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By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne Rating: Average It takes something pretty impressive for a fighting game to stand out in this day and age of games like Soul Calibur, Tekken, and Dead or Alive 2. Rather than trying to beat Namco and Tecmo at their own game, Capcom's goal with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was apparently to make it as weird as humanly possible. Unfortunately for Capcom, it takes a lot more for a game to succeed than just "being weird." One thing that's guaranteed when you start playing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is that it's not like any other fighting game you have ever played. The game lives up to its title with bizarre characters, super moves, mini games, sound effects, and just about everything else you can imagine. Showing this game to your friends is more likely to result in strange looks than hours of entertainment. Most of the super moves will either make you chuckle a little bit or say to yourself, "What the hell is happening?" This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if Capcom hadn't made these moves crazy just for the sake of being crazy. The super moves don't really correspond with their respective characters, so they don't add to the characters' personalities at all. The biggest problem with the super moves is that they're way too easy to pull off, which makes it pointless to do standard punch and kick moves. Beyond the super moves, all of the characters have a fairly basic line-up of moves that are very reminiscent of the Street Fighter series. The combos seem to have been inspired by Mortal Kombat because they are nothing more than flurries of punches and kicks with loud sound effects. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has several mini games that are kind of like the ones in Street Fighter 2 (where you had to destroy a car or a tower of bricks within a time limit). The main difference is that JoJo's mini games don't have anything to do with training for combat and generally don't make any sense. One minute you'll be playing poker, and the next minute you'll be on some sort of game show. These mini games might be fun for some people, but I found them to be more confusing than they are entertaining. This game's graphics are even more outdated than its fighting engine. In both the Dreamcast and PlayStation versions of the game, the animations are so choppy that sometimes I could actually count each frame of animation. It's also disappointing that the characters are so pixelated. On the other hand, the backgrounds are well-done and the game as a whole is very colorful. The music fits in with the rest of the game because it's odd, but I was annoyed by its inconsistency. Having music tracks that are different from one another adds variety to some games, but in JoJo's case, it's just annoying to hear it go from a rock song to a bouncy techno tune. On the bright side, the voice-overs are pretty funny, and it's even funnier to see the expression on someone's face when they walk into the room and hear the voices. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure could have been worth buying if it had gameplay even half as unique as its overall design. Capcom spent way too much time trying to make this game weird and not enough time trying to make it fun. Send your thoughts on this review to jimmy@mastergamer.com
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