Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: The Bouncer

Written by Adam Woolcott on June 26, 2001

Full Review: Kick, Punch, (Kick, Punch) it's all in the miЕ..ZZZzz..

When the PlayStation 2 was first unveiled to the world in 1999, one of the technical demos on display was a Squaresoft project called Bouncer. It promised to reinvigorate the slowly disappearing genre of beat Сem ups that had gone by the wayside in the 32-bit era. Complete with environments that were fully interactive, allowing the player to use other means besides their fists to get the job done.

When Square decided to make Bouncer into a real PS2 game, the hype escalated Ц since it's Square, it's gotta rock, right? There was little debate that the game looked amazing, and with the RPG-ish battle system in place to add some spice, it looked to be a surefire hit, and definitely the game to return the beat Сem up back to prominence.

However, something bad happened along the way Ц the darn thing didn't live up to the hype. Unfortunately for Square and Dreamfactory, that hype got so huge that there wasn't any way possible to live up to it.

What results is a mediocre, but not a terrible, game. It's not crap, yet it's also not a triple A title either. It's a middle of the road mindless fighter that's as shallow and as short as a kiddie pool, complete with a couple diversions tacked on to add a little replayability to it. It's definitely not as bad as anything Army Men, but it's still no Onimusha. It's just playable (barely), nothing more or less.

Bouncer has a total of three different modes of play Ц the Story mode, which is the main course, a Battle mode for multiplayer mode acting like a full fledged fighting game, and the Survival mode, which is what it says. None of the modes are particularly deep, and actually seem tacked on, save for the Story mode.

The Story mode is the tale of Sion, Kou, and Volt, 3 bouncers (hence the name of the game), at a bar called Fate. A young girl named Dominique begins to hang out at the bar, growing close to Sion especially. However, one night, she gets kidnapped by the Mikado Group, yet another in the line of do-gooders on the outside, miserable bastards on the inside, something that's become as clichщ as saving a princess. Actually, in a way it's an evil offspring of both heinous plotlines. The whole thing deteriorates from there, breaking the story into the 3 bouncers, who all have a mysterious past that is unraveled throughout.

While the story is interesting somewhat, despite the tired plot, if only because of the somewhat surprising (but not shocking or unpredictable) twists and turns. The problem is, there's too much story and not enough fighting! If you take the time to watch the cutscenes, chances are you'll beat the game within 90 minutes. If you skip them, you'll be done in less than 30. Sure, to see the whole story you'll have to beat it with all 3 characters, so say it takes 4 and a half hours to see it all. Then you may want to beat it again and again to max out your characters (more on that in a sec).

The problem is, the game fundamentally stays the same Ц you fight the same characters, in the same situations; the only difference is the cutscenes are different in between. That's pretty much the theme here; fight, watch long cutscene, fight, watch long cutscene, rinse & repeat. It wouldn't be a big deal if there was more fighting perhaps, but there just isn't enough actual gameplay it seems. I don't mind short games, but they should be more like Onimusha, which had umpteen more times gameplay than Bouncer, despite being only a little bit longer to beat. The difference is, unlike Onimusha, you don't do any exploring, because it's completely linear at all times, thus reducing the introductory, don't know where to go, gameplay element.

The only time it's majorly different is when the bouncers get split up in the Mikado Building and have to fend for themselves. Kou's game is especially entertaining, one of the few bright spots in the game that are redeeming. Being sneaky is fun (spoiler free!!). Besides that, it's the same thing again and again and again. And that's no good.

What's worse is the complete lack of diversity in enemies Ц I can count the types on my hands. There's the dummy Mikado Forces guys, the Rent-A-Cops (as they are called by Sion), Dogs, and a couple robot things. Besides that, there ain't much. After you beat the crap out of the red-jacketed cops for the millionth time, you'll probably be as bored as I was after awhile.

However, Bouncer's Bouncer Point system is promising. When you fight, and defeat your enemies, you get a handful of BP, which is used in-between fighting stages to upgrade your character with more power & stamina, or to acquire extra moves, which get more elaborate with the more points you have. This is a solid idea, but the CPU makes it tough to get down right. See, when you're fighting with your bouncer buddies, they have this habit of ripping off your points, like scavengers. Watch in disgust as you get a baddie down to their last hit, and your УbuddyФ goes in and thwacks them down for you, stealing your BP. Then get used to it the whole game. It gets better when you max out your character, but when the other guys are stronger than you, it's tough to get those BP. When the AI that's supposed to help you starts cheating you worse than Echidna with that Eddy Gordo garbage, it's time to get concerned.

There is one small redeeming quality about the game at times Ц it CAN be fun as a mindless diversion. Want to beat people up? Cool. It can be fun at first, through the first couple tries, but after a couple runs through it's already shelved.

Oh, and those interactive backgrounds? Gone. Square didn't go forward with it for some reason, thereby ruining a lot of the appeal the hype generated. Why is unknown, but it definitely was a poor decision.

As for the rest of the tacked on modes Ц well there isn't a lot to discuss. The Versus mode is a small diversion for multiplayer, with up to a 4 player battle royal mode, which requires a multitap AND PS2 controllers only, due to the pressure sensitive controls that PS2 only can lay claim to, and PSOne controllers cannot. It's somewhat entertaining, but you'll probably be hitting on Tekken Tag Tournament once the complete lack of depth wears you out after 3 or 4 plays. Sure, you can use all the maxed out characters and the unlocked characters you earn in Story mode, but that's a short-lived novelty.

The same can be said about Survival. Basically, all it is happens to be one of the main characters from the game, besides the bouncers, fights in a handful of levels, beating up the drones that barely put up a fight. There is a small reward for beating Survival, but on the whole it's a repetitive punch, kick, punch, blah affair.

Why is it so boring and lacking depth? The lack of moves and strategy is one thing. In any mode, you can probably beat the game using one or two moves; more specifically the kick and punch button. There is just no technique to it. Hitting punch, punch, punch until the enemy goes down is exceptionally boring in long sittings. Yes, gaining new moves with BP helps, but the problem is, you still can just use the same combo over and over, and never use the new moves. Perhaps what Bouncer needs is an adapting CPU, that sees the moves you can do, and adjusts to them, forcing more effort upon the player. And in multiplayer, when everyone is just punching and kicking like a Tekken newbie, you know something is wrong. Technique is vitally important in a fighting game, Bouncer has no technique.

The aesthetic upside is the mostly incredible graphics. However, they aren't as great as you'd think. Square used a strange blurry effect for anti-aliasing, and it can be kind of annoying after a while. It's kind of like watching a dream sequence from a movie or something to that extent. Where Bouncer shines graphically is the character animations. Moving hair, eyes, and mouths, and some very realistic animations are the order, and look great. The backgrounds, save the blur, are very nice looking and detailed as well, and really draw you into the game at times. But, graphics don't make a game good Ц it's got to have pretty gameplay to compliment the pretty graphics. This isn't the case with Bouncer, unfortunately.

Sound is another Bouncer plus Ц the techno soundtrack isn't too bad, even though it's the same thing over and over again, with one main theme per character for the most part. The boss fights have their own beats, but besides that, there isn't a lot to be had.

The voices, though, are pretty solid Ц rarely cheesy (save Dominique), and mostly solid, Bouncer lives up to the УmovieФ end of things, with some good acting.

The sound effects are sparse and repetitive though, with the same grunts & groan the whole time. But that's common in any games really, so it's not a big deal.