Bloody Roar 4

Bloody Roar 4 Review

Despite its title, Bloody Roar 4 is actually the sixth in Hudson's series of 3D fighting games, which originally debuted way back in 1997. The most recent entries include this year's Bloody Roar Extreme for the Xbox and last year's Bloody Roar: Primal Fury for the GameCube, whereas Bloody Roar 4 brings it back home to a Sony platform. If you've played any Bloody Roar game from over the years, on any game system, then you'll basically know what to expect from this latest installment. It features the same sort of simple, fast-paced, good-looking action that's enabled this series to squeak by for all these years, but the addition of a few new fighters, a new mode, and some tweaks to the gameplay don't stop this from being a rather simple, shallow game.

The arcade mode of Bloody Roar 4 lets you fight through one opponent after another until you reach the final battle, which is predicated on some completely inane dialogue. The dialogue is all dubbed in English and is poorly translated, but it can be entertaining if for no other reason than its sheer absurdity. The rest of the audio is serviceable but understated and forgettable. As mentioned, the AI in Bloody Roar 4 really doesn't present much of a challenge, though, as a two-player game, it could theoretically be fun for a while. Bloody Roar 4 runs at a very smooth frame rate for the most part, though in some situations there's noticeable, annoying slowdown. The characters look quite good and animate well, and the variety of backgrounds, while predictable, also look good. Most of the returning characters look the same as ever, but one of the strangest new additions to this Bloody Roar is a blood effect, whereby certain moves will cause the character on the receiving end to gush Mortal Kombat-style blood. This must have earned Bloody Roar 4 its "M" for Mature rating, which seems rather ridiculous, actually. The "M" needlessly limits this game's already limited audience, as there's really no graphic violence to be found here--or at least nothing beyond what you can find in any other fighting game.

Bloody Roar 4 is a predictable follow-up to a series that's never aimed particularly high. Fans of fighting games may appreciate it since it does offer more than a dozen different characters to play around with, and some of the character designs are actually pretty appealing. Still, this one can mostly be recommended only to those who really like fighting games, in general, or to those who are looking for a casual, anime-style game to play with like-minded friends.

Gamespot