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This review of Ultraman: Fighting Evolution should serve as warning that when you hear absolutely NOTHING about a game before it appears, it usually means it's crap. Acclaim usually relies on this tactic and the results are always the same. However, Banpresto, the software division of Bandai Entertainment, which has a similar reputation for churning out garbage to the masses, has had a small string of average quality successes recently so I thought Ultraman: FE would fall into the same category. I mean, alright, Panzer Bandit was a Guardian Heroes rip-off without the depth, but it was fun, and Critical Blow was an above-average 3D fighter with a twist. Here was Banpresto's opportunity to build on those accomplishments, right? How wrong I was. In case you know not who Ultraman is, he's a long-running success story in Japan, somewhat similar in feel to the Kamen Riders or the Power Rangers if you must, regarding a team that safeguards the Earth from gigantic monsters from outer-space. Certain members of the team can transform into 40-story tall Ultramen. That being the premise of the show as well as the game, let's begin.
First off you'll notice the characters all look REALLY good. I'm talking on a level of Tobal 2. That good. The basically red and silver costumes of the Ultramen lend themselves well to the gourad-shading and light-sourcing (which, by the way, is also extremely well done). And as far as the monsters go, they all look how they're supposed to look, with minimal polygon-flicker. In fact, they're so well done you'd swear they were wearing real rubber suits. Check out King Joe and you'll see what I mean. The motion capture was well done and the animation is also pretty good. The CG intro is also very well done. It makes you wish that they'd stop using real 'actors' in the show and computer generate the whole thing. That, however, is where the good news ends.
Graphics. Where do I begin? Either Banpresto's programmers are stupid or they're really lazy. I tend to lean towards the latter, since they were able to make the characters so nice. But when you get a look at the backgrounds you'll wonder if the interns took over when the usual staff went out to lunch. You'll find that the backgrounds are simple 2D bitmaps, which is no crime in and of itself, since that is what most 3D fighters are made of these days. But the thing that really screams laziness are the floor textures themselves. First off, the backgrounds and the foreground aren't even locked together, so what you get is a dizzying feeling of being on sort of a merry-go-round. The background freely swivels of its own accord with no consideration for the floor. The token gestures that Banpresto took to give you a sense of scale were also a criminal waste of time. Check the trees that float aimlessly as if hovering over the ground. The backgrounds are so poorly constructed that when you lose a match, and the camera pans to a complete overhead-view, the ground textures buckle and warp like they were going to explode at any minute. Now, you would begin to think that since Banpresto saved themselves the trouble of creating processor-intensive backgrounds that the frame-rate would be something like 60fps, right? Well, once again you would be wrong. Although the frame-rate chugs along at about a respectable 30fps, there are times when it definitely gets sluggish. One of the most surprising things is that on one of the stages which takes place at night, where there is a minimum of light-sourcing (except for explosions), and no ray-traced shadows whatsoever, it is here where the frame-rate is the slowest of any stage. Perhaps it's the presence of the lightning bugs, which if they're supposed to be scale, would probably be the size of pigeons.
After you get over the shock of how inconsistent the graphics are you'll get to struggle with the controls. You'll see in the manual that each character has a surprisingly substantial amount of moves, but good luck pulling them off. I'll draw a parallel here by comparing driving a small manual-transmission Honda Civic to driving a '77 Lincoln Continental. Some games control like the Honda, it doesn't do a damn thing you don't make it do. Some games, such as Ultraman: FE, control like the Lincoln, you turn the wheel now, and about 3 seconds from now the wheels up front will start to respond. Playing Ultraman is like that, what happens on the screen doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what you pressed on the control pad. And you'll swear you had your foot in Ace Killers face and yet he's throwing you across the screen.
Which brings us to the AI. If you're a die-hard Ultraman fan, and are determined to get this game, do yourself a favor and set the difficulty to EASY. I'm serious for a number of reasons. This is not Tekken, or Dead or Alive. This has NOTHING to do with skill. In fact, this game makes Toshinden seem like Virtua Fighter. If you want to save yourself some money on broken controllers you'll change the difficulty level. There is no shame in this here, because you'll simply display your superior intelligence by circumventing the cheese-circus that is the NORMAL difficulty in this game. You could spend fifteen seconds sending drop-kicks to your opponents head and take off a good tenth of his lifebar, and yet he comes roaring back with an ankle-kick and immediately reduces your health by 40 percent. Okay, so they go the extra yard and give you a side-step in this game, BUT-IT-DOESN'T-MATTER, because they'll still get you no matter what, even with vertical strikes. In fact I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I directly hit someone and saw absolutely NO power subtracted from their life-bar. Some characters life-bars actually INCREASE if you don't hit them enough.
The only redeeming factor here is that they put a number of extras in for the otaku to enjoy. Firstly, there are a good number of hidden characters to unlock simply by beating the game with all the original characters. Unfortunately, all the extra characters are nothing more that rubber-suited goons like the rest of the monsters. They should have put in some other Ultramen, such as UltramanTiga. They also have an art gallery that adds pictures as you access more creatures.
So what this all comes down to, is if you're an Ultraman fan like me, you'll like this title for display purposes only. You know, something to add to your collection. I mean, it's better than the old Super Nintendo game by a long shot, and it sure beats the Saturn Ultraman game that came out over a year ago. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this game kicks the pants off Dragon Ball: Final Bout. However, if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into besides your hand, you're better off picking up Dead or Alive or waiting for Tekken 3.
Graphics 8.0
The characters are incredibly well done. Not a polygon flicker in sight, and beautiful gourad-shading and light-sourcing. Backgrounds look like crappy-textured floors combined with bland uninspired 2D bitmaps.
Gameplay/Control 3.0
What control? So they give you a side-step. Who cares when you're still getting your butt kicked?
Sound 7.0
Voices are accurate to the TV show. The music is okay, probably frutier than you'd expect. Early '70's lounge-a-palooza.
Presentation 8.0
With the amount of extras they include, you'd almost think Banpresto cared. But they don't. What you really wish would happen is that they would go out of business so that they would stop pushing this licensed crap on the adoring public and let AM2 or Namco do an Ultraman or Dragon Ball game.
Final Score 6.5
In all honesty a better score than it really should get, but here's hoping that Banpresto will someday understand what it takes to make a good game.