Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (GameCube) review "The Nintendo 64 had a very small collection of real fighters, and none that dominated the market. Well, the Gamecube knew that they needed to strengthen their fighting genre, and they signed on to Bloody Roar: Primal Fury. At first I thought this was to be some boring fighter, with just good graphics. However Bloody Roar is a very fun game, and definitely worth the buy if you are into fighters. "

The Nintendo 64 had a very small collection of real fighters, and none that dominated the market. Well, the Gamecube knew that they needed to strengthen their fighting genre, and they signed on to Bloody Roar: Primal Fury. At first I thought this was to be some boring fighter, with just good graphics. However Bloody Roar is a very fun game, and definitely worth the buy if you are into fighters.

STORY (2/5): Each character has their own little story, but it makes very little sense really. I don't understand why any of the characters are fighting, and I think these stories link up to the past games or something, cause they don't make much sense.

GRAPHICS (18/20): The courses all have various walls that can be shatter, and designs on these walls. One course has a head in some vial like thing in the background, another course has dolphins swimming by you, as you fall over a waterfall (if you break that section of glass and go over). Now the characters also look good. Each has their own distinct look, and well my friends (the perverts they are) purposely pick the girl characters, cause they are hot. Also the transformations look beautiful, specially the Phoenix and Uranus' beast. Each is very well detailed, like the strip of clothes hanging from Shenlongs claws. I take of one point for it is Blooy Roar, and well instead of blood there is this electricity like thing. I would've preferred a little bit of gore in the game, but all in all the graphics are sweet.

SOUND (6/10): Each course has it's own song that plays in the background. Some are spooky, some are more upbeat. You can hear the punches and kicks smashing against your opponents jaw, but nothing breathtaking. The music is good, but not really perfect.

GAMEPLAY (25/30): This is a typical fighting game where you have kick, punch, and throw commands. You can jump kick, or trip people by your desire. You use this simple moves to create complex combos, and defeat your opponent by draining all of his HP. However there is one thing about Bloody Roar you should know. That your suave cool characters can transform into the beasts that they most closely resemble. Some beats are massive and scary like the Minataur or the Lion, and some are cute like the Penguin. However all of these creatures are deadly and can attack your opponents with more moves, and regain health while doing it. The beasts are very easy to control, and have their own distinct advantages. Especially the Penguin, which I guarentee you will be annoyed by his height. Also there is not only a beast mode, but a hyper beast mode. The hyper beast mode however is just a flashing version of your regular beast mode, who can perform unlimited special powers. The one exception is Cronos who has the Phoniez, which is a very different master. The characters can perform special moves by doing various button combinations like most fighters (see Controls for more detail). There are multiple modes of play, although they are all practically identical to eachother. The game is very entertaining for a quick 10 minute run through, and well very few Gamecube games not name Super Smash Brothers fit a small timeframe.

CONTROLS (7/10): Very responsive controls for the fighting game. Punch-Kick combos are frequent, and depend on the precision of your button pressing. However the controls require to much button smashing, and skill will not win you too much. This game is basically hit a bunch of buttons and hope for the best. Each characters punches and kicks do different things, and the throws all differ however. You can also block by moving back, and sidestep. Charging moves are also useful, to knock people through walls and out of the ring. However the buttons do a variety of things, and respond when they are supposed to.

MULTIPLAYER (7/10): This is really when fighting game should be played. Have your friend or girlfriend in your house, and you want a quick easy game to play, well Bloody Roar is it. It looks very beautiful, and it is easily capable of being played by the dumbest of gamers. This is kinda a good thing cause alot of my friends are horrible gamers (most actually). However when you have your expert gamers around, it's just random luck, and there is only one mode to play. It is good for a pickup, but not good enough for any Blood Roar parties (unlike Goldeneye parties)

REPLAYABILITY (7/10): Besides the multiplayer it is hard for a fighter to be addictive. Bloody Roar does fairly well in this category, because you can just pick it up for a quick time being and run through a survival match. That is when you play until you die. Also there is the Arcade mode, where you fight past 8 fighters. There are alot of extra things to gain, such as characters and cheats, and you need to beat Arcade 16 times. It does alright in single player replayability, but it won't win any rewards.

DIFFICULTY (5/5): Very easy game to pick up, very hard game to master. Their are 8 levels of difficulty, and there is a good size difference from each level. You will need to use various skills to win, however on level 1 you can just smash alot of buttons. Only thing is that there is no difference in rewards if you win on level 1 or level 8.

OVERALL (77/100): Bloody Roar is alot better than I ever expected when I purchased it. I bought it because I needed a good one on one fighting game period, seeing I had none for any of my systems. This game was instantly fun, and I spend alot of time playing through every characters arcade mode. I love switching through the characters cause there is not one I love enough to constantly use (Yugo is getting there, though). This is a good pickup for the weak current gamecube lineup, and a low 80 score is fairly good. I would look into it if I were you, for it could be a sleeper hit you don't want to miss.

Community review by ratking (July 23, 2002) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.