Bloody Roar 3 (PlayStation 2)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.5 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Miguel Lopez
• Reviewed on: 06/26/2001
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 06/25/2001
• Originally published on GameSpot: Bloody Roar 3 (PlayStation 2) Review

Harsh as it seems to say, the Bloody Roar series has always focused on style over substance. With its focus on fighting theatrics and half-man, half-beast designs, Eighting's breed of fighter seems content to gloss over things like technique and depth, delivering a visually dynamic, yet ultimately limited, experience. Bloody Roar 3 is the developer's latest, and it doesn't buck the series' legacy at all. The game is visually keen, and its pacing is marvelous, but its fighting system is remarkably slim, emphasizing one-button combos and nearly instant-kill supers. For what it's worth, newcomers will be able to get up to speed very quickly.

The Bloody Roar series, for those new to it, is about human warriors with the supernatural ability to assume the forms of beasts. Aside from the token werewolves, -lions, and -bats, the series features a handful of other less orthodox hybrids--in it, you'll find werechameleons, -moles, -bunnies, and even -robots (or "iron moles"). For its quirky, imaginative designs, the games deserve credit. Even its basic premise--fighters transforming into beasts and their fighting styles being altered--was definitely workable, the first time around. But after two iterations and roughly zero major alterations to the formula, the series is screaming for a change--a change that Bloody Roar 3 fails to deliver.

Bloody Roar 3's control scheme is pretty basic. There's one button for punching, and one for kicking, along with one that simulates the pressing of both simultaneously, for grabbing. There's also the beast-change button, which allows for metamorphosing once the rage meter is full. The shoulder buttons, finally, have right and left sidestepping commands mapped to them, allowing you to somewhat effectively circle or otherwise spatially flimflam your opponent. The controls are modified slightly once you're in beast mode--the button previously used to shape-shift allows you to execute specials and supers. As you've surely surmised, the control scheme is frightfully simple. And while that isn't necessarily negative in itself, the game's fighting system, sadly, in no way warrants anything more complex. Even its bare-bones control scheme, in fact, often seems squandered.

Bloody Roar 3--like its predecessors--is all about one-button 12-hit combos, resulting in spectacular, albeit canned, animations. If you keep pressing the punch or kick button long enough, depending on your character, you'll eventually start juggling your opponent, delivering massive amounts of damage. Do this in a corner, and the effects are devastating. Not that's it cheap, however--every single character can do this, turning most fights into a tug-of-war, of sorts, as both you and your opponent try to ease one another into your respective corners. The game's special moves were designed with a similar sensibility--they're basically all achieved by either full- or half-circle motions, forward or backward, along with punch or kick. When in beast mode, your character will gain access to a couple of extra supers, which serves to mix it up a bit, though not nearly enough; ideally, the beast mode should dramatically change your character's fighting style, resulting in not just an aesthetic shift in form, but also a tangible alteration in gameplay. As is, Bloody Roar 3's beast form merely brings with it more damaging attacks, a regenerating health bar, and access to a handful of exclusive special moves and, of course, the game-breaking supers.

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