What can you tell me about "The Bouncer" ??

O

ourumov

Member
AlphaSnake jokes aside, I have never played this ps2 launch title and I feel very curious. When people talks about the Bouncer I just think in that old Flyer that was used in the presentation of PS2 launch titles (GT 2000, RRV, Onimusha, SFEX3,etc) but what about the game ?
Was it actually a fun beatemup ?
I just see images of it and I think models look fairly good considering when it was released. The artstyle rocks IMO and the ambience of the locations seems cool to me. And I have the soundtrack and there are nice tracks too...Where did it fail ? In the Gameplay ?
Was it that bad ?

Please if you are gonna reply, elaborate a bit your opinions, I know a lot of you hated it but I am interested in what was the problem with it. :)
 
the actual fighting engine isn't bad, but essentially the game has you fight a small group of enemies in a closed area, tosses you into a lengthy cutscene, and repeats that formula ad nauseam, effectively destroying any coherence or momentum the game might have had. i maintain that it would have been a pretty good game if it had conventional stages like final fight or streets of rage. but it didn't. and it's utter shit.
 
When I was younger, and earlier on in the Playstation 2's lifetime, I actually enjoyed it. I don't know if it stood the test of time however.
 
Considering you can probably buy it for about five dollars now, I'd give it a shot. It's worth a go once or twice.

You pretty much nail the advantages of it. It was a decent beat-'em-up game and looked pretty. On the down side, it was pretty repetitive, pretty silly, no environment interaction, and had this bollocks experience system that meant you had to play through the game repeatedly to unlock enough moves to make the fighting system fun.

The development of the game, I'm told, was a nightmarish fiasco, with huge chunks of the Dream Factory staff bailing out partway through and the entire concept of the game having to be torn down and rebuilt. Takashi Tokita, of all people, wound up producing the finished product (the chip off the old Square monolith who now does Hanjuku Hero and some other stuff), because they needed to finally just slam something together and get it out the door.

DFS.
 
I didnt' hate it, but I only paid 10 bucks for it. I would have actually liked it moderately if there was two player co op. It's been over a year since I played it but if I remember correctly, there's no block or dodge button... that would have made combat a bit more enjoyable. And I never could develop an appreciation for beat em ups that make you unlock all the moves for a character. Maybe if it was just the ultra cool moves that were unlockable.
 
I just finished it. I read up on it before I bought it for $5 so I knew what to expect. It's a simplistic brawler based around really nice Squaresoft cinemas. You get to upgrade the moves your character can do and certain attributes so there is a degree of customization. You can pick from 3 characters which alters the game in a minor way, certain scenes will play out different. It's very short but for $5 go for it. I enjoyed it the art and the story.
 
yeah the fight on the hoverboard thing towards the end of the game is really impressive (graphically)

I liked it, nice, short game worth $5 or $10 :)
 
levious said:
I didnt' hate it, but I only paid 10 bucks for it. I would have actually liked it moderately if there was two player co op. It's been over a year since I played it but if I remember correctly, there's no block or dodge button... that would have made combat a bit more enjoyable. And I never could develop an appreciation for beat em ups that make you unlock all the moves for a character. Maybe if it was just the ultra cool moves that were unlockable.
Click to expand...

There is a block button.
 
Decent fighting engine that doesn't really allow you to fight as much as you'd like.

The graphics are quite beautiful and run at 60 fps. It was the first PS2 game to really demonstrate just how much more the system could do when compared to Dreamcast (high poly models, tons of effects, and 60 fps).

The game was pretty fun, but also very short and ultra segmented (you upgrade your character and save after pretty much EVERY fight). It totally failed to live up to the hype (not that I was hyped for it), but it wasn't too bad...
 
Interesting...Now I have one thing clear...If I finally buy it I'll try to download a save with all the moves unlocked.
The game's story was gonna be pretty cool from what I remember about pre-PS2 times. Magazines hyped it a lot...I think it's great all that hype has survived inside me through the years.

All the PS2 launch titles have somewhat kept me curious. All people said RRV sucked and I enjoyed it a lot. The same about Onimusha plus the fact that it was too short but they were some of the nicest 4-5 hours I have spend on my PS2.
This and Fantavision (Jp version since I've heard that they changed the music for NTSC US/PAL versions) are the last of the bunch I have to try.
 
MrPing1000 said:
I remember the amount of hype that game had :lol
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No fucking joke. It was a record for the number of movies put up in a single update at IGN (Dave Z later broke that with GT3).

Until Metal Gear Solid 2 hit, it was the number one example of the press and fans alike inflating a game into far more than it could have ever hoped to be.

DFS.
 
levious said:
I didnt' hate it, but I only paid 10 bucks for it. I would have actually liked it moderately if there was two player co op. It's been over a year since I played it but if I remember correctly, there's no block or dodge button... that would have made combat a bit more enjoyable. And I never could develop an appreciation for beat em ups that make you unlock all the moves for a character. Maybe if it was just the ultra cool moves that were unlockable.
Click to expand...

R1 was the block button, you just couldn't move while blocking.

I thought The Bouncer was pretty good...if you played the game more than once. I got it for $8 awhile ago, and it was worth it. It really opens up when all your character have gotten their full move sets. And there was some extra replay value in the Survival Mode.

My main problem was the speed. The characters seemed way too slow to react, that just bothered me most of the time.
 
Here's the entire plot of Bouncer in a nutshell:

Young kid's sister is very sick and it's raining but because they are poor the hospital he takes her to won't take them in. Eventually she dies and he gets angry, an uncle or some guy who owns a huge organization takes him in and he quickly educates himself and becomes the head of the company and a multi-billionaire only so he can carry out military experiments to eventually beuild a giant ion cannon in space to be used for the sole purpose of destroying the hospital that rejected his sister.......yeah...... oh and he would have gotten away with it too if not for the fact that the android-key to powering the ion cannon was replicated by him to look just like his sister and in doing so makes a bouncer at a bar fall in love with her so he brings his two friends along to rescue her and kick his butt.

I didn't even have to make that up. :)
 
I've always liked this game, probably solely due to its style, which is ironic because I every other Squaresoft game makes me puke ('cept Einhander).

The fighting system is deep enough for a brawler and is well animated and contains plenty of cool moves. One unique additon is that the game takes pressure senstivity into account with combos, meaning that you have to hit the buttons with varied force.

As already mentioned, the constant segmenting of the core gameplay with cutscenes sucks nearly all the life out of the game.

Personally, I always felt that the worst part of the game was how the fighting system cancelled out your moves if you happened to collided with a wall in a certain way. When doing throws (mostly), if you clip the wall, you and your opponent will collapse to the ground with ragdoll physics and no one taking any damage. This makes Volt, the grappler, pretty useless in many areas. All his best moves are throws, and nothing will happen if he uses 'em.

Also, they got the movie voiceover guy- like the real movie voiceover guy, the guy that says "In a land where darkness rules, the man who has fire is king!" -to do all the character introductions. At least once a day, I can still hear him in my head saying

"Kou Leifoh!"
 
The "feature" I remember the most about The Bouncer was the way they implemented game difficulty; sticking with one character for your playthrough was essentially a terribly bad idea as even if you switched off characters later, you'd still be screwed by the higher difficulty (set because your first guy was higher up).

Which basically sucked because the cheap-ass last boss would just hand you a royal beating until you discovered this "feature" and restarted entirely using a constant swap system.

(Not to say the game was a success regardless...between this and Driving Emotion, Square really did a number to their PS2 reputation)
 
tekken force mode interspersed with movies every 9 seconds.
 
ourumov said:
AlphaSnake jokes aside, I have never played this ps2 launch title and I feel very curious. When people talks about the Bouncer I just think in that old Flyer that was used in the presentation of PS2 launch titles (GT 2000, RRV, Onimusha, SFEX3,etc) but what about the game ?
Was it actually a fun beatemup ?
I just see images of it and I think models look fairly good considering when it was released. The artstyle rocks IMO and the ambience of the locations seems cool to me. And I have the soundtrack and there are nice tracks too...Where did it fail ? In the Gameplay ?
Was it that bad ?

Please if you are gonna reply, elaborate a bit your opinions, I know a lot of you hated it but I am interested in what was the problem with it. :)
Click to expand...
It just really really blows. And that game came out at a time where I was really starting to think that, SaGa Frontier aside, Square could do no wrong. Boy was I hilariously mistaken.


Defensor said:
Some of the best graphics on the PS2 still :)
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You must REALLY looooooove blur filters.
 
ourumov said:
AlphaSnake jokes aside, I have never played this ps2 launch title and I feel very curious.
Click to expand...
I don't think The Bouncer was a launch title. Game Rankings has the Gamespot and IGN reviews dated March, 2001.

I think that was a part of the letdown. Back in October 2000 we were saying, yeah the PS2 launch lineup is kinda weak, but just wait for The Bouncer!
 
duckroll said:
Here's the entire plot of Bouncer in a nutshell:

Young kid's sister is very sick and it's raining but because they are poor the hospital he takes her to won't take them in. Eventually she dies and he gets angry, an uncle or some guy who owns a huge organization takes him in and he quickly educates himself and becomes the head of the company and a multi-billionaire only so he can carry out military experiments to eventually beuild a giant ion cannon in space to be used for the sole purpose of destroying the hospital that rejected his sister.......yeah...... oh and he would have gotten away with it too if not for the fact that the android-key to powering the ion cannon was replicated by him to look just like his sister and in doing so makes a bouncer at a bar fall in love with her so he brings his two friends along to rescue her and kick his butt.

I didn't even have to make that up. :)
Click to expand...

Holy crap! That is the greatest story I've ever heard. Dosteovskowned.
 
Lucky Forward said:
I don't think The Bouncer was a launch title. Game Rankings has the Gamespot and IGN reviews dated March, 2001.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It was planned as a launch game at one point way early on, maybe, but it got delayed all to bugfuck. We saw some kinda demo version at the fall 2000 TGS, we played a preview version in December, and the reviews hit in early spring.

DFS.
 
I have two copies of The Bouncer.

One was purchased on the day of its Japanese launch (late 2000), for something around 9000 yen.

One was purchased in the summer of 2003, at a Mandarake, for 100 yen.

I still have both copies -- the Mandarake one with the price still on it -- to remind myself how I wasted about NINETY DOLLARS on that fucking piece of dog shit.
 
MetatronM said:
You must REALLY looooooove blur filters.
Click to expand...
It was funny to do the Trinity Rush move on a Dog and still see him alive with the move only taking down 5% of his life :lol
"This outta finish you off!"
"YOU'RE GOIN DOWN!"
"HERE GOES!"

Freeburn said:
The Bouncer in 2 words:

PS2's 'Wreckless'
Click to expand...
Bingo!
 
Kobun Heat said:
I still have both copies -- the Mandarake one with the price still on it -- to remind myself how I wasted about NINETY DOLLARS on that fucking piece of dog shit.
Click to expand...

Yep, this game was positively asstastic. Probably the first big let down for the PS2; the game looked great and was filled with story, but played like shit. For a BEU, enemies were sparse and the environments, while pretty, were bland and boring. I think the E3 2000 showing of the game, which was just cut scenes and no game play, should have been the red flag that something was wrong, but unfortunately for Japanese PS2 players at least, we didn't take notice and wasted the money anyway.

It's still hard to believe that some of the same people that worked on Tobal 2 made this piece of shit and the even shittier Kakuto Chojin.

The Bouncer is as good a BEU as Driving Emotion Type S was a racer.

When I look back at a lot of the PS2 games from its first year (March 2000-March 2001), it's amazing how many SHITTY games were released for the system. I spent more time playing PSX games on it than I did PS2 games. :P
 
I have a sentimental spot for The Bouncer...I bought my PS2 in early '01, and it was a semi-spur of the moment purchase. I didn't want a racer as my only game, and i didn't want TTT or DOA2:HC(already had the DC version, and 60fps cut scenes and new outfits wasn't enough). Plus i was working nights 6 of 7 days a week, crappy hours, and didn't have long periods of time to play, so a quick and simple beat-em-up like The Bouncer fit the bill.

It wasn't terrible...just shallow. I did like some of the music though.
 
Lyte Edge said:
It's still hard to believe that some of the same people that worked on Tobal 2 made this piece of shit and the even shittier Kakuto Chojin.
Click to expand...

The Bouncer is the dividing line for Dream Factory, like I say. Partway through development, the actually talented people quit (most of 'em went to form Anchor). That's why you have good games before Bouncer (Tobal, Ehrgeiz) and pure garbage afterward.

DFS.
 
Lyte Edge said:
When I look back at a lot of the PS2 games from its first year (March 2000-March 2001), it's amazing how many SHITTY games were released for the system. I spent more time playing PSX games on it than I did PS2 games. :P
Click to expand...
Thank you. I used my PS2 for Chrono Trigger for like a year. There wasn't a damned thing worth playing until FFX.
 
WarPig said:
The Bouncer is the dividing line for Dream Factory, like I say. Partway through development, the actually talented people quit (most of 'em went to form Anchor). That's why you have good games before Bouncer (Tobal, Ehrgeiz) and pure garbage afterward.

DFS.
Click to expand...

I'd hardly call the games Anchor put out the products of "talented people." :\
 
Thank you. I used my PS2 for Chrono Trigger for like a year. There wasn't a damned thing worth playing until FFX.
Click to expand...
I can feel the pain of long load times...I also beat the PSX version instead the SNES one. :( Perhaps the fast disc access option changed things...Dunno...I used a PSX.
 
Ourumov: I enjoyed Fantavision quite a bit. It always felt like one of the more "mindless" puzzle games out there, but it was an enjoyable game that showed off what the PS2 could do. The sequel was fun as well.

Kobun Heat said:
Thank you. I used my PS2 for Chrono Trigger for like a year. There wasn't a damned thing worth playing until FFX.
Click to expand...

I'd say that the first original (as in not an arcade or DC port) PS2 game that would be worthy of an "A+" rating was Onimusha myself. :)
 
Lyte Edge said:
I'd hardly call the games Anchor put out the products of "talented people." :\
Click to expand...

Anchor had its own problems, true (I still think the original UFC ain't bad for the time, though). But at any rate, that was when the magic was over for DF.

DFS.
 
ourumov said:
Changing the direction of the topic to another title: Is Fantavision just the same ? The concept seemed cool...
Click to expand...
You want to see some pretty nifty particle effects for a PS2 game? I've yet to beat Fantavision(was actually one of my firest PS2 games at launch along with Tekken Tag). The game does get pretty competitive in 2 player mode with each of you fighting for screen space to detonate fireworks(my friends and I played this game for hours trying to beat each other, true story :-P ). I'd say play it but don't spend more than $10 on the game. Also, wasn't Fantavision made by like 6 people in only a couple of months?
 
Ourumov: I enjoyed Fantavision quite a bit. It always felt like one of the more "mindless" puzzle games out there, but it was an enjoyable game that showed off what the PS2 could do. The sequel was fun as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.

I suppose that what I want on music games is just simply gameplay and cool things to look at. Fantavision seemed something cool !
 
Lyte Edge said:
I'd say that the first original (as in not an arcade or DC port) PS2 game that would be worthy of an "A+" rating was Onimusha myself. :)
Click to expand...
Was that out before FFX in Japan? I guess it was. I never bought it. I still wear the shirt Capcom sent with my review copy though. It's a fine shirt.

And yeah, I had absolutely no load time issues with CT on the PS2. Loved every second.
 
i'd rather replay the bouncer than ffx.

after ridge racer v, i think the next great ps2 game was klonoa 2. i don't think the system's early life was extraordinarily dismal. it was ordinarily dismal. i liked at least a handful of those launch-ish games.
 
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