IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
The Bouncer, produced by Squaresoft, was a one-hour-long beat-em-up game that was mostly cutscene and clunky gameplay, which met with poor sales and middling to scathing reviews.
[*] Despite its shortcomings, many people, including the video creator, have fun memories of the game.
[*] The video creator replays the entire game three full times to answer the question "was it any good," critiquing the combat, story, voice acting, and replayability.
[*] The opening of the game features flashing lights and fast-moving images, which are followed by a barrage of noise and a menu screen that lacks aesthetic and personality.
[*] The game plays like a film and includes some in-game cutscenes rendered in engine and fully CGI, which still hold up very well today.
[*] The plot of the game involves a solar-powered satellite in orbit, which will convert the sun's lights into microwave radiation, and send that radiation to Earth, ushering in a new golden age of prosperity.
The game features physics-based ragdoll effects on screen, which can be fun to play but come at the expense of other elements that make a beat-em-up or RPG game fun.
The game has limited interactive elements, such as destructible scenery, power-ups, dodging, parrying, and countering. It also has very few combos, with a limited block function.
Defeating enemies earns the player Bouncer Points (BP), which can be used to upgrade health, power, and block meter or buy powerful combat and special attacks.
The game has lengthy cutscenes and loading screens, with more of these than gameplay in some levels.
The game has multiple storylines, depending on which character the player chooses to play as, and the complete story only makes sense when the player has experienced all three direct playthroughs.
Levels in the game are small, with more loading and cutscenes than gameplay.
The game has still images of scripted conversations from the characters' past between levels, which fill in backstories but are also loading screens and disappear too quickly for the player to read and understand.
The game's voice acting and character dialogue can be inconsistent or confusing at times.
The game encourages the player to switch between characters for each level, but the narrative and mechanical consistency discourage this, making it better to do complete playthroughs with one character at a time.
The game "The Bouncer" features three separate adventures to go on, but players can only experience one per playthrough.- The exploration part of the game is just filler and considered boring since players can't perform any combat moves or interact with anything, and it's just several small rooms with loading screens.
- Enemies in the game include ninjas, trash cleaning robots, and a magical panther, which players have to fight before moving on to the next area.
- The game has a dumb mechanic, the block feature, which isn't explained to players, and they have to pause the game and open the stats menu to check their remaining block for the level.
- Once players run out of block, their chance of completing the mission drops to essentially zero, and there's no way to replenish health or block meter while in a level.
The game has a points counter with space for six figures and the speaker doubts that anyone can get the highest possible score.
The speaker shares his discovery that kicking robots repeatedly is more effective than blocking or attacking them in the game.- There is a mini-game in which the player has to match emotes to communicate with Mikado ninjas.
- The voice acting in the game seems mismatched with the tone of some of the scenes.
The speaker uncovers that Co, one of the game's characters, was a former heir to the Hearst Family Fortune and had turned down that life to become a secret agent.
The speaker discusses the plotline of the game and the involvement of the Lucas detective agency in stopping Mercado from using their laser satellite project.
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