Bloody Roar : Primal Fury is essentially an enhanced port of Bloody Roar 3, which was released for the PS2 the year before. When this was released, it was the first true fighting game for the system. Sure, we could count Smash Bros. Melee, but that game really feels and plays different than BRPF. With no competition, you can claim that this was the best fighting game on the system. But now we have more fighters on the field, such as Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Capcom VS. SNK 2 EO and the upcoming Soul Calibur 2. So, in today's gaming field, is BRPF worth your time? Especially with the recent release of Bloody Roar Extreme for the Xbox (which is a slightly enhanced port of this game), perhaps it may be worth your time.

BRPF is an arcade fighter, pure and simple. Sure, it does have a story, but the way it's presented is sloppy. Although this game has some of the most sharpest looking video in a GCN game to date, it doesn't do a thing for the story. Something about testing these half-man half-animal creatures for research. I could go further into the details, but the way the developers present it, it seems pretty unimportant. The ending sequences, when all should be revealed, are very confusing and fairly useless. But then we can make the argument that a fighting game really needs no story, you just want to go in and beat the crap out of some people. BRPF accomplishes that pretty well.

The game play options you get in BRPF are Arcade, Time Attack, VS., Survival and Practice. In a way, it seems like a lot. But once you get into the game for a couple of hours, you want more. I think the replay value would have increased substantially if it included some kind of story or quest mode, a la Soul Calibur. The game's story would probably make more sense, as well. The fighting engine isn't all that complicated or deep, but in a way, that's one thing that makes the game kind of fun. It's fairly simple, but blasting through the time trial or the survival mode can be entertaining. But then there's the seemingly unbalanced AI. If you play through the arcade mode, and even the time trial, you can get through three or four people without much of a problem. Then suddenly the computer grows a brain by stage 5, where it can take 5-10 minutes and a few continues to get past the opponent. Then the next round, the AI may become a pushover. And what's with the overly aggressive AI at the last stage? I mean, come ON! I must have spent close to an half an hour trying to defeat Uranus. Never before have I seen (and even done) so many cheap shots in a fighting game.

In spite of being a fairly average fighting game, BRPF boast some pretty nice visuals, even compared to some of the later releases. The arenas are adorned with high resolution textures accompanied with some really nice lighting. Some stages look pretty fantastic. The character models are good as well, but I noticed that there's a bit much of the jiggle going on. While I have no problem with the breast jiggle (which at times, seems like the breasts are almost flopping around), why do the guy's arms jiggle? I haven't seen that much jiggle on someones arm since my 8th grade art teacher decided to wear a short sleeve shirt on day (shudder). It's not a problem, it just seems weird. But overall, the game does look nice.

The sound is not as dynamic as the graphics, but it doesn't really suffer. The music is composed of standard guitar riffs, but it doesn't become highly annoying. The sound effects are full of "oof"'s and screams, as well as punches and crashes from the falls. Like I said, not very dynamic.

Today, Bloody Roar Primal fury can't really stand up against current fighters such as MK Deadly Alliance, and it can't really compare to an older endeavor such as Soul Calibur. But on a level, it is entertaining and it does look pretty good. Seeing how Bloody Roar Extreme has been released on the X-Box, with only minor upgrades to this game, why not save yourself $20-30 and just pick up this version instead? It's the same game, it probably looks very similar to the newer version (the frame rate was already fast and fluid), plus "Extreme" is not online. Sometimes newer isn't always better.