Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Bloody Roar 3

Written by Eftal Sogukoglu on August 08, 2001

Full Review: Blood, guts, and gore!

In the fighting game world, there is one simple move ? innovate or obliterate. Tekken blows the competition with liquid smooth game play and realistic martial arts imitation. Dead or Alive 2 (DOA2) has?well?let's say dangling happiness. Soul Calibur takes Tekken 3 style fighting and adds weaponry. Bloody Roar 3 (BR3), on the other hand, takes aspects from 3d games and innovates using a fantasy theme based on transmutation.

Indeed, without the monster-morphing theme, BR3 plays much like DOA2. Unlike Tekken, there are only 3 attack buttons, and the third one is used while morphed. Combos are executed using these 3 buttons and the directional pad. In other words, pressing punch 4 times can result in different combos based on which direction was pressed during one of the consecutive punches. This method is also used in other games, but combo mechanism is completely based on this in DOA2 and BR3.

This style takes a bit of time to get used to, but once mastered its better than button mashing. The most innovative aspect of BR3 is each character's ability to morph into a bestial form. A blue energy bar is filled when a person is hit or performs an attack, and once its full its color changes to yellow and it starts filling again. This yellow energy bar is your beast health. You can morph into your bestial form anytime you have a yellow energy bar, however your beast energy will decrease when you are hit. Hence, it is better to maximize the energy bar before morphing, unless you are right at the end of the second round.

Each character turns into a unique beast ? moles, wolves, tigers, bats, and even a funky-butt rabbit are available. In your beast form, your attacks become deadlier and you take less damage. Moreover, your character will heal to a limited extent. To cut this short, in the beast form Mike Tyson will call you ?uncle'. Thus, it is crucial to turn into a beast at the right times. A character that has almost nil health can morph into a beast with full energy bar and win the entire round.

For a 3d fighting game, BR3 does well in terms of graphics and sound. Although, I would not say its better than DOA2 or Tekken Tag. The environments are neat though, as there seem to be animated creatures flying about and enhancing the theme of the game. Super combos are done in a flash, and the combo counter will skyrocket when you perform a super-beast move blowing away your TV. This game is based on super-speed, and endless combos. In many ways, you can consider it a 3D version of Street Fighter vs. Xmen.

As in all fighting games, the story line here is just downright pathetic. When you start the arcade version, a picture of your character will be displayed along with a bunch of text that may or may not make sense grammatically or logically. Than, you beat the entire game and a different picture (or couple of different pictures) will be displayed again, along with some text conveying a dialog. I have yet to make sense of it all.