Squaresoft's first PlayStation2 game shows new innovations in apocalyptic environments

One of the most amazing titles to debut at the Tokyo Game Show was Squaresoft's unofficial sequel to Ehrgeiz, The Bouncer: Seamless Action Battle System. An experimental game combining a unique four-person fighting system with adventure aspects, also weaving in Square's knack for storytelling, The Bouncer demonstrated a new take on gameplay paradigms that Tekken Tag Tournament and Gran Turismo 2000 didn't.

First of all, the game shines with a luminosity that other game's lacked. Sure, GT2000 and TTT look brilliant, but they follow established game formulas and they're going for realism. The Bouncer's design focuses on bizarre, animal-like characters and their ability to move fluidly between different environments. The characters have a glowing characteristic so they all seem oddly angelic and luminescent. Part of this glow effect is no doubt used to set the mood in this apocalyptic gang-style fighter, in which Final Fantasy-lookalike characters run through streets and subways, bashing through restaurants and store fronts and clashing in all-out brawls.

Second, the graphics showed off spectacular water, fire and lighting effects in large, interactive environments with a chilling purpose: to emphasise the chaotic nature of the world in which you're placed. One particular event shows a train bashing through a subway wall, knocking down slabs of concrete, destroying staircases and puncturing a water valve that splashes into the subway. All this is after the star characters jump and roll off the train, through a stream of fire issuing from its side. The demo for The Bouncer was top-notch stuff, needless to say.

Most significantly, Square's 'Seamless Action Battle System' means that players will roam from adventure sequences to fighting sequences without intermittent FMVs or cut scenes that look out of place; the adventure aspects blend seamlessly into massive street brawls involving as many as 10 characters. Additionally, players have several options for fighting. If you're alone, you can select one of four characters and then assign the three others to the computer. Your four-person team can then romp around the city beating the stuffing out of the baddies. But if you have up to three other people who want to play, they can all play simultaneously.

Apparently Square are working on a camera system that pans out far enough to enable numerous characters to fight on screen, while also highlighting spectacular moves on several different floors of, say, a restaurant or a subway station. A split-screen system doesn't seem to be a solution. So, does that mean players will use a multitap? You bet - Sony have unofficially announced a new multitap for the PlayStation2.

The Bouncer was unplayable at the Tokyo Game Show, but will be available as a launch title on March 4, 2000 in Japan.


Courtesy of IGN.com