Video Game Help Desk - Bloody Roar: Primal Fury

BLOODY ROAR: PRIMAL FURY (for Nintendo GameCube) is the latest incarnation of a combat game in which the characters can change or morph into anthropomorphic bipedal animal or “Beast” alter egos. The newest version of BLOODY ROAR is more than a butt-kicking good time; it takes it to the next level. The characters are multi-dimensional --- not the graphics, which are 2-D that cheats a 3-D effect --- made real with emotions and relationship histories.

The key to the controls: The A button is for kicking, the B button is for hitting, and the X button is for “Beast Change”.

YUGO THE WOLF
The handsome and popular captain of the football team. He’s a puncher and in his Wolf Beast mode a slasher. But for all that, he’s more flash and cockiness than ability. Your best bet to win with Yugo is Beast change into the wolf, then hit B enough to weaken your opponent then back off and circle around the ring out of range of your opponent’s blows until time runs out and Yugo wins by default.

URIKO THE HALF-BEAST
Uriko is the smart, cute, unpopular girl in the Molly Ringwald mode. Don’t be deceived by her shy giggly demeanor nor the kitty cat cuteness of her Beast mode. The game soundtrack may be wailing synth rock, bit in her head all she hears is ABBA. Move the joystick up and down and press the A and B buttons to send her twirling in a punching and kicking dervish to the beat of “Dancing Queen.” She and Busuzima have been best friends since kindergarten. She thinks of him as a friend only and is oblivious to his unrelenting crush on her.

BUSUZIMA THE CHAMELEON
Busuzima is a gangly geek who is painfully in denial of about his extreme uncoolness. In his Beast mode, he’s a big slobbering chameleon lizard. His main strength is in his punch. As you advance toward your opponent, continually hit the B button. This will throw Busuzima’s arms into a swinging motion that allows him to windmill chop his opponent into a corner. When Busuzima is fighting Yugo the Wolf, remember to channel all the pain and rejection Busuzima felt when his best friend and longtime crush Uriko chose Yugo over him for her date to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

GADO THE LION
This spiky-haired, scar-faced ex-Marine and former pro footballer turned bartender Beast changes into a spiky-haired, scar-faced lion. He’s big and strong and his punches pack a wallop, but years of alcohol abuse have left him a sluggish shell of his former butt-kicking self. His punches don’t always land and he tends to get easily winded by the second round of a fight. His marriage to Jenny the Bat was destroyed by his drinking and her affair with Uranus the Chimera.

JENNY THE BAT
This former fashion model is one lean, mean, long-legged, bosomy fighting machine. When in Beast mode, move up and forward with the joy stick and repeatedly press the X button to take advantage of her bat wings and descend upon her opponent with a barrage of machine gun kicks from her spike-heeled boots. When Jenny is fighting Gado, get in close and hit the Y button to make her suck his blood. This is the closest she’s going to get to making him pay all that back alimony he owes her.

SHINA THE LEOPARD
Shina is Gado’s daughter from his first marriage. She’s resentful toward her father for marrying Jenny, but freely admits that Gado was a real jerk to her ex-stepmother. Shina is a powerful kicker, so keep hitting that A button. Her one-two-three combination kick is difficult to block. Also when initially selecting Shina, be sure to choose her wardrobe carefully. The half t-shirt and short shorts provide better freedom of movement and mobility than the coveralls, and they just plain look sexier.

BAKURYU THE MOLE
He’s a reclusive pop star who lives a Peter pan existence in order to make up for the childhood he never had. Although in his human mode he is a solid kicker, your best bet to win with Bakuryu is to Beast change and press X using his deadly knifelike mole claws to slash through his opponents like so many supermarket tabloids.

KOHRYU THE IRON MOLE
A mysterious, deadly, masked, virtually-unstoppable, heavily-armored assassin who Beast changes into a robotic mole creature with razor sharp machetes for claws and a metal funnel for a nose. In both human and Beast modes, he is near-sighted and so tends to mistake anyone and everyone for his assigned prey. When he’s not slicing through opponents, he’s the devoted husband of Mary Margaret and dedicated father of Kohryu Jr. (age 5) and Haley (age 3). He loves his job, but hates that it entails spending so much time away from his wife and kids.

GANESHA THE ELEPHANT
Let’s face it, in his human form, he’s a fat, slow, old man wearing a breastplate and parachute pants, and in Beast mode he’s just a big-eared, big-nosed version of the same thing. Your only real hope for defeating his opponent is to Beast change into elephant mode and swing that trunk like there’s no tomorrow.

LONG THE TIGER and SHENLONG THE TIGER
These brothers are alike in physical features and fighting styles, but that’s where the family resemblance ends. Long is the bespectacled, bookish, sensitive type with an Oriental fashion bent. Shenlong is a self-obsessed, motorcycle-riding extrovert with a penchant for leather vests and purple, open-collar shirts. They work in the same office with Alice and compete daily for her attention and affection. When playing as Shenlong or Long, your best bet for defeating your opponent is a series of hit and kick combination moves. Simply hit the following keys in this order: ABBdownBupA(Beast change with X)XYdownBXdownupdownAXB.

ALICE THE RABBIT
This short-skirted career woman with a giant Rabbit alter ego is Bloody Roar: Primal Fury’s answer to Ally McBeal without the anorexia. She likes both Long and Shenlong, and as her gay roommate Chronos keeps telling her, it’s asking for trouble to date brothers. She maintains that if she could combine the Long brothers’ individual good traits she’d have the perfect man. When playing as Alice, move the joy stick down to move her into a crouch then repeatedly hit the X button and the bunny will punch and kick her opponent into submission.

CHRONOS THE PHOENIX
Chronos is not what he seems. Don’t be deceived by his foppish exterior nor his light green blow wave hair nor his skirt-like tunic nor his tendency to spin around and giggle. Chronos’ slapping and kicking abilities make him a tough little combatant. Don’t engage his Beast mode expecting him to morph into a mighty winged phoenix. More often than not, he transforms instead into a knee high, squawking penguin in a skirt-like tunic. But don’t despair, simply hit the X button over and over again until he’s power pecked maximum damage on his opponent’s knees.

URANUS THE CHIMERA
In her human form, she’s a sleek, exotically sexy ice queen, but as a Beast she’s a big, ugly, snarling bull-horned chimera. Take heed, her ice queen exterior is only a front. She may be beautiful on the outside, but inside she feels like an ugly freak. Use this to your advantage. Turn her inner loathing outward and focus it on kicking and slashing her opponents out of the ring. She has a superb natural sense of direction, so keep pressing A and her spike-heeled boots will viciously find their target on their own.

STUN THE INSECT
Stun didn’t ask to be a big slow-witted and slow moving cyborg with an underbite. In Beast mode his pitiful little insect wings may be laughable, but his immense cranial stinger is anything but funny to his opponents. Use his manchild-like confusion and brutish strength to lash out at anything and anyone he doesn’t understand and the X button to put the sting on any opponent slow enough to get in his way.

XION THE UNBORN
First of all, his real name is Shawn. Not Xion. He spells it “Xion” because he thinks it’s cool and sciencefictiony. But he’s not fooling anybody. He’s a poser and everybody knows it except him. Can we talk about something else?