Oft' is the time that the HSLife crew assemble around my house for a chance to beat each other's virtual brains in on Bloody Roar 2. Nase_2K and I reckon that we are the best in the world at Bloody Roar 1 and 2, and would gladly take any challenge. For instance, can any of you complete Bloody Roar 1 on top difficulty in less than two and a half minutes? I can, and I'll get a screenshot to prove it. How about a 128 hit combo with Fox? Easy, that is. To show the world what nice people we are, we thought we would tell you, the people, how to play the game almost as well as us. We'll start off with a bit of a rough guide to the game.

Here are a few techniques. All the characters have what we call a 'Crackle-smack' move. It is normally used by pressing HCA (half circle away) on the joypad and then pressing P (punch). Sometimes (for Gado, Stun, and Shina) you have to press HCA and K (kick). This causes your character to crackle with electricity, and then to launch into a move. While your character is crackling, they are also performing a high light block, so, unless your opponent sweeps, throws or hits you with a heavy move, you are going to connect. Crackle-smack moves are very important, and, if you learn to time them properly, you will be on the way to becoming a BRII master.

When you play, pick a character you like and stick with them. You'll find that not only do you get very good at playing that character, but you'll be good when you have to play others, too. Bakuryu is a good character to start off with, as his fluidity and ease of use makes his popular with beginners. Once you get the hang of him and get an understanding of how the game works, you find picking up the rest of the characters quite easy.

Use throws. Often throws are shunned by 'proper' players of beat-em-ups, who say they are cheap moves used by the inexperienced. That's bullshit, and I can say that because I fought off plenty of 'proper' players at the BRII championships. Throws are very hard to block and cause a fair amount of damage, but they also change the pace of the fight, which is very important. Lets say that Gado is playing Long, and Long is launching combo after combo at Gado, who can do nothing but block the hits. Wait for a pause, take a big step forward (double-tap toward) and press the T (throw) button. Long will end up on the floor, and then Gado can go on the attack.

One of things that surprises me most about BRII is the amount of time people playing spend on the floor. For some reason, people refuse to jump. When you think of other games, like Street Fighter II, for example, people spend most of their time jumping around. Although difficult to get right, being in the air in BRII is a good place to be. Not only can you block, but you also get access to some fearsome attacks. Look at Jenny on the left there. Remember that your powerful attacks in the air come of pressing toward and K or P at the same time. These will result in knock-down moves. Also bear in mind that if to jump over someone, pressing toward them and K will result in your character kicking out behind them in an unblockable move. Also bear in mind that you can only block one hit whilst airborne.

And that brings us on neatly to the most important bit of the game; blocking. It's all very well knowing how to land a twenty-hitter, but knowing how to stop one is far more important. There are two types of block in BRII, a light block and a heavy block. The best way to block is actually to get of the way, perhaps you can duck, or hop into the air. Otherwise you should always use light blocks (by leaving the joypad alone, and not attacking) unless the other player comes at you with a heavy attack. You know if they do, because a little spark appears and a "Ching" noise is heard. When this happens, either press R1 or away on the joypad to block. Remember though, that after blocking heavily it takes longer for you to get back in a ready position, and makes it harder to counter-strike. We'll discuss counter-strikes next month.

Long is probably the hardest player to get to grips with, but is one of the best once you do. Long is the master of fast, hard attacks, and would be almost unbeatable if only he had a low attack whilst running. To play well as Long, you need to practice timing, and master his circle combo attacks. It's not as hard as the manual makes out. Simply, his circle of attacks consists of up to six moves. Before you can use the combo circle, you have to perform some moves that let you get into it. Confused? Don't be. Simply, to get Long to do a phat combo, start with one of the following.

P, P, P This performs three punches, which are two high attacks and one middle attack.
P, K This performs a high punch followed by a very fast high roundhouse kick.
K, dK This performs a middle kick and a low kick.
P, tP This performs a high punch, and a more powerful mid punch.

These are the simplest ways to get Long into a position to start a combo. Be ready to hit the cancel/block button at this stage ( R1 ) because there is a small pause that a fast character could use to belt you across the screen in. Now you can enter the circle combo technique. You can start the circle combo with any of the following moves, and keep adding additional moves quickly. Here are some rules:
You cannot use the same move twice in one combo. Because of this, the largest amount of moves you can use in the middle of your combo is six. You must move through the list of moves in one direction only, and you must use the moves in order, whether going up the list or down. Here's the list...

P A mid punch
dK A sweep
tP A round-house shoulder barge
K A high kick
dP Two quick roundhouse low punches
tK A hard, mid-section kick.

So, for example, lets say you pressed P, P, P to get into the circle combo section. You could then pick any of the above moves to start your combo with, say, K. Now, you can move up or down the list, doing each move in order. That could be either P, P, P, K, tP, dK, P, tK, dP if you want to go up the list, or P, P, P, K, dP, tK, P, dK, tP if you want to go down. And remember, you can start on any move you like, but you must input the moves quickly. Once you know the list off by heart, you can watch the screen while you do them. Long appears to be going mental, throwing move after move after move at the poor opposition, easily knocking off 50% damage if you manage to hit with all of your moves. Look at my first example for an idea of what this does. High punch, high punch, mid punch, high kick, shoulder-barge, floor sweep, mid punch, mid kick, double low roundhouse punch. Ouch.
So, you've got the circle combo's down to a T. Now you can add on a finishing move. These moves knock the character off their feet, and so end the combo, but they do much more damage that Longs other attacks, more still if you have used all six of the circle combo's before the finishing move. You can do one, and only one, of the following.

t, tP "Wargh!" Long punches the opposition across the screen. bP "Wargh!" Long shoulder-barges the opposition across the screen. d, dP "Watch out! Wadawadawadawada-WARGH!" Long uppercuts the opponent, stamps on the floor, and unleashes a massive flurry of punches all over their upper section, ending with a huge punch that sends them flying. ( 18 hits ) d, dK Long sweeps them, hard, sending them straight to the floor. bK, K A roundhouse kick that knocks the opponents spinning into the air, then hits them again for good measure. t, tK "Wor!" A very powerful overhead split-kick hctP "Har!" A flying punch that launches them across the ring. hcaP "Huh!" A hard charge elbow that knocks them flying. hcaK "Hu! Ha-ha-ha-wargh!" Long leaps on their head and stamps them to the ground hctK "Ha-ha!" Long kicks the into the air with both feet.

Wow! Now that is a list of moves. So, let's recap. Get into a combo with P, P, P. Quickly input your combo moves, say, K, tP, dK, P, tK, dP. Now, put in a finishing move, perhaps the all conquering d, dp. In this situation, Long does the following : High punch, high punch, mid punch, high kick, shoulder-barge, floor sweep, mid punch, mid kick, double low roundhouse punch, upper cut, floor stomp, 17 hit flurry combo, heavy punch. That's 30 hits. 30. Get this entire combo off, and, unless you're playing with stupidly low damage, your opponent is dead. It's that simple. But hang on! If you are a beast, there are more finishing moves you can use! Try one of these:

B, B Long slashes their face and then uppercuts them into the air.  B, tB Long slashes, then knocks them down. B, dB Long slashes, then uses both paws to slash at their ankles. F, tB Long knocks them across the ring. D, dB Erm. Well, Long does something impressive, I'm sure. HctB Long jumps over them, grabs at their neck and throws them.

Gosh! That's all mightily impressive, but is there more? Why, yes. They are 2 manual combo's that I figured out, which, even at the lowest damage setting, will destroy and embarrass any fool who thinks he can dance with Long and live. There are two different ones. Try the following:  P, P, P, dK, tP, K, tP, tK, P, B, B At this point, pause for a few seconds to let Long catch up with the moves. For the following moves, Long will knock them into the air, so you will have to time your attacks to juggle them. Continue with uK, uK, uB, B. Get it right and this is what Long does: High punch, high punch, mid punch, sweep. They are now on their knees, and about to get bitched on. Long goes into warp mode and follows with : high punch, high kick, double knee punch, mid kick, high punch, swipe to the head, upper cut. Now your opponent is in the air. Flying kick. They go up again. Another flying kick. Up again. Flying roundhouse. They go up spinning in the air. Nothing they can do now. Hard shoulder barge. Oh-ho! See ya! Back they fly across the ring, and if it's the last round, they go through the fence. Oh yes. And, if that didn't seem to embarrass them enough, try the following:

K, dK, K, tP, dK, P, tK, dP, B, B, uK, uK, and then press L1. Long will do his hyper beast drive and catch them just as they land, pummelling them into a wall and killing them. You've gotta see it to believe it.

STOP PRESS! **Try this... P, P, P, dK, tP, K, dP, tK, P, B, B, uK, uK, uB, K, uK, uK, uB, K, uK, uK, uB, B. **

As Long would say, "This Kito battle is over."

Fitchy has something to say about playing with little Bakuryu.
"Smack the buttons randomly like a mad git, and hope and pray you'll win one in three."
"If they crackle, block."
"My head hurts."

Nice one, Fitchy.

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