Bloody Roar: Hyper Beast Duel / Beastorizer
  
               
 
   
STORY:  "Tylon, a bio-corparation, uses human hostages as the basis for its "Zoanthropes" - genetically altered super beast-beings. The industrial giant uses its creations as advance troops in global military invasions. Yugo, a wolf zoanthrope, Tries to avenge his Father, Who was previously killed in a war against the multinational organization. He meets Gado, An old comrade in arms. Together they promise to destroy Tylon and liberate all the hostages and put an end to tylon's brutal experiments. However, It's not counting Uriko, The Chimera, A secret weapon of Tylon. The battle against Uriko was not easy but Yugo was supported by Gado and Alice, And young hostages who knew Uriko before her brainwashing by Tylon and together they restore Uriko's conscience. Tylon is annihilated, The zoanthropes come back alive and the story goes on."
 

Bloody Roar character selection screen.

  
REVIEW:  Originally called Beastorizer, the PlayStation fighting game, more commonly known as Bloody Roar, is a 3D fighter featuring a cast of characters that can transform into "animalistic" alter-egos. The arcade version has slightly better graphics but the PlayStation version adds some new options & features.

 

Gado versus Long.

 

The gist of Bloody Roar's gameplay is pretty simple, one button is used for "punch" and one for "kick". Combining the two buttons creates different attacks as well as a throw attack. The main draw and most unique feature of Bloody Roar is the "Beast" button, which can be used when the Beast Gauge is filled up, and transforms the character into their more powerful, more agile animal form. Attacks during beast form deduct from the Beast Gauge, though still do some damage to the life bar on a decreased level. Within beast form, the Rave Button becomes available, which eliminates recovery time between combos & gives characters ten times the speed... when it runs out, one hit can break the beast transformation.

 

Wow... Animals really do look weird wearing clothes.

  
For a console fighting game in 1997, Bloody Roar isn't half bad. Both the animation and control is fairly smooth, and the 3D elements in the gameplay is decent considering the time period. The combo system is on the simple side, but there's something fun about it. The character designs are definitely a mixed bag in Bloody Roar, ranging from some cool-looking fighters to some rather ugly and weird ones... a conventional recipe for a fighting game when you think about it. However, In my opinion, the character roster overall is a bit stale and and most characters lack actual personality.
 
 
 

Page Updated: October 21st, 2023
Developer(s): Eighting/Raizing
Publisher(s): Virgin Interactive, SCEA, Hudson Soft
Designer(s): Seiya Yamanaka             Planner
Mitsuakira Tatsuta
       Character Design
Shinichi Ōnishi
                Lead Graphic Designer
Platform(s): Arcade, PlayStation, PSN
Release Date(s): 1997                                     Arcade
Oct. 31st, 1997
                PS1
Nov. 6th, 1997
                  PS1
Characters Yugo, Alice, Greg, Fox, Long, Uriko, Mitsuko, Bakuryu, Gado

Featured Video:

Related Games: Bloody Roar 2, Bloody Roar 3, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, Bloody Roar 4, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter Kids, Battle Arena Toshinden, Battle Arena Toshinden 2, Battle Arena Toshinden 3, Battle Arena Toshinden 4, Last Bronx, Tobal No. 1, Tobal 2, Star Gladiator, Bushido Blade, Mace: The Dark Age, Mortal Kombat 4, TEKKEN 2, TEKKEN 3, Soul Blade
  

Gameplay Engine  6.5 / 10
Story / Theme  6.5 / 10
Overall Graphics  6.5 / 10
Animation  6.5 / 10
Music / Sound Effects  6.0 / 10
Innovation  8.0 / 10
Art Direction  4.5 / 10
Customization  5.0 / 10
Options / Extras  6.0 / 10
Intro / Presentation  6.5 / 10
Replayability / Fun  6.0 / 10
"Ouch" Factor  6.0 / 10
Characters  4.5 / 10

BOTTOM LINE

 6.2 / 10

 Review based on PS1 version    

 

Final Words: 1997 was a competitive and exciting time for fighting games. The arcade scene was insane. If you were at home playing Bloody Roar for any long period of time, I have to boldly say you were missing out on "getting good" at many other amazing 2D and 3D fighting games. That's my personal (biased if you will) take. It meant that much to put time into those games... that I didn't give Bloody Roar much of a chance due to its technical (gameplay) limitations.

But y'know, in retrospect... sure, the first Bloody Roar wasn't "bad". The art style of the first game was respectible. I give Bloody Roar some credit on its attempt to be innovative... but the character designs just never appealed to me, sorry... (and I don't think I'm the only one). The gameplay also isn't even close to being what I consider "solid" or fun to play for any extended period of time (the main point of fighting games, in my opinion).

Fighting games I was putting lots of time into in '97 (And I'm glad I did)? For starters: TEKKEN 3, Soul Blade, X-Men VS SF, MSH VS Street Fighter, Rival Schools, Umm... Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Samurai Shodown 4, Mortal Kombat 4, and there are more... When you look at all the games that were out, you can see why it was difficult for Bloody roar to "impress" me. A gimmick like "Beast Mode" only goes so far... which is why I passed on Bloody Roar. To its credit, Bloody Roar did at least try something different from the usual fighting game formula. Maybe we'll get a new one someday?

~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen
 
 
 
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