Game review: 'The Bouncer'

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	GALLERY

by Star Dingo

(IDG) -- You've lived a few Final Fantasies and survived a few Parasite Eves? Now Square's set to take you from the realm of Final Fantasy and into the realm of Final Fight with a cinematic brawler that boasts amazing cinematic visuals and packs a whole lot of fighting punch.

As The Bouncer begins, a little girl named Dominique is kidnapped by Mikado Special Forces for reasons unknown, and it's up to the three Fate Bar Bouncers: Sion, Volt, and Kou, to track her down. The Bouncer has three play modes - Story Mode, Versus Mode, and Survival Mode. In the one-player Story Mode, you take control of one of the three bouncers and engage in a cross between an RPG and an old beat-em-up from the days of yore - think Double Dragon or Streets of Rage, only with experience points and much better graphics. Score a kill, and you'll earn Bouncer Points, which you can then use in between stages to pump up your character's stats or pick up a new special fighting technique. Every now and then, characters have to perform a task that could alter the story's events, such as hunting down a key card to stop a speeding train. One task has you try to figure out Mikado's security hand signals. You watch the guards giving their signs to each other, then you have to copy it in a funny and surreal secret-handshake dance-off.

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Fight For Your Life

In Versus Mode, up to 4 players duke it out in teams or battle-royal style. You'll get access to 14 characters and 11 stages that you unlock as you play through the different paths in Story Mode. Survival Mode throws aside the story and sets you pummeling your way through a series of increasingly difficult stages, trying to do exactly what the title would suggest - survive.

Combat Capers

Attacking is a breeze - each one of the four buttons is used to perform a different high, low, mid, or jump attack. Hold down the L1 button as you attack, and you unleash all the Extra Moves you've earned throughout the game. The Bouncer is also one of the first games to take advantage of the PS2's analog buttons, meaning the harder you slam on the Triangle, Circle, Square, or X button, the more vicious the attack. As you make your way through the game's sixty-plus battles, the choices you make, the characters you choose to play for each stage, and the missions you successfully complete change the outcome of the highly cinematic story.

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