I'm not really into the whole one-on-one fighting 'scene' – as I prefer the more frenzied four player battle type games, such as the PowerStone series and, of course, the Super Smash Brothers series – so I hope you will excuse anything improper… But hey, at least you are getting straight facts from someone that is not biased ;)! I have played the initial Bloody Roar game before – since I have and interest in anthropomorphics – and I can safely say that it was quite a decent looking (at the time) and playing game. I think the ability to change your body, mid-battle, was really something that a fighter has not either done or has just not executed properly and with the 'smoothness' of the Bloody Roar games. In this preview I will hope to provide a very unbiased and informal preview.

Let's first start with what this game is even about and how the previous games in this series were. Here is the story straight from SCEA from Bloody Roar I and II to get you caught up with what is happening. If you already know the story or just don't wish to read a few hundred words then just skip down to where I start talking about the game ;).

“In the latter half of the 20th century, burgeoning population and the rapid development of technology have affected the Earth's environment in various ways. How unfortunate it is that destructive actions should have been set in motion!

Humans, who once gave birth to a flourishing civilization, are heading for collapse. Earth is exposed to serious damage through the self-destructive acts of mankind, which is itself a part of the earth. The danger inherent in their current relationship is approaching criticality, as if the two sides were waiting for the terrifying sweep of some fatal blade.”

And then here are the details about Bloody Roar II, again from SCEA.

“The battle of the zoanthropes in “Bloody Roar” ended with the collapse of the Tylon Corporation. News about Tylon's experiments with live human-beast subjects and plans to use them for military purposes became public. With the arrest of key people involved in these inhumane experiments and the destruction of the corporation, everyone's lives affected from this war would return to normal… or so they thought.

Eventually, people's fear of zoanthropes began to change to terror. Zoanthropes, or even those thought to be zoanthropes, were shunned from society. Government reactions across the globe made situations worse. As an effort to calm the public, zoanthropes were executed. Those that were found were taken to hospitals or institutionalized for their “protection and treatment.” Some who were accused of helping the Tyron Corporation were prosecuted or imprisoned.

In response to a world that saw all zoanthropes as the enemy, the zoanthrope community split into two factions. Some chose to hide their abilities and live among “normal” neighborhoods and communities. Others that were angered by the heinous acts towards them fought back. The resistance sparked a war between humans and zoanthropes. Hostility and terror between the two sides only seemed to grow.

With human-beast hunts and suppression of all zoanthropes becoming a part of people's daily lives, a new organization surfaces. The “Beast Freedom Front” forms to unite the zoanthropes scattered around the world to serve as a united force against the oppression. United, the Freedom Front stand strong against their enemy and begin to take out police and military all over the world. The governments scramble to find a way to defeat them, but to no avail...

Five years have passed since the collapse of the Tylon Empire. The “Beast Freedom Front” is not a representation of ALL human-beasts. Some feel their resistance only worsens the situation, and other just want to live a quiet, hidden life. There are still others that doubt the Front's true intentions, and feel that it is nothing more than a terrorist organization. Rumors of the Front kidnapping zoanthropes living in hiding to join their cause start to surface. The world is divided among the human race, the Freedom Front and the zoanthropes that live in hiding. The distrust between the three groups grow worse as the world prepares itself for yet another shattering battle.”

Even though Primal Fury doesn't have much emphasis on story, here is a quick rundown of what story there is to this game. A man by the name of King Orion comes along and initiates a 'contest', its purpose is to fund his research to find out exactly how and why zoanthropes (A.K.A. Anthropomorphic) are able to morph into their animal counterpart. That is about it for the story, I'm sure by the time Primal Fury is released there are bound to be little tidbits of detail in the story that I didn't go over, but those are the basics of Primal Fury.

Bloody Roar: Primal Fury was built off the technology and ideas of Bloody Roar III for the PS2 but the developer, Hudson, doesn't want a direct port of Bloody Roar III. If you go into your local gaming store and pick up Primal Fury hoping to get the exact same package that your friend with Bloody Roar III got, you will be disappointed, but in a greatly positive way. Primal Fury plans to include a whole gathering of new levels, features, and graphical additions/techniques, with a couple of characters that are new to Bloody Roar III also! Primal Fury isn't all new however, you still have the old modes of play available to you, you can revisit three levels from out of BR3. The Aircraft Carrier, Building Rooftop, and the Back Alley all return, however, they are all remodeled and the Back Alley also includes a destructible floor to allow you to get to other areas in which to fight! The new six arenas include: A Chinese temple, an aquarium, a freeway at night, and Indian palace, a laboratory, and a Japanese castle – all of which are GameCube exclusive. I also mentioned that you get alternative modes of play. Along with the survival and arcade modes you also are able to play the time attack, team battle, and training mode – which replaces the practice mode in the PS2 version. Alongside the mentioned modes of play, it is said that you are also able to unlock hidden modes of play by playing through the games different modes.

In Primal Fury you are also able to take a couple new characters (along with the original 12 and hidden 2 characters). They are a couple oldies from previous Bloody Roar incarnations, these characters are as follows: Chronos the Bird and Ganesha the elephant. If you don't feel like doing the math, you get a grand total of 16 playable characters to choose from, including the secret ones. They are as follows: Yugo the Wolf, Alice the Rabbit, Unko the Half-Beast, Long the Tiger, Gado the Lion, Shina the Leopard, Bakuryu the Mole, Busuzima the Chameleon, Stun the Insect, Jenny the Bat, Shenlong the Tiger, Xion the Unborn, Kohryu the Mole, Uranus the Chimera, and of course Chronos the Bird and Ganesha the Elephant. All of those characters are sure to keep you occupied, as they have two distinct modes, although someone who could morph into a Pikmin would be nice ;).

The graphical engine has been touched up to take advantage of the GameCube's advanced hardware. All characters have been remodeled (and as I have said, so have the arenas). The detail of the characters are visually better than the PS2 version, also they look more 'clean' than their Playstation 2 counterparts. All the detail on the arenas are much better, due to the fact that the GameCube's texturing abilities are par-none. The lighting effects are also noticeably better, from the somewhat dark and moody lighting details at the Japanese temple to some bright effects in the Lab. As an unreleased game (with a few more months to go, may I add) there are bound to be some problems with the framerate, but Hudson thinks they should easily be able to lock the game at a perfect sixty frames per second.

The controls lend heavily to Bloody Roar 3 but have made much more enjoyable and comfortable due to the ingenious design of the GameCube controller. The characters still have the same moves and control the same way but with the new controller this has been refined. The Analog stick or the D-Pad control the movement of your character, the B button performs your punches, the A button performs kicks, Y allows you to block and throw when pressed with a direction, X initiates your beast transformation and allows you to morph into your animal form, Z initiates your hyperbeast transformation and allows you to morph into a stronger animal than the regular 'beast transformation', but this extra power also comes at a cost to your health, taking a portion of it away. L and R let you maneuver around the arena, mainly to dodge attacks from your opponent.

All of these new and old features will lend to making a great game, but how great? As I have not been able to play this game pre-release (and probably won't) we will have to wait and see how this game stacks up against the rest of the fighters available multi-platform, and you will have to wait until we publish our review of this highly anticipated game for our beloved GCN.