A considerable amount of time and resources were spent by
Midwway to develop "Bio Freaks" for the arcade market, but
it never made it beyond the few test markets where it was
released... after playing the PSX version for a whole
weekend, thanks to Blockbuster, I can see why that was the
case. A tremendously derivative brawler with no identity
of its own beyond the bizarre and weird artistic design (a
mix of "Mad Max" and "Tank Girl"), "Bio Freaks" throws in
too many good elements from previous fighting games (the
'digital skin' textures, the bizarre White Zombie
sound-alike music, the buckets of blood and dismemberment
of characters) with lots of terrible elements from equally
terrible games (stiff control, horrid and cheap AI, choppy
frames of animation). The result is a very uneven game
that won't be widely welcomed by a PSX gaming community
spoiled by the King of the Iron Fist Tournament, Namco's
"Tekken 3". Fans of the "Mortal Kombat" games and Midway
freaks (yes, they are out there) will be satisfied, but
don't expect the PSX version of "Bio Freaks" to set the
world on fire. The N64 version, on the other hand, has a
chance to clean house because of that system's weak lineup
of fighting games, but that is another story for another
website dedicated to another system.
After the fall of the American Empire (hey, it happened to
Rome and Greece!), America was divided into fifty
privately-held territories which were the foundation for
the new Neo America, the result of the Techno-Industrial
Civil Wars. How does this explain the bloody mayhem that
is about to take place in the game is beyond me (didn't the
first "Killer Instinct" have a similar plot?), but it sets
the scene for the eight characters that are about to beat
each other over several semi-3D fighting stages. Some of
these freaks are weirder (Psyclown), stronger (Zipperhead),
meaner (Minatek) or cooler (Sabotage) than others, but they
have at their disposal a unique array of long-distance
weapons, as well as devastating close-proximity moves
guaranteed to decapitate or mutilate the opposition. If
all this sounds a lot like the new Kronos-developed Sony
game "Cardinal Syn", you should see the two games
side-by-side; based on the PSX promotional video I've seen
in stores, "Bio Freaks" and "Cardinal Syn" look almost
identical!
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: C
The control is stiff and sometimes unresponsive (every time
I tried to pause the game, it would take me two/three taps
on the Start button...why??!!), which if you combine with
the standard PSX control pad doesn't fare well for the
thumbs of gamers that dare try to control these freaks.
The set-up for the punches and kicks is identical to the
"Tekken" series (Square and Triangle are left and right
punch, X and Circle are left and right kick), with the
shoulder buttons providing left and right side-stepping (L2
and R2), weapon fire/shield and air thrust (R1 and L1).
Not exactly intuitive, but controllable if you stick with
it long enough. The problem is that by the time you can
control and do combos with your characters (ala "War Gods",
which was a "MK" clone to begin with), you will be exposed
to most of the game's hooks and game mechanics, which may
leave the gamer feeling like he/she had to work extra hard
just to get the hang of the bad control. And by the time
the stiffness of the control is tamed, everything that is
worth seeing in "Bio Freaks" has already been seen (just
wait until you see those endings...unbelievable!), leaving
only the Versus Mode for two-player bouts as a bonus. The
rest of the modes (Arcade, Team Battle, Survival, Practice)
have been seen before in other games, done much better.
Besides the derivative combos, "Bio Freaks" has the air
thrust of "Psychic Force" (except you only have a limited
hang time, indicated by a power bar that also measures your
shield power and weapon power) and the freaky character
design of "Time Killers", from which this game seems to be
getting half its inspiration. The fun starts (and ends
pretty soon after that, just like masturbation... not that
I would know about that anyway! :-P) with the ridiculous
dismemberment of your opponents, which is as over-the-top
and ridiculous as that of the "Mortal Kombat" games. The
'M' rating will guarantee a strong interest by (of all
people) Teens and "MK" heads alike, but after that I don't
see how this will stand the comparisons to "Dead or Alive",
"Street Fighter EX+Alpha" and "Tekken 3". Options in the
game include variable difficulty levels (from 'Novice' to
'Freak'), an option to turn the bloody moves off (yeah
right!) and a 'Hint' option that pauses the game midway
through a fight (no pun, I swear!) and gives you obvious
clues of how to fight back (ideal for beginners).
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B
If this game had a higher number of frames for every
character, it would have definitely be a contender instead
of a bum (homage to Brando!). It moves at a steady
frame-rate (20/24 per-second), but since there aren't
enough frames to fill every field/frame the result is a
choppy-looking fighter that reminds me more of "Criticom"
or "War Gods" than "Virtua Fighter 2" or "Sould Edge/Blade"
and its ilk. The FMV cinemas are clean and look fine, but
share the messy artistic design of the in-game graphics (a
personal taste decision of mine, which may not be shared by
others). The game's logo and fonts of the letters are
straight out of "War Gods" (they even share the same green
color), as is the 'digital skin' seen in that disastrous 3D
prequel to "MK4". These characters' 'skin' has some of the
best texture-mapping ever seen on the PSX, with facial
expressions that change before/after a fight ("Tekken 3"
doesn't has it) and clean-looking environments that are
straight out of "Crash Bandicoot 2", of all things (some
arenas look like the enclosed-stages during Crash's Boss
Battles). Go to the Training Mode, where you can select
any of the stages if you want to familiarize with them in
order to get acquainted with their own individual quirks
and pitfalls. By far the best graphical effect in the game
is when a character bleeds from either an open wound or a
dismembered arm (or a dismembered head, but by then the
battle is lost), and the camera swings bellow that
character and has the sprinkles of blood smear the
camera... a priceless moment no other PSX game has
achieved. It's not until the 100th time you've seen it
that you realize what a shallow and empty moment that is,
but it still is cool.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: C+
Good alternative 'thrash' music, which walks a fine line
between Cypress Hill and White Zombie, permeates the
already paranoid atmosphere of the graphics; some of the
songs even have lyrics and a "MK"-like announcer, which
give the music an edge over other mediocre gaming tunes
(can you say "War Gods" for the umpteen millionth time?).
I wonder what will Saffire, the team of developers that has
done a fine job porting the arcade game to the PSX and N64,
have to sacrifice in order to get the music into a cart.
Sound effects are the same we've heard before: groans,
bangs, taunts (which are either laughably bad or
unaudible), the announcer with the deep voice, the metallic
'thump' of two sharp objects hitting each other, arms being
ripped apart, necks being cracked, etc. Did Midway give
Saffire access to the source code for the sound effects
from their other brawler, "Mace: The Dark Ages"?
OVERALL: C
There are some cool elements here and there in "Bio Freaks"
(like the swords that Sabotage sticks in her opponents, and
stay there throuhgout the match!), but they are sadly
overshadowed by everything that either needed major
tweaking or didn't belong here in the first place
(Zipperhead is the cheapest, most unbalanced mother f******
character EVER in a fighting game...three hits and he kills
you??!!). For instance, why doesn't a character that gets
mutilated carry those wounds from a round over to the
next? Like Sega's "Fighting Vipers", it would have been
cool if a damaged underdog that lacks an arm (or a head
:-P) could come from behind and win over a healthy
opponent. But that is not to be, since "Bio Freaks" just
gives the player his/her limbs back for the next round of
mayhem; small details like that sink what could have become
another sleeper hit into future bargain-shelf fodder.
Midway sought to leave their summer of 1998 roster free of
two very similar products, "Mortal Kombat 4" and "Bio
Freaks", and the brand-recognition won over the untested
potential of this rookie offering. A sacrificial lamb of
sorts, "Bio Freaks" has a month of sales-potential to cover
as much of its development costs as possible. All I can
say is thank God there is a Blockbuster store that saved an
Electronics Boutique employee a ton of paperwork that would
have been filled if I had purchased this game, and then
returned it the very next day in disgust.
