Games you should have played – Bloody Roar

Last Updated on: 31st May 2021, 02:08 am

A multitude of fighting games have always flooded the market and so many different types have been programmed with all sorts of different gimmicks to entice players over the years.

But sometimes a dev is able to come up with a truly unique concept that is both fleshed out and well-executed, which was the case with Hudson Soft’s Bloody Roar series. Here’s why you absolutely should have played Bloody Roar.

Multiplayer video games have always had slight competitiveness to them whether they were cooperative in nature or not. Sometimes a co-op game will even have segments in which the players directly fight each other a la the end of Double Dragon.

Fighting games however take this to an entirely new level as almost always the entire point of a fighting game is to lay the absolute smackdown on your opponents in a plethora of ways.

And with the insane popularity and the sheer number of fighting games, there is a title for just about anyone on the market somewhere.

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Fighting games have a wide range of subgenres within them, but most fall into either 2D or 3D fighters. Both styles have maintained immense popularity over the decades, but 3D fighters have really been dominated by a few different titles such as Tekken or Soul Calibur in modern times.

However, one title released in 1997 was already experimenting with the capabilities of 3D fighters. Hudson soft released the first Bloody Roar (or the much cooler Beastorizer in American arcades) to rave reviews from critics with the quirky yet cool cast of characters, unique gameplay elements, and tight combat.

Bloody Roar’s main selling point was its unique use of anthropomorphized beast-transformation that each character had access to. Most fighting games had at least one type of meter that would be used for special moves of some kind, and Bloody roar was no different.

By filling up one such of these meters your character was able to power themselves up and gain access to new moves by transforming into a powerful Zoanthrope as they were known. Now, transformation is certainly nothing new in fighting games, as many have implemented some sort of “powered-up” state for many characters.

However, in most cases, a transformation would be considered a special move and in some ways could limit a character’s options in a fight.

But by giving every character access to a powerful form while also still having the utility of multiple special meter moves, fights in Bloody Roar had an ebb & flow that not many other fighting games had, which in conjunction with everything else it had going for it, made it quite a flavorful and fun experience

So what went wrong? Bloody Roar had 5 main series titles all of which were relatively successful. With such a cool concept and good execution why didn’t Bloody Roar have more staying power?

Back in 2011, Hudson Soft became a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami, and had plans to release a new Bloody Roar title in 2014! However, unfortunately over time Hudson Soft was eventually liquidated entirely and the project was considered dead in the water.

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In 2020 Konami had registered a Trademark for bloody roar giving fans hope of seeing a new entry in the title soon! But there is no confirmation on this meaning anything beyond Konami simply renewing the trademark to hold on to. Sad to say, this furious-furry franchise is likely going to stay in the Pet Semetary. And since we likely won’t ever see another title in the series, you should have played Bloody Roar.