This game rules. It's a really short, quick game to play through but you get some variation by playing as different characters and succeeding/failing at certain non-combat objectives through the story. The animations and cutscenes are all fantastic, and the gameplay is pretty solid - it's a simple beat-em-up without too too much depth, but the characters can be upgraded as you play and there's enough here to bring you back to replay it a few times. I don't love all the dialogue or the character designs, but this game holds up really well despite that. Would love to see more small-scale AAA games like this today.

The Bouncer is a schlocky action movie in the form of a 3D Beat Em' Up, wrapped lovingly in the peak of turn-of-the-century Squaresoft goodness.

I think If you meet this game where it is and understand what it's going for, you can have a really fun time playing and replaying it. I played through this on a PS2 with a couple friends watching, and we were continually impressed by the level of effort and craft that was poured into this otherwise simple game. Please give it a shot if you have a Dualshock 2 or other way of handling pressure-sensitive buttons.

Part of my 'unofficial Final Fantasy' canon. Like some kind of bastard love child between Tekken and FFX, The Bouncer is a techno-infused take on the beat 'em up genre through a distinctly Y2K era SquareSoft lens. Characters with spiky haircuts and nonsensical outfits fight their way through retro-futuristic locales, set to a backdrop of slick electric guitars and techno rock.

At first glance, you'd be forgiven for mistaking The Bouncer for a new entry in the Final Fantasy series, as they share so much aesthetic makeup with each other that they may as well be related, thanks in part due to Nomura's heavy involvement in both titles. It also feels similarly well produced with an attention to graphical fidelity and a gorgeous all round presentation.

In essence then, The Bouncer is basically a beautifully rendered, feature length Final Fantasy cutscene that's occasionally injected with short and sweet bursts of arcade beat 'em up action, which play out like a simple version of Streets of Rage in the Tekken engine. These sections are fun enough, thanks mostly to the hilarious ragdoll physics which lets you launch enemies into the air and send them hurtling in to one another, but all too brief and unfortunately don't offer much in the way of depth or variety. With a focus so clearly placed on its story and presentation above deep gameplay or mechanics, you often feel like you're spending more time watching than playing- but that's not necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary,The Bouncer takes some interesting creative risks to stand out from the crowd and in hindsight could be considered one of the first truly cinematic movie games.

Clocking in at around only 2 hours, the game is easily beatable in one sitting but offers some decent replay value, as it can be played from three different perspectives with unlockable characters and features branching paths, reframing certain events within the story.

Harshly judged at release for not living up to sky high expectations (being Squares first release on the new console), The Bouncer is more than the sum of its parts and well worth revisiting for those looking to indulge in some mindless fun and early PS2 aesthetic kino, if nothing else. And boy does it deliver on that.

this game is a doozy, firstly i just wanna say that its gotta be one of the most unintentional HILARIOUS games i have played in a while, everything that happens is wild and the pacing is all over the place but i genuinely cant help but smile through whatever these bar bouncers go through

literally some shit the breakfast crew would go through.

the gameplay gets a lil repetitive, yeah sure, and the lack of a 3 player in the story is a bummer but its still a fun time cause of everything else

its like this weird fusion of a nickelodeon movie and rush hour thats all i could think about for some reason throughout the whole ride.

clean hour and a half game doesn't overstay its welcome just a neat piece of square history i feel.

would love to see a refined sequel but thats probably never gonna happen and im def not gonna be super duper antsy about like waiting for the next DK game to come out.

final thing of note, this feels like a "yeah i just got a ps2" typa game.

humble 6/10.