Bloody Roar is actually a very average style fighting game. You have 10 characters to choose from, one boss to battle against, and a button scheme that even Forest Gump could win with. The one thing that sets this fighting game apart from all the rest is the ability to morph into an alter beast ego of your character. Werewolves, Giant moles, Humanoid rabbits; you name it, it's in here. The character designs leave something to be desired (you really don't care who you pick, you just pick them because they kick ass), but the gameplay and "beast mode" make up for it ten fold!

Bloody Roar stars a lame cast of 10 people who have the ability to morph, or "change" into humanoid animal counterparts. The real bread and butter are their animal counterparts, which are just awesome to behold. Not to mention you get a lot more moves, power, and combos when you change. You can change into a beast anytime, anywhere when your beast meter is filled. As long as your beast meter is full (you lose it by getting hit), you can stay as a beast. As soon as you get knocked out of beast mode, you better start using skills boy. When you are a beast, the beast change button becomes a new attack button all it's own. Allowing you to use more powerful moves. When in beast mode, if you have enough beast meter, you can go into rave mode. Your moves become faster, stronger, and you become a little more susceptible to attack. Your lag time behind certain, very powerful moves becomes null and you can use the same shoulder crushing smash over and over into one long, strung up combo! Yay! If you're unfortunate to get caught with this attack, you'll be ready to crack the disc (don't though). It gets really frustrating when someone pulls this over and over. You'll quickly have to learn how to dodge, or use something to counter it.

The controls are the easiest part of Bloody Roar to figure out. Staying alive longer than 5 seconds is the hard part. You only have to worry about four buttons. Two attacks (kick and punch), beast change button (becomes and attack as I've stated before), and Rave mode button. The US version has another nice little add-on added to it. In the option menu you can turn on "strafe" buttons which allow you to dodge to the sides, and around to the back of your opponent. This adds a ton of depth to the game, and every attack from behind keeps you yelling cheese until the early parts of the morning. Instead of it being a VF, or Tekken clone, you now have the 3D you've always wanted. Why didn't someone think of game play like this before?!?

The controls are the easiest part of Bloody Roar to figure out. Staying alive longer than 5 seconds is the hard part. You only have to worry about four buttons. Two attacks (kick and punch), beast change button (becomes and attack as I've stated before), and Rave mode button. The US version has another nice little add-on added to it. In the option menu you can turn on "strafe" buttons which allow you to dodge to the sides, and around to the back of your opponent. This adds a ton of depth to the game, and every attack from behind keeps you yelling cheese until the early parts of the morning. Instead of it being a VF, or Tekken clone, you now have the 3D you've always wanted. Why didn't someone think of game play like this before!???)

The animation and play control in Bloody Roar are silky smooth. Combos string out almost as well as they do in Tekken, or Virtua Fighter. The game runs about 200 miles per hour faster than the other two, but the controls still hold up. You get a lot of Jackie Chan style action in this. BR is basically the best parts of Tekken and Fighting Vipers. Back to block, lengthy combos, simple play control, and boxed in arenas to smack and juggle your opponents against. It's very easy to pull off "auto combos" in Bloody Roar; combos being done by pressing only one button over and over. Keep doing that over and over. When you start mixing those auto combos, you get devastating combos that drive people mad. Go into Rave mode and put about 3 different self-thought up combos together! Yes, the game is that insane. Try a lengthy combo as a human, turn into a beast and find out that you can do the same combo, but add onto it. Some combos in Beast mode will end a round instantly. It's fun, but it's very frustrating to whoever gets hit and some are impossible to find ways around. You also can launch the other player into the air with a move and combo them over and over until they die. You can land from launch moves, but if you don't know how, kiss your ass goodbye. Luckily the game is fun enough to keep you coming back for more so that you learn to get around this.

Bloody Roar is probably the best "original" fighting game I've seen in a long time. We have things like Cardinal Syn (what I've played so far isn't so good), and Toshinden (which was fun, but unbalanced and cheap). Bloody Roar really does most everything right. The only real gripe is the characters; they really are lame. The story is almost none existent. When you do hear about it, you wish you hadn't. It really doesn't matter how bad these factors are, though. The rest of the game just rules! Of all of the "no name" fighters coming out this year, this one gets my vote right off. Ok Dead or Alive, Tekken 3, let's see what you got!

· · · Vincent