictures for each characters' stories, one beginning screenshot and three endings, and some crappy dialog. In BRII, there were 90+ pictures to unlock in the Art gallery, right? Heh, don't expect that kind of luxury in BRIII. I was not satisfied with any of the stories, although Yugo the Wolf's came close to being average in my book. I know that BR is a fighting game, but COME ON! Have some more romance! BRII had a lot of cute interaction between certain characters, and I was extremely distraught with the lack of that in BRIII. Hudson had better pull themselves together in BRIV.

Audio/Video ~ rating: 9/10
A strong point about BRIII: GRAPHICS. The graphics in this game are AWESOME, and one thing I can never get tired of seeing are the many different Beast Drives that can be performed in this game (Uriko with FOUR different Beast Drives, anyone?). I mean, there is a LOT of blood in Shenlong's new Beast Drive, and it looks amazingly real enough like the actual thing. Sadly though, when you stab someone with Kenji in beast form, you get about two squirts of blood, and that is it. I was like, "…WTF was that??" It's almost like watching water drip out of a faucet - lame. Bloody Roar shouldn't be called that if you don't even see much blood come out of a person after you STAB them in the GUT, then YANK out your claw and watch them fall to the ground. The music in this game is to be commended, although I was disappointed that there were only nine themes to match the stages. Basically, the graphics in BRIII rule, and they definitely deserve credit for that factor. I love the graphics, and viewing the opening intro is a MUST for all FMV-loving fans.

Replayability ~ rating: 4/10
Hmm… I think the only reason I would keep playing BRIII is to unlock all the gameplays, and God forbid it'll take me FOREVER to reach 100 Survival Wins… -.-0 For BRII, it was the stories that made me keep going back to play the game, but in BRIII, since the storyline is weak, it looks like I won't be playing BRIII very much… I don't like Survival very much, so unlocking the pictures and viewing the stories in Arcade Mode is probably all I'll be doing the next time I turn on my PS2 to play BRIII.

Bloody Roar factor: Beast Drives ~ rating: 11/10
I LOVE Hudson for this: MORE BEAST DRIVES! My favorite character, Uriko, has FOUR different Beast Drives, and that pleases me extremely. In BRII, I heard from a lot of players that she was weak, and here she is in BRIII, with the most Beast Drives out of all the characters, even the "almighty" Xion and Uranus. One of my favorite Beast Drives overall is Jane/Shina the Leopard's new one, where she thrashes and claws the stuffing out of her opponent. Another one is Kenji's new BD where he's performing those air strikes, and those leaves are flying all over the place. Hmm, interesting that he's a mole, 'cause he sure acts like a damn bird to me… Oh, and who wouldn't love Uriko's Beast Drive where she jumps on your head, scratches a bunch of times, then throws you up into the air, sprints and asks you, "Ready?" while kicking you into the wall? Love the new Beast Drives, just love 'em. Good job on that, Hudson.

Bloody Roar factor: Voices ~ rating: 3/10
And err, the voices… Yeah, I know this should probably belong in the Audio section, but I can rant on so long about the voices, that I figure it needs its own section. For most of the account, the voices for the characters of Bloody Roar III, SUCK. Battle cries are more annoying than ever, and if it weren't for the awesome arena music, I'd mute my television. Okay, I'll share my opinion on how I think each character's voices sound.

Yugo the Wolf - …My ears. My poor, poor ears. Listen to this guy yell "One, two! One, two!" a couple times, and I guarantee you'll want to throw something at him, or at least stuff his mouth with cotton.

Alice the Rabbit - One word: "Bam!" What. The. Hell. Is. That?!?! Is Alice auditioning for a spot in the next Flintstones movie or something?? She's really annoying because her battle cries are loud, and not to mention frequent.

Long the Tiger - Again, one word: "WAHOO!" My first reaction upon hearing that: O_O! Dear Lord, Long sounds very nice and husky while he's saying his victory quotes, but his in-battle sayings are damaging to the eardrums. After hearing him yell so wildly while combating, I've learned something from him: don't drink before fighting.

Uriko the Half-Beast - Awwww! I love Uriko's voice in BRIII! But one thing I despise is that ever chilling "Don't tell my mommy, okay?" quote. Shudder. What is she, 15, or 5? Gotta admit though, she sounds absolutely darling after she tries to back-flip, falls and lands on her face, then gets up and puts on that adorable pout on her face while saying, "Ggah…"

Bakuryu/Kenji the Mole - Uh… Kenji's supposed to be 15 in BRIII, but he SOUNDS like he's 30 years old. I'm dead serious. And not to mention, the quotes he says when he beats his opponent makes you wanna grind your teeth, because he is SO damn arrogant in BRIII. Sigh, I miss his BRII self…

Shina/Jane the Leopard - I like her voice, however, when she gets hit, she lets out this irritating moan, but that's probably the only thing I can find to complain about.

Busuzima the Chameleon - One thing to say: LMAO (Laughing My @$$ Off). He sounds absolutely HILARIOUS, and I laugh whenever I play his sound files in BRIII. His Voice Actor should be a definite keeper for BRIV, assuming that Busuzima's gonna be in that game, hehehe.

Jenny the Bat - Simply agitating. I like her BRII self better. Her battle cries make me cringe from the lameness, and she also sounds like she's high on crack or something. Well, I guess drugs COULD be an excuse for what Hudson's storywriter was on when he thought up the arcade thing for BRIII…

Stun/Stephen the Insect - It's rather hard to hear his voice in BRIII, so what I do hear of it, it's just moans and groans of pain after he gets hit, and I don't really have any positive or negative comments about them. They're just… there.

Gado/Alan the Lion - He sounds relatively the same from his BRII self. High-strung, very excited about fighting, and enthusiastic about his battle techs. Not much to say about him.

Shenlong the Tiger - Gah… Shenlong was definitely better in BRII. In BRIII, he sounds like a whiney little wuss, and I feel like slapping him everytime I battle against him. He doesn't sound evil like he did in BRII, which I adored, because he sounded SO sinister back then, and now, he's just a wimpy little complainer. Go back to high school, my dear fellow feline.

Xion the Unborn - Hmm, he sounds all right. Tough, cocky, arrogant, fits the role that he plays in BRIII as the conceited villain. And not to mention he actually sounds Swedish, like his nationality, so that's another point up in his favor. The only thing I would complain about is how Xion sounds when you do the foreword-foreword-X-X-X-X-X combo: a girl. He sounds like a girl. Disturbing.

Kohryu the Iron Mole - …He speaks Japanese. The hell would I know what he's saying. His battle cries sound pretty annoying though, but I'll just leave it at that.

Uranus the Chimera - LOUD. VERY loud. Need earplugs. Everytime you deliver a hard blow to her or knock her out, she screams like you threw her crashing straight through a window or something. God, someone get duct tape and slap it over her mouth, save everyone's hearing… Oh yeah, and she also speaks Japanese. Damn Sony for rushing Hudson Soft into releasing Bloody Roar III so early, otherwise the game would have been MUCH, much better if they had allowed more time to put effort into it…

Fighting game factor: Battle Arenas ~ rating: 9/10
Love them. I wish that the wall-breaking feature from BRI was back, but it's alright. My favorite arenas include Slum Street, Midnight City, and Silent Temple… BRII arenas and BRIII arenas are in a close-tie regarding which one is better… But since the graphics in BRIII are so damn good, you gotta love the arenas. All I want for BRIV is for everyone in the game to have their own arena, and my complaint was that there were only nine arenas in BRIII for fourteen characters. No sharing! Sharing is bad! Err… just kidding, heh heh heh… ^^0… More arenas for BRIV!

To buy or to rent?
Um… I've already bought the game, and since I AM a hardcore Bloody Roar fan, I won't return it. I do recommend this game to people who love a good fighting game, pure fighting, but if you're an RPG fan like me, and want a decent story to read (Bloody Roar II's Story Mode for example), then you're better off renting Bloody Roar III. I have mixed feelings about buying BRIII, on one hand, I love certain features on it, such as sitting down with a snack and watching CPU Battle, but I regret being disappointed with the so-called storyline in BRIII. Overall, get BRIII if you're a hardcore fighting game lover, and have fun beating the crap out of your opponent, while enjoying the amazing graphics of Bloody Roar III.