Bloody Roar Extreme is about the most uncomplicated fighter you could ask for, with only two attack buttons (punch and kick), a simple block and the required jump move. Through the use of the left and right triggers, you can sidestep your way around your opponent, circling him like a gladiator of old. Each character has less than a dozen combo moves, which is seriously limiting, but ups the challenge of the game as it forces you to think out your attacks before rushing headlong into combat. To make things more interesting, Bloody Roar Extreme introduces "beast transformations," which allow your character to transform into a unique animal form. When in animal form, you'll have extra combos available while at the same time enjoying a strength boost for dishing out extra punishment. Of course, there's always a balance, and with Bloody Roar, the cost of becoming a mighty beast is a weaker constitution, which severely decreases the amount of punishment you can take. As with the limited combo system, the beast transformation forces you to think on your feet, choosing when to summon up your beastly power, and when play it straight, duking it out with your standard attacks.

Bloody Roar Extreme offers the standard array of gameplay options: versus for multiplayer head to head, arcade, time attack, team survival, team battle, versus team battle and a training mode. Most of the time, you'll be perfectly happy smashing the AI-controlled opposition in arcade mode, but thanks to the team and versus options, you'll be able to drag some friends over for some of the most bizarre animal fights around.

Did I mention the animals? Well, each character has a unique beast transformation, ranging from downright silly to insanely dangerous. There are 14 total available characters (not counting the unlockables), including such oddities as Alice, whose beast transform is a giant white rabbit and Bakuryu, who becomes a devastating...platypus. While these oddball transforms might seem silly and wimpy, don't ever underestimate your opponent, as even Uriko and her kitten form can launch some devastating strikes.

While the arenas in Bloody Roar Extreme are fully 3D, they are only partially interactive. Thus, they don't provide as much of an indirect weapon effect as those in DOA III can. You can, for example, cause the floor underneath the fighters to collapse; yet the fighters will suffer no falling damage and will generally land on their feet. Thus there's really no sense in trying to use the environment as a weapon.

The AI, which needs to be strong for a solid single-player experience is pretty good, but quite a bit short of excellent. It certainly gets better as you continue through arcade mode, but it's still not a huge challenge for anyone who's experienced in fighters There are, however,  some incredibly frustrating moments when the AI will abuse you with strings of special attacks, which no human player would ever be able to access. I threw the controller down in disgust on more than one occasion after watching the AI escape one of my punishing combos and respond with one of their own.

When it gets right down to it, fighting fanatics will quickly dismiss Bloody Roar Extreme for its lack of complexity, while those gamers who enjoy a simple rock 'em sock 'em title will have a good time with it.

Graphics

Simply put, the graphics in Bloody Roar Extreme are stunning, combining the buttery smoothness of Tecmo's DOA series with just a slight hint of the cartoonish. The fighters, in both human and beast form, bear a healthy bit of detail with lots of little flourishes such as tattoos, scratches and military insignia. Character motion is smooth, and the framerate never drops below 60 fps, even in the most fever-pitched of battles. The environments got a great graphical treatment from Hudson's development team, and hold their own against other fighters such as the famed DOA III for the Xbox.

You'll find that Konami didn't slack off when porting Bloody Roar Extreme from the PlayStation 2. Instead, they took the time to upgrade all the graphical models and remove any of those trademark PS2 jaggies. On top of that, they were kind enough to utilize the Xbox's texturing, bump mapping and lighting features to enhance the overall visual appeal of the game.

The game's soundtrack will take you right back to the 80's, when wailing guitars belted out power chords as the synthesizers gave you your first taste of the "electronic era." Right from the opening sequence, Bloody Roar Extreme is a full on aural assault, but in a good way. Don't be surprised if you find yourself "banging your head and waking the dead" as you play this game.

Voice acting, on the other hand, should've just been left out entirely. While Hudson did a great job making sure the graphics weren't a carbon-copy port of the PS2's, they didn't do the same with the voice work. Each character has an incredibly limited amount of dialog, which makes them annoying to listen to after just a few games. Thankfully, the sound effects more than make up for the voice work, with plenty of roars, screams, slaps and crashes comprising an audio palette that should be a model for future fighting titles.

Bloody Roar Extreme is a game best played with friends, and in that sense, it offers up plenty of replayability. With over a dozen fighters available (plus some unlockables), you'll have plenty of reasons to play this game for the weeks and months ahead.

The single player arcade mode, which starts out slow and quickly increases in challenge, is probably something you'll only play through once or twice. Even though the AI does become more difficult with time, it still becomes predictable at some point, and the AI's abuse of power ups will surely infuriate you on many occasions.

Overall

Bloody Roar Extreme harkens back to the arcade days of old, when you had a limited attack arsenal, and were forced to approach combat from multiple angles instead of rushing in "guns blazing." While newer, more complex fighters can be a kick (pardon the pun) they leave little to the imagination, allowing even button mashers a chance to be king. That's not the case with Bloody Roar Extreme, as button mashing might get you through a few rounds, but you certainly won't complete the game that way, nor will you survive long against other human players.

Would I suggest this game to everyone? As a rental, yes, but as a purchase option, I'd recommend it only to those who either looking for a fine introduction to the fighting genre, or those old school players who are looking for a classically styled fighter with that old school flair.