Review By

Brad Gallaway 7.0 RATING

The Bouncer is the latest big-ticket release from the makers of the Final Fantasy series as well as a long list of other notable RPGs, Square. Co-developing is Square offshoot Dream Factory, who are best known for a string of quirky, free-roaming fighting games. Anyone whos been playing videogames for any amount of time has undoubtedly spent many hours with at least one Squaresoft title or another, but before anything else is said in this review, let me emphatically state that The Bouncer is not what most fans would expect from either company, and it is most certainly NOT a game in the traditional sense.

After receiving a rather cold reception from both the press and gamers everywhere, Square itself is solely responsible for the substantial backlash The Bouncer has received due to misrepresenting it as part RPG, part beat-em-up, part "revolutionary experience." Very few games ever live up to the kind of end-all, be-all hype that surrounded this game prior to release, and in actuality, The Bouncer is simply an extremely improved take on the concept of interactive movies. Expecting something substantially different from what the disc actually delivers, some gamers and reviewers were more than a bit dismayed and negative about the game. Honestly though, it should come as no surprise to anyone that The Bouncer is the most logical end result of Squares efforts over the last several years. With their heavy emphasis on computer-generated (CG) cinematics and dramatic visual storytelling in their most notable projects (Final Fantasy VII being the first major example of their new philosophy), the only surprising thing about The Bouncer is that it greatly succeeds where its more primitive cinematic ancestors have failed, and breathes new life into a previously abandoned mode of electronic expression.

The game itself consists of a huge amount of stunning and well-directed non-interactive story scenes using either CG or the games actual character models, occasionally broken up by 3-D free-for-all battles. Interestingly, The Bouncer is the first game that Id say that the quality of visuals presented using the in-game graphics were superior to the games prerendered CG. There are also language and subtitle options, so every viewer has the ability to optimize the experience according to aural and visual language preferences.

While watching one long computer-graphics movie probably doesnt sound very thrilling in and of itself, the hook here is that the storys perspective changes depending on which particular bouncer you choose to control at various key points in the game. For example, while going through the game as the main character, you often encounter mysterious military-style troops that are never explained. Going through the game again through a different characters eyes, not only are the troops origins revealed, there is an entirely unexpected twist which adds a whole new dimension to the story. The whole story cant be truly appreciated until its been seen from all three viewpoints, but after doing so I would say that The Bouncer turned out to be the most satisfying and well-told story that Square has created in a very long time.

Strong characters are paramount to the success of something like this, and The Bouncer certainly doesnt disappoint. Designed by artistic wunderkind Tetsuya Nomura, the games cast of bouncers—Sion Barzahd, Volt Krueger and Kou Leifoh are all quite distinct and appealing. Each of the fighters has a unique style of combat, quite similar to characters DreamFactory have used in their other games, Tobal No. 1 and Ehrgeiz.

The combat portions are usually quite short and easy, with players being able to move freely on a 3-D plane. The fighting gameplay is actually almost identical to the titles I mentioned earlier, featuring high, middle and low attacks and several combinations using a "special" button. While the flashy special attacks are quite simple to pull off, I found the games use of the Dual Shock 2s analog buttons for the normal attacks to be somewhat frustrating. Certain combos would need to start with either a hard tap or a soft tap, and in the middle of a battle it was tough to consistently produce the attack I wanted.

Other than the dubious nature of the buttons, it controls like youd expect a free-roaming brawler to control and is very simple to play. It should be noted that there is no multiplayer option in the Story mode, though since the player becomes the games "director" in effect, its a very logical choice on Squares part. The Bouncer does offer multiplayer battle modes using all of the games major characters besides the three heroes in a separate option.

To talk about The Bouncers shortcomings, the biggest and most obvious thing to most gamers (besides anything related to the fact that its a movie and not a game) will be that the amount of actual playtime is less than a third of the games total length. Running time is about two and a half hours to complete, and if the player skips watching the cinemas, its possible to finish the game in under 45 minutes. Not exactly what Id recommend to keep a player occupied for days on end, though it compares favorably to a feature film. However, since the average movie ticket can be had for under $10, a gamer on a budget may want to pick up a game that provides a better cost-versus-playtime ratio.

Also, in a game where the actual "play" portion is so short, I would have expected that the developers spent more time making sure that the sections which require the player to be actively involved ran a bit smoother. When taking on three, four or more opponents at once, the camera never failed to find the most inappropriate angle possible, often leaving most or all of the enemies completely offscreen. Most of the battles, except for some of the boss fights, are extremely easy so it didnt have a huge effect on whether I won or lost, but its still annoying to hear fists hitting flesh and not see whats going on.

Finally, while there was a small amount of variety in the interactive sections, the game needed much more in order to stop from feeling so repetitive. Out of the three individual branches to take, only Kous section was significantly different enough from the other two to really make it stand out in my mind. Id like to see Square make the paths more different from each other in any future sequels, as well as add more branches, character-specific situations and endings to increase the appeal of replays.

While its indeed unfortunate that Square chose to promote the game in a way which only undermined its true strengths, The Bouncer holds much appeal for those who are willing to look at what we think of as "games" a little differently. Personally, I enjoyed the entire experience quite a bit, and found its approach to storytelling to be a very effective one. Although the actual player interaction is minimal, there is a great amount of potential for Square to broaden the content and take this type of interactive movie game further. Is The Bouncer a huge step backwards, or a prototype for a new entertainment medium? As it stands, The Bouncer is a visually appealing framework for an idea which hasnt been completely realized, yet remains an interesting, possibly atavistic and definitely unusual creation to be proud of.

Final Score as a traditional game: 3.0

Final Score as an interactive movie: 8.5

Combined Final Score (plus reviewers spin): 7.0

Movie DVD

Movie VHS

Movie VHS

Book

Music CD