Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Black & Bruised

Written by Tony Kennetz on March 04, 2003

Full Review: So what's not to love about a game that goes all out to do what the game that defined Уgoing all outФ means? A lot.

Old school gamers everywhere know what game Black & Bruised was actively trying to match. That title was, of course, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!. Early reports from the developer and publisher lead to some type of a frenzy over this game and how it might be the second coming of the extreme boxing genre. The question was, how do you successfully make a game that can live up to the legacy of its predecessor? The answer was to simply take what worked in Punch-Out! and give it a twenty-first century make over. This is no small task, and despite the noble effort on developer Digital Fiction's part, Black & Bruised manages to do little more than get through the opening rounds.

If this title had only one main flaw, it had it in the wrong area: the gameplay. The controls are play a large part in this overly underwhelming attempt at creating any type of depth. Triangle and circle control you right arm, while square and X control the left side. You will find your expected lot of punches, including hooks, jabs, mid-section blows and upper cuts (the latter two are thrown using the face buttons in conjunction with the R1 button). Of course, no boxer game would be complete without the ability to launch some killer combos on your opponent, and Black and Bruised is no exception. Every character has a lengthy list of combos at their disposal, its just unfortunate they aren't anywhere near necessary.

While it may sound like a deep boxing game in this regard, in reality this game is nothing more than a simple button masher. The combo system is nice, in theory, but it simply isn't needed in the УheatФ of battle, because if you want to keep up with the enemy, all you need to do is wail on the buttons, and you'll win. Add the fact that many of the combos are unnecessarily difficult to execute due to the slow response times, and you have wasted potential.

One thing that does help add a little bit of strategy here are the power ups. There are a wide variety of them, from sucking the life out of opponents to turning your hands into anvils. You gain these boosts by gaining stars, which come from landing punches on your opponent. Once you score the first form of the power up, it's not time to activate it just yet. If you continue to beat up your opponent, your power up will grow into a more powerful form, hence becoming even more useful to you. Unfortunately, it's due to these boosts that combos and any other form of strategy are effectively thrown out of the window. All you need to do is hit the other guy 10 times and you have a power up that will turn the tables or make the odds even steeper. Rarely is the winner of a fight here the most talented, more often than not it's the guy who gets lucky enough to land the most powerful boost. Games like this often land flat on their collective faces because gamers will quickly become bored by the shallowness of it all, and Black & Bruised is no exception.

Despite the flaws of the gameplay, there are certainly plenty of gameplay modes to keep those who are somehow sucked into this one entertained. There are several gameplay modes, including one and two-player bouts, Boxer's Life, tournaments, Survival Mode, and a general training mode. As you can probably piece together, the tournament mode pits you against a series of opponents on your way to the top of that tourney's class. Survival mode puts you in a similar situation except instead of getting a break from the fighters between fights to regain health, you will have to face a constant stream of foes. Again, nothing that hasn't been seen before, but they're still good for some time killing. Multiplayer is a fairly entertaining experience thanks to the mindlessness of the whole thing, and if some things were to be tweaked, B&B would make a great party game. As it stands, it still stands as a fun diversion from the УworkФ of the real world. Where this game really shines is in the Boxer's Life mode. Here, you pick between a slew of fighters and play through 6 matches that each relate to that character's rise to boxing fame. Most of the matches will give your opponent a leg up based on the previous cut-scene. For instance, Holly Vixen is running the auto repair shop for her father while he is in the hospital. The male employees don't think she can do more than bend over and give the guys behind a great view. She must set them all straight. Here, a fight begins and Holly must defeat an opponent using only her right hand. The stories are absolutely outrageous and add a lot to the game.

Visually, Black and Bruised represents a new style for fighting games. In the spirit of Punch-Out!, Black & Bruised really went over the top with character designs. Each fighter is detailed in a beautiful form of cel-shading. This method really compliments the game's crazy style perfectly, and lends itself to other perks. If you're really looking, you'll notice these subtle yet amazingly effective sights. Let's say you smack your opponent in the left check 20 times in a bout. Before the fight is complete, that cheek will be bruised. While it doesn't affect the gameplay, it certainly is rewarding to see the УartworkФ you've created using the other fighter's face. However, the rest of the visuals are just barely above average, with bland backgrounds and scenery. Luckily, this takes away very little from the charm the characters possess.

In spite of all its efforts, the audio in B&B does the exact opposite of the graphics. The voice-overs, while competent, lend very little to each character's personality. A few of the voices seem to work a bit better than others (cover girl Holly Vixen and Knuckles Nadine come to mind), overall the voice cast is lackluster at best. The musical score, or what semblance of one there is, comes out even worse. Background music is forgettable, to put it lightly.