The Bouncer - Don't 'Ever' Mess with a Bouncer

My introduction to you:

I made a review for Ehrgeiz some time ago when PSX was first introduced for beta testing on Vizzed.com. It's a unique gem worth playing once in a while, however, that got me thinking, why hasn't there been a re-make or re-release, or even an attempt to better the game more than it is? Then I remembered a game that went under a different name, having looked like it was going to be the sequel in the beta trailer, and then suddenly making changes to what actually could have been a pretty fast paced, interactive, beat em up/fighter. What is it called now? The Bouncer.


Depth: 6

The Bouncer is basically the quiet child of Ehrgeiz that was released early on the PS2. The game pretty much had half the features from Ehrgeiz's PSX release, and overall just wasn't that good of a game gameplay wise when compared to Ehrgeiz. I still come back to play it, but hardly. However, there still are some things that stand out a bit and make Ehrgeiz worth coming back to sometimes, but it's really just in my opinion as I have no clue what anyone else thinks of this game.

The Bouncer is not necessarily a bad game, I'd say it's actually a little fun at times, but the reason why the game didn't really amount to what it could of been, was because of how early it came out on the PS2 and could have had so much more time to actually make something more incredible than what it turned out to be. The game did come out in 2000 very early into the PS2's release and the developer stated it was his first time actually working with the PS2. From the trailer shown in 1999, the fast gameplay and thrown furniture were removed and I feel this was already one aspect that might have killed the gameplay a bit.

The modes included in the Bouncer are Story Mode, V.S. mode, and Survival mode. The Story mode engages the player in a series of beat em' up stages against security guard, ninjas, robots, and playable character bosses. You can choose one of three of the main characters to play as for each battle sequence while also getting their part of the story and leveling them up with the enemies you defeat. This actually brings a lot of replay value to the game and also has to be mixed up at a few points in order to achieve a few secrets in the game. Overall, the idea of it actually does work and it allows a player to change of the flow of combat also.

There are many small areas that you fight in pretty much 90% of the game, and only two, maybe three, areas make you actually have to adventure around a bit from point A to B. Otherwise, prepare to immerse yourself in cut scenes and load screens after nearly every battle you have in story mode. The load screens can be long or short at times. For me on my ps2, it somehow went by fast, and I checked to see if it was the game or the system, turns out, it's the system as I checked it on my PS2 emulator which sped through the load times. However, whether or not you have a short or long load screen, don't worry, you won't be staring at a blank screen at least and you'll be entertained to the character's back story of whom you play.

The story break up between each battle can't be helped as much considering the characters have to have their part of the story after you play as them. However, I can also agree that it does get in the way a lot and could have been initiated a different way, maybe through in game dialogue and what not. The game did come out very early though, and judging by how many of the cut scenes play out, there is a half a second pause between each scene change showing that the developers were still trying to figure out how to get a smoother transition of scenes. An interesting piece of information was that the trailer showed certain parts in the beginning of the game weren't supposed to have cut scenes, but due to the character selection system, it had to be done with cutscene breaks between. Why am I bringing this all up though? Well, the Story of the game pretty much plays a big part considering that there are more cut scenes than gameplay (the game is really short without them if you skip each scene).

Another important thing to mention about the story mode is that the mode is used to unlock and strengthen all the characters of the game. Depending on which character you play also will unlock hidden characters that only appear if certain requirements are met. Sion, Volt, and Kou, the three playable story mode characters, level up through defeating enemies and gaining bouncer points used to not just increase their Health, Attack, and Defense, but also learn new special moves.

The first time you play and unlock most of the characters after beating the game, they'll be pretty weak with only a few special moves. However, through replaying the story mode on extra mode, you can start over with your leveled up characters and refight the unlockable characters at stronger levels balanced to your own. Eventually, once you get your characters to the highest level, you'll be able to fully re-unlock other characters at their highest levels also. This alone actually keeps the game feeling a little fresh as you can expose new strategies with the new moves you learn, and also adapt to the very powerful computers who slightly increase A.I. ability as well.

The versus mode allows for players to duke it out 1 on 1, 3 on 3 with A.I. controlled partners, or play a 2-4 player multitap match through teams or battle royale. The gameplay works no different than the story mode, the only difference being that you can play as characters other than the main 3 and that it's multiplayer. This mode can be pretty fun with friends considering how easy it is to button mash the game, though, it's not really more fun than some other games that center around multiplayer. Chances are, you'll only play this once with your friends, and then they'll completely forget about the game and next day want to play something else.
The survival mode on the other hand is a lot like the beat em' up similar to the story mode, allowing you to fight generic bad guys. The only differences are that there are no load screens or cut scenes and you can play as any character you want other than the main three characters. Want to play as the final boss and beat up on the guys who work for you, go ahead! After each round, you have to continue with the amount of health you lost and fight more swarms of enemies. I found this mode to be very fun because of the fact that you could play as any character.

Story : 6

The main story in Bouncer is a pretty simple "save the girl with a few plot twists story" that works just fine for the game. However, the idea behind it is the three different perspectives you get to have by playing as one of the three characters for the scenes in the game. For example, a simple phone conversation not heard by the other two characters will actually be heard by the character on the phone and will give you some info on why certain things happen in the game. Overall, this way of storytelling allows the players to re-engage themselves multiple times to have a different piece of the puzzle to fill in the game.
The story first takes place in a bar called "Fate" in the city the characters live, and all three of the main playable characters are bouncers for the bar. A girl named Dominique who is a good friend to the main character, Sion, often visits the three bouncers having become friends with all of them. One day, Special Forces from the Mikado Corp invade the bar looking to kidnap Dominique and take her to the Mikado Corp building. The player then can choose any one of the three characters for every event to save the girl and learn why Dominique was kidnapped.

Throughout the game, you'll discover there is more to the story than just the save Dominique mission depending on the character you play. Though, I won't spoil what each character's motives and backgrounds are, but the story is at least a little better than some other mediocre stories to say the least. For me, I felt a few parts of the story had a little bit of inspiration from Final Fantasy 7 almost, and not to mention, a few characters have inspired some new games from Square Enix, such as Kingdom Hearts thanks to Sion's character design.

Difficulty: 3

The Bouncer is pretty simple to learn and play through. What's interesting about the Bouncer's controls are how unique it is to most games today, having borrowed a concept from the arcade version of "Street Fighter 1" also known as "Fighting Street." Due to the PS2's pressure sensitive controller, the developers decided to experiment with the new technology and implement it into the games battle system, which led to an "at first annoying but then simple" control scheme.

The controls in the game having been developed by the creator of Ehrgeiz and Tobal feature High, Mid, Low, and a little Special attack. Naturally, if the game had been designed without the pressure sensitive controls, you'd be doing all sorts of mix ups with the controls as well as directional attacks and lock on moves like in Ehrgeiz. Instead, depending on how light or hard you press the corresponding button, will be whether you have a weak or strong attack like the concept introduced in the Street Fighter 1 Arcade.

Though you can't mix up highs into mids or lows because you can simply block all ranges of attacks, you can change some of the attacks bid way in the combo and what not. For instance, Sion can do a two punch and kick combo if you weakly tap the high button, though you can also tap the high button weak once, and then press it hard the second time for a jab, power punch combo. It's a cool concept but causes confusion at first and limits the amount of moves actually possible like previous Dream Factory games. In fact, the beta trailer to this game showed that they had intended to make it possible to do mix-ups and lock onto the enemy from any distance similar to Ehrgeiz, however the character will lock-on, but only when near an enemy. Luckily, there are special moves that can be gained and performed by holding L1 and pressing a button or combination of buttons, thus expanding the small move set. On the brighter side, each character feels fun and smooth to play as and their fighting styles just have this nice vibe and feel right. It's one of the few reasons it still feels like a good game to me.

Two of the letdowns regarding gameplay controls were the slow battle mechanics, unlike what the beta trailer had showed, and the ragdoll system. The game actually does play more on the slow, smooth side, though because of this, it makes it hard to actually stop some actions you make since fast inputs are immediately registered some of the time. This ends up leaving you open if you attack a blocking opponent when there are other enemies around, or can even make you miss out on taunts from your friends thus making you miss a team attack. The characters having been slowed down and the gravity physiques being faster than the character makes it hard to pull off juggle combos in the game, though it is possible. Not to mention, whenever you are near by the character you are fighting, you lock onto them, however, move extremely slow in the radius that you are locked on. If you wanted to get away from the opponent, you'll most likely end up getting hit on your way out of the lock-on radius.

The other annoying letdown of the game is the ragdoll system that occurs whenever a character is knocked down or lifted into the air. When you get ragdolled or if an ally gets ragdolled, you are subject to hurting or getting hurt by your allies, and getting up from the ragdoll state takes awhile. Sometimes you'll be stuck on the ground for what feels like 5 seconds. You can speed it up if you press everything fast, but otherwise, there's no way to quickly get up when you fall to the ground and it really sucks when it happens.
The difficulty of the game isn't that bad and at first it'll seem so, but it's easy to get used to the feel of the game and learn what strategies to use to win some battles in story mode. During boss battles, you may think you have the advantage having the two allies fight with you, but in truth, you don't. Your allies don't always fight well and will stand there sometimes, and they are just as dangerous being near you if they get ragdolled, but don't be afraid to use them as distractions to land free hits on a boss. On the other hand, once you die in the game, it's game over even if your allies are alive, and you'd probably be better of letting them get in the action of the battle and making sure to go in for the last hit, or you'll lose out on bouncer points. Overall, once you learn what strategies to use in order to beat the enemies you come across, this game will be pretty simple.

Addictiveness: 3

The Bouncer will be fun at first and you'll probably play through the game a couple of times, but after that, you may only come back to it out of nostalgia. With only so little to do once you unlocked every character to their full potential, you'll only have survival mode to play, player vs cpu VS. mode, and VS mode with friends. It's sad that this game was released very early in the PS2's life, though if it hadn't been, it wouldn't have inspired the next games released by Square. Even so, I'm sure you will come back to this game after a long wait when you see the disc and stare at it for a couple of seconds...or at least that's what happened to me.

Graphics: 8

Being one of the early games to come out on the PS2, this game's graphics aren't so bad. Looking back at it now, the characters do seem a little disproportionate, but you can look past such a flaw. The character graphics overall are actually pretty good and aren't overly sharp, matching graphics more similar to the gamecube's rounder, smooth look. The stage design was also okay for the time but I wouldn't necessarily say they are as interesting considering that there aren't so much props used. This is understandable since there can be multiple enemies all in one area and many props could possibly be in the way of the fight, but if there had been more present, they would have been thrown object.
The FMV's for the game are well done for the time but look like they just evolved from the playstation 1 era, so the characters are far from looking as crisp as they did in the next Square titles, but for the time, it's pretty good. However, it's a close call with how close the in game graphics also look to the FMV sequences, the only difference being the filtered fmv look and more details on the scenes.

During actual combat, the character's movements are actually very well done! Their fighting styles are smoothly animated and some of their moves look believable. The funny part is, nearly all their moves come from Tobal and Ehrgeiz, and it's twice as good as it looked from the previous games. I really give props to the developers for really caring about the looks of the combat since it the game is centered around that in a way.

Sound: 9

The music in probably the strongest point in this game. The character themes actually do well to personify the character and in some way show the language they speak in figuratively. There are only so many story mode songs, but they are interesting and do well enough to match the situation at hand, though, many of the cut scenes don't include music and the character theme of whoever you choose plays for most of the battles in the game. The character themes are definitely the most enjoyable on the other hand and even worth listening to outside of the game.

Overall: 7.3

The Bouncer as of now feels like a game that was testing what the PS2 was capable of, and even so, there is still something about the game that makes it good. Whether it's the simple yet tri-perspective story, or the laughable ragdoll mechanics, or even the music; I'd say the combination of everything this game had is what makes it good at least and worth playing to show how far video games have evolved. Would I recommend to by the game especially since it would only cost about 5$? I'd say it's worth a shot but if you have to be sure, look at the gameplay for it on youtube.

Shogun Gamer : Thanks for the review of The Bouncer.  You have some nice details in your writing.  I have a PS2,  but this is one game I haven't tried yet.  It would be so cool if PS2 games were put on this site

kramer4077 : I'm a site staff reviewer, that's my job ^-^. I'll just see if I can do this and college algebra 1&2 at the same time.

It would be cool, but sadly, with how even my computer slows down with certain games ont he pcsx2 emulator, or during recording the fraps will drop by 1 or 2 frames, imagine on vizzed.com how slow it would run and how many crashes would occur. Not to mention, you need a strong computer in the first place to play a large amount of the games at full speed.

Shogun Gamer :   Wow, this review is Awesome! David really made the right choice to hire you! You really have talent as a reviewer, and I look foward to rweading your further reviews!

DittoDude44 : I'll continue trying to do my best through college. I'll find a way even with the tight schedule I have. Thank you very much.

Wow that took a while to read. Nice job. Really good review. You do your job well .

tgags123 : Thank you very much.