Bloody Roar 2 Member Review for the PS

Needs a transfusion.

       We, as gamers, are fairly docile creatures. We don't normally release our killer instict onto others (unless they take the last Mountain Dew, that is), so when Hudson's Bloody Roar 2 found me I got excited. I was hoping for a game that lets me unleash my animal personality onto my competitors. That's what I got, but not much else.

       First off, the game starts you out with a roughly 30 second intro. What does this intro contain you ask? Nothing but a bunch of fight scenes being played. They could have at least given us some FMV in it but no, all we get is a polygonal leopard tearing a wolf's face off.

        But I didn't come for the intro movie, I came for the fighting. And that's what I got. And a whole lot to boot. In the game, you control one of ten fighters who, once they've got enough beast-juice, turn into bipedal animals that range from a ninja mole to a Kung Fu tiger. The fighting is pure, mindless, violent fun, but that's all. A little more strategy could have benifited this game.

        The fighting takes place in, you guessed it, a square ring. With, you guessed it, no animation. Drab, drab, drab.

        Like most games of the fighting genre BR2 features a freaky story involving a terrorist organization, an evil scientific company, and another group of human/animal weirdos who try to fight them off. It's a little weird at best, but no one really cares anyway.

       Where Bloody Roar succeeded due to it's new concept (the animal thing), Bloody Roar 2 barely escapes mediocry with it's great fighting. I suggest buying it if you really liked the first game but if not, just rent it. And if your not a fighter fan just leave this one at the pound.