Bloody Roar 4 - PS2

The Romans happened upon a good idea two and a half thousand years ago. After spending a few centuries pillaging and exploring they realised three things:

1. We have a lot of enemies
2. It doesn’t matter, we are miles harder than the lot of them
3. The world is full of massive dangerous animals

By combining these facts, a very distinct idea emerged. As the Romans were miles harder than everyone else - who hated them - why not use some of the massive, dangerous animals to kill them, in huge coliseums, for their entertainment?

So that’s what happened. And this progressed from throwing skinny and unruly slaves to a bunch of hungry lions to all-out, no-holds barred, inter-species animal fighting.

And it’s this basic concept that has seen Hudson’s Bloody Roar series tick over as a quiet success in the arcades and on home systems through four incarnations, with this Bloody Roar being the fourth. Surprisingly.

Published by Konami, Bloody Roar 4 brings a fresh set of animal mutant hybrids into new arenas of over-exaggerated 3D fighting. Again the action is massively over the top, and again, it’s done pleasingly well.

The character roster, left pretty much alone since the last outing, sees five unlockable beast brawlers, Dragon Ryoho unlocked through gaining 100,000 DNA points in Career mode; Kohryu needing 30,000 DNA points; Long Get requiring 5,000 MAX DNA Points; again in Career Mode, Shina Get, unlocked with 10,000 MAX DNA Points; and Uranus, who requires 50,000 DNA.

With an emphasis on dark humour and Hudson’s obvious attempts at building a character-driven franchise, the game brims with personality.

It’s weird, violent beast-fighting. If that’s your bag, Bloody Roar 4 is very much the perfect game. more