3RRDC Jojo

Are you tired of all those generic fighting games? Are you getting
bored seeing a main ninja character who shoots out some blast from
his hands? Tired of fighting games that have bouncy women? (well this
game has one but...) Tired of crappy 3d graphics? If you answered yes
to just one of them, then this game is for you. If you answered no to all
of them then this game is for you. Plain and simple Jojo's bizarre
adventure for the dreamcast just kicks serious butt. It kicks my butt,
your butt, and it even tingles the fat guy down the street's butt. A
lovely breath of fresh air in a sometimes repetitive and boring genre,
JoJo is a game (and franchise) that must not be missed.

If you want your fighting games to have a story, please play this game.
Based off the very long running manga by Hirohiko Araki, this game
has plenty of material to run off on. Based off the third installment of
the manga (as is the anime, now finally being available in English), this
is the installment where the JoJo universe gets stands. Crap I lost you.
Ok you have the good guy Joestars, and the bad guy Dio (who hates
the Joestars). A family feud going on for quite some time, we are now
introduced to the newest Joestar, Jotaro, or JoJo for short. Jotaro,
like many other characters, is a stand user. That means he can call
upon some mystical beign to help him. Of course we use these stands
for fighting. So in a faithful adaptation of the manga, JoJo and his band
of new friends must find Dio in Egypt and stop him once and for all,
because JoJo's mom is ill. Of course they have to fight his minions
first. So if you are familiar with the comic, you'll love this game. If you
aren't you'll still enjoy the game because of the original story.

Character selection is good. You got JoJo, his grandpa Joseph, Iggy
the dog and many more. There are cutscenes before and after every
level (except for secret characters) and everyone has their own
ending. I love the zany and tough (yes still kinda feminine) art style of
the game, so rock on JoJo. (Characters all get a few colors to choose
from as well.)

And he will rock on in 2 games on 1 disk! Yep you get JoJo's venture,
and it's Update, JoJo's bizarre adventure (Both originated in the
arcade, and I don't think were ever in American arcades). Bizzare has
more characters and moves for the fighters, but having both is cool for
the fans. You get arcade, vs., training, and survival to play in. (Along
with a secret mode you can unlock, Alessy mode...) An art gallery and a
place to re-watch all the stories would have been nice, but hey it's
JoJo in America so I won't complain (much). In arcade you can choose
story or challenge. Play challenge to unlock more secret characters.
(Challenge is pretty much survival).

The moves for each character are a little limited (though a little better
in bizarre). Light attack, Medium attack, and heavy attack are
standard. But call out your stand and then your character will have
his/her stand help fight alongside you. You can airblock, safefall,
throw, and taunt among other various things. So gameplay is a little
light. But the special attacks of the characters are wonderful. Very
faithful to the comics. Some of them are quite strange and I love it.
From cars hitting you, to very slow bullets shooting you, to being
slashed with swords, the action is varied and intense.

The graphics, while Ok, aren't up to the 2d standard of today. Jaggies
everywhere, and the backgrounds range from very detailed, to almost
none. But the characters all have style and that's what counts. Their
attacks also look great. Everyone is varied and original (and bizzare).
So the graphics aren't great but they don't hurt my eyes. When you kill
someone with a special attack, the background will show their face
and blood erupting from it! (Although it's all in black and white to look
like the comic.) The stands are just as original as the main characters.
Cool ones to note are the puppet who aids the evil D'bo, JoJo's Star
Platinum, and Avdul's Magician Red.

The music is wonderful. Very good job on capcom's part. I can
remember nearly every character's music. Characters don't speak in
cut scenes, but they do yell out attacks. The announcer is sweet. His
voice is very unique. Very pleased with sound. One of the better
fighting game soundtracks (besides Kof).

But not all is well in JoJo land. Remember Capcom was releasing this
and that can sometimes mean editing for content and bonuses. First
off, the game is based off a sometimes very violent comic. The blood in
this game is white. (Although sometimes JoJo bleeds black, is that
ink?) One of the levels has a background of the inside of a plane. A
violent battle took place leaving some dead. This was toned down in
the U.S release. The translation is ok (hey the original manga is still not
officially translated!) But the dreamcast got shafted on one of the
modes, Super story mode. I guess it's like a mission mode with mini
games and more people to fight from the comic. The ps1 release got
this but dreamcast fans didn't. To add insult to injury, it still mentions
and shows super story mode on the back of the case. Ouch. Name
changes are also thrown about. Originally many characters are named
after pop icons. So their names are slightly changed. Ex: D'vo becomes
D'bo. Or vanilla (with stand named Ice) becomes Ice with the stand
cream. But even with all these edits and removals, JoJo is still a very
playable game, and I'm surprised Capcom released it in the states. (By
the way the ps2 one has been canceled unfortunately.) Of course the
online play from the matching service version is not here.

Replay is intense. Lots of characters, 2 games (though similar),
everyone has their own ending, secret characters, Alessy Mode, and
the fact that it has vs. mode in it up the replay. I replay it to watch the
stories unfold. So if you get into the JoJo groove, you should be there
awhile. (I bought the game back in 2000, and I still play it at least a few
times a month.)

So if you're looking for a more original, story based fighter, JoJo is for
you. Fan of anime? You'll like this one too. 2d Fighting game fan? Yep,
you'll like it. Just be warned. Once you enter the world of JoJo, you will
never want to come out. Normally games based off manga and anime
tend to be on the crappy side, but here we have another example of
the exception. Sure the gameplay isn't too deep, and the graphics
aren't too pretty, but this is another case where a good sotry and good
characters can over ride such minor complaints. And the game is still
semi easy to find. (Tracking down the import only JoJo RPG on the
Super Famicom, now that's another story!) Wonderful story,
characters, and Sound, with fun gameplay, and graphics that bring the
classic characters to life, please play JoJo.

Review by: Orochi Sonic