The graphics in Bloody Roar II: The New Breed are pretty good. The characters are, at times, overly polygonal, but have a definite ‘anime’ feel to them that sort of compensates for the lack of detail. The movement of the characters is also pretty fluid and realistic. Some of the moves are just okay, some of the moves are cool, and some leave your jaw collecting dust on the floor. This is especially true of the ‘Rage’ Moves. During these, the surroundings change to a grid, and the camera angle spins around to best highlight these awesome combo moves. In the Custom Mode, there are some additional visual options. However, these tend to look ‘trippy’ and (in my opinion) detract from the good looking graphics by blurring the motion. The soundtrack is high-speed and high action, but is not especially creative. The sound effects, however, are actually pretty good, and some of the characters’ sayings are quite comical and add a lot of ‘personality’ to them.

Bloody Roar II is truly a fun game. That is, if you have someone to play with. The one player game modes are inconsistent, some being ridiculously easy and others being irritatingly difficult. The story mode is no challenge, and the other modes are hit or miss, but Bloody Roar II is hell-a-fun when you play against another person. The moves are there, and the animation and graphics are smooth... it’s just the fighting A.I. that is inconsistent. Playing against another person takes this part out of the hands of the game. (I could play this one with friends through the night... and have!)

Oh, boy. This game is all over the place. The difficulty level is highly inconsistent -- in the Story mode, the game is laughably easy, while in other parts you have a 50-50 chance of each enemy being ridiculously easy or hard. You know something is a little off when you see a LOT of ‘perfect’ or near perfect scores, half the time in your favor, and half the time against you. However, the gaming engine is solid, so when playing against a human opponent, the game is quite fun to play.

Bloody Roar II is a primarily 2D fighting game in a 3D world. While your characters are 3D, the action is 2D most of the time. Player characters are not even allowed to ‘side-step’ unless you play in the Custom mode. All in all, however, the gameplay is pretty solid during two player games, thanks to a nice selection of unique moves and a tight fighting engine. Bloody Roar II has a variety of meters which indicate health, stun, rage, etc., which can be monitored to plan the perfect time for using certain types of moves, or can be pretty much ignored without too great a consequence.