Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.

IF IT’S A BEAT EM UP, THEN there usually has to be a far-fetched storyline, and Bio Freaks is no exception. Biological Flying Robotic Enhanced Armoured Killing Synthoids, or Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. for short, were created (or will be, if you prefer) by gigantic corporations in the future to settle disputes over territory, copyright and that sort of thing. They reasoned that rather than spending billions on huge armies and expensive tactical weapons, the issues could be settled by one-on-one armed combat. So to cut a long story short, whenever a GI-Corp (as the super corporations became known) had a problem, their super-powered humanoids would enter the arena and battle to decide which company won.

IT’S A GAME JIM...

That aside, Bio Freaks is a beat-’em-up – pure and simple. There is a tendency at this point to cry ‘Oh no, not another lousy N64 beat-’em-up!’ and in fact the only really decent one so far for the console has been Fighter’s Destiny. Well, N64 owners despair no longer, for the ultimate beat-’em-up is here! Yes, no longer will PlayStation owners look at your N64 game and scoff loudly before turning back to play Tekken 3... well, okay, they might, but secretly they’ll be seething that they didn’t invest in a Nintendo.

Bio Freaks takes the beat-’em-up concepts of Mortal Kombat, namely excessive gore and great fight sequences, combines them with a little bit of Virtua Fighter, then has added a few touches of its own to produce something new and extremely addictive.

All the usual modes of play are there, Practice, Arcade, Vs, Survival, and the action takes place in a host of different interactive arenas. Yes, we did say interactive. However, unlike the ‘interactive’ arenas in GASP!! Fighters Nextream the areas in Bio Freaks are actually a lot of fun, and can have a major influence on the combat.

You choose from eight different characters who fit into one or more of three categories: Synthoids, Retros and Dozers. The Synthoids are clones with enhanced regenerative abilities, essentially human in form. Retros are Synthoids whose regenerative abilities have begun to fail and so parts of them have been retro-fitted with cybernetic replacements. The third category, Dozers, are so far gone that they’ve been totally reconstructed from cybernetic parts. The only organic bit that survives is their brain, although even that isn’t totally original as all Freaks are (supposedly) controlled via a ‘bio-drive’ control chip implanted in their cerebral cortex. Yeah, whatever.

In addition to the standard beat-’em-up kicks and punches, every character has a vast array of special moves, all dependent on their own peculiar abilities. These range from being able to catch opponents in a whirlwind to laying down napalm in an aerial bombing run. Which of course means that yes, they do fly. Or rather they hover, using various different propulsion systems. Certain characters hover better than others, depending on their adaptability to the air – Purge, for instance, is a short bloke with a helicopter rotor strapped to his head so he’s pretty nifty when it comes to dogfights. Ssapo, on the other hand, is a, erm... a large green toad thing, and although he can fly, he is not as manoeuvrable in the air as Purge.

BLOOD ’N’ GUTS ON N64?

One major aspect of Bio Freaks – a particularly surprising one considering this is a Nintendo game, a company well known for its bouncy plumbers and usually fairly fluffy video game bad guys – is the amount of gore. To be frank, the gore level is mind-blowing – literally! This is never more apparent than in the limb removals. We’re not just talking fatalities here, although they are included in the game. No, what we’re talking about is the severing of arms, or in some cases arm-like appendages, which then proceed to spurt blood all over the floor and – rather effectively – the screen whilst the fight continues unabated.

It’s even possible to win a fight when your character has no arms, whereupon they strut and pose for the audience completely oblivious to the gallons of dark red claret (or green goo, if you’re playing a large inhuman ‘Dozer’) spraying merrily from their stumps. You’ll soon find yourself mangling classic Monty Python Black Knight quotes with reckless abandon as you attempt to head-butt the eight foot tall mutant who just removed any chance you had of ever again getting told off for picking your nose!

FREAK OR UNIQUE?

As mentioned already, Bio Freaks is fairly unique in that it’s one of only a few ‘intelligent’ beat-em-ups, and in fact the only one on the N64. What we mean by this is that it takes brains and skill and even a little planning to really succeed at it. Don’t get us wrong – you can just pick up the game, ram the cart in the appropriate slot and hammer away at your control pad after only a very brief scan of the manual and you’ll have some damn good fun for quite some time.

However, you won’t do well if you use this technique to try and reach the later rounds. To accomplish this you need to become accustomed to all the special moves and abilities of the various characters.

Now, we know that many, many beat-’em-ups have their own special moves for different characters. In fact it’s safe to say that it’s more or less compulsory if the game wants to get anywhere near the retail outlets, much less into the sweaty hands of the gaming public, for the average beat-’em-up to have a whole host of specialised moves, many of which have instructions resembling complex genetic codes. These games in general though, no matter how enjoyable they are, tend to have one flaw – the fact that it is usually possible with at least one character to batter your way through the game using only one or maybe two simple moves. Most seasoned beat-’em-up fans will know what we mean. It’s never more apparent than when you invite your kid brother or sister to take you on at your latest gore-fest on which you’ve just spent the last two weeks perfecting every special ‘ultra death’ attack in the book, only to have them pulverise you into submission by just smacking the kick button as hard as possible with the first character they choose. It’s all very well labelling them ‘one move wonders’ and explaining how they’re not playing in the ‘spirit of the game’, but at the end of the day they’ve won, and let’s face it, when it comes to sibling rivalry, that’s what it’s all about.

Some games have striven to overcome this problem. Bushido Blade on the PlayStation was one, and with its strict rules and ‘one move kills’ it produced an intelligent beat-’em-up. However, it wasn’t what you’d call ‘fast and furious’ and so many fans of the genre rejected it as a bit slow and boring.

AN INTELLIGENT BEAT-’EM-UP?

If you’re one of those people then despair no longer – and if you don’t have one already then go buy an N64! Bio Freaks is a fast, exciting beat-’em-up that you can’t defeat by just thumping all the powerful special moves. The reason for this is that everything in the game, no matter how effective or powerful, has a weakness. Take the guns for example. As mentioned earlier, when we noticed that guns were included in the game, we were worried that the whole thing would turn into a farce, with those characters that have powerful guns standing back and hammering the weaker ones from a distance. And indeed, if you don’t learn the controls, on the later levels the CPU players will do exactly that. Which is where mastery of the ‘shield’ function comes in.

The shield itself is a lot like the blade shields used in the cult sci-fi classic Dune, in that they will repel energy weapons but can be breached by contact from hand, foot or blade, necessitating careful shield use – if you spend too much time concentrating on blocking shots then your opponent is going to hammer you physically.

All through the game you’ll encounter this concept – someone will learn a seemingly game-beating move, and you’ll then find one that counters it. And this is half the fun. Even the gory limb-loss aspect of the game comes in as part of the strategy. If an opponent has a particularly effective weapon on one arm for example, then you can concentrate on chopping it off. This works both ways of course – you may find your carefully planned strategy buggered in the first round if the other player lands a lucky strike and takes off your gun arm. Even the hidden sudden-death fatalities which can win rounds in one blow aren't necessarily winning moves on their own. They take time to activate, so you’ll find yourself countered if you try to pull them off in the middle of the battle. What you need to do is to first distract or subdue your opponent and use the brief breathing space to wind up the killing blow...

It’s this intelligent aspect which makes the game so much fun, and more or less guarantees you’ll keep coming back to it for some time to come. Fans of Mortal Kombat will love it – never mind waiting for MK4, Bio Freaks is the natural evolution of the Mortal Kombat games – better graphics, more impressive characters, gorier special moves and more intelligent gameplay. Of course, there is something in it for all you ‘hammer any button you can see’ types if you play the game on novice or easy, but we wouldn’t recommend going up against anyone who’s learnt all the moves!

Midway's no stranger to violent fighting games, and Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. continues the trend set by Mortal Kombat. Bio features fierce and brutal combat--on the ground and in the air.

Looks That Kill

Graphically, F.R.E.A.K.S. provides an eyeful, including detailed carnage, fluid animation, and well-designed polygonal characters. And, yes, there's lots of blood to splash around. Although this preview version is a little over 10 percent complete, the graphics are cleaner and smoother than Mace: The Dark Age for the N64.

Super F.R.E.A.K.S.

Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. (Biological Flying Robotic Enhanced Armored Killing Synthoids) takes place in the not-so-distant future, where warring corporations settle their differences in the fighting arena. Eight fighters fill Bio's lineup, and each is equipped with a different weapon and specialized attacks. The game uses six buttons: two punches, two kicks, and Fire Weapon. The sixth button activates your fighter's jet pack, but you can hover in the air only briefly.

Look, Mano Arms

Bio features 3D fighting in gigantic arenas--some with interactive backgrounds that can inflict damage on a fighter (like a mangier machine or fire pits). Another unique feature is the ability to sever an opponent's limbs during a fight. Losing a limb does take some special moves and abilities away from the victim (not to mention health), but even an armless fighter can still win a battle.

Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. clubs its way into the undercrowded Nintendo 64 arena with a unique fighting style and some of the bloodiest beat-downs since Mace: The Dark Age. The only way to disarm an opponent in this game is to literally dis-arm them.

F.R.E.A.K.S. peaks with a few cool fighting shakes that set it apart from the rest of the Nintendo 64 beat-'em-bloody crowd: fighters can briefly fly around the various battle pits, and can lose limbs during a fight. Even if a fighter loses both arms, however, they can still win the battle (which makes for a very gruesome "victory" screen). The arenas--which include everything from giant rollers to acid pits to huge saws--are also dangerous.

The gameplay scheme is a mix of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat controls, using joystick motions and rapid button-tap combos. Unfortunately, combo freaks won't find many high-hitting ones here, and it's easy to pin an opponent in a corner and pummel them to defeat.

If you're starved for a good Nintendo 64 fighting game, Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. deserves a look. It's far from perfect, but for a bloody fighting title, Bio's a great way to ^ reach out and dismember someone.

Graphics

Bio uses the red palette...a lot! The characters are very lifelike, as are the colorful fighting stages. However, the moving camera occasionally obscures the action, and the "shield" animation looks more like a graphical glitch than an actual feature.

Control

The controls are sluggish but manageable. Bio's far from unplayable, but some special attacks and techniques can become a hit-and-miss affair, which is a real pisser--especially when you're in the heat of battle.

Sound

The audio truly shines with crystal-clear voices, excellent sound effects, and (especially) the reactive roars of an onlooking crowd. The heavy-metal music soundtrack is perfect for the carnage.

Fun Factor

Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. doesn't break any new ground, but it's definitely worth a look--particularly if you are a gamer looking for a little variety (and buckets of blood) in your Nintendo 64 fighting-game lineup.

Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. is yet another interesting twist on the somewhat tired fighting genre. The game makes its mark with originality and shock appeal. And yes--this one just may shock you a little.

Eleven 3-D, in-the-round arenas featuring flashing lights, dangerous traps and multiple platforms serve as the battleground for you and 10 other mutant fighters. Characters have a wide variety of weapons including: projectiles, guns, standard punches and kicks and the ability to mutilate. Take off an opponent's arm or leg and watch the blood pump out of the fresh wound...now that's entertainment. You may also use preset combos as well as double combos to inflict major damage. Heat-seeking missiles, grenades and even giant shredders figure into the mix as well.

We'll bring you more on this interesting title as it becomes available.

Not to be confused with now-defunct Virgin's Freak Boy, Bio Freaks is the latest N64 beat-'em-up from Midway, the people who brought you War Gods and Mortal Kombat Trilogy. But don't start running away yet - Bio Freaks looks like it's in a different class altogether. Mlt's in a different class." Sorry, Airplane! flashback.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future that makes Mad Max look like a day trip to Frinton, Bio Freaks faces a total of ten characters (eight selectable, two bosses) against each other to determine who will rule the wasteland. Nothing new there. What is new is that, for starters, all the characters have weapons, ranging from chainsaws and flamethrowers to huge spikes protruding from their bodies. Another difference is that you can actually see the damage inflicted on a fighter as the game progresses. We're not talking about little scratches and small drops of blood here - we're talking limbs lopped off ("It's just a flesh wound!" - sorry, Monty Python flashback), impalements and even decapitations, the latter understandably bringing the Fight to an abrupt halt!

The arenas in which this bloody combat takes place are also a step apart from other fighting fare. Mace introduced the idea of multi-level arenas and dangerous architecture to the 3-D beat-'em-up world, but Bio Freaks takes it to extremes. The arenas can be up to three storeys high (each character is equipped with a ‘hover mode' that lets them fly), and if you throw your opponent into a lava pool or whirling blades they're not going to shrug it off!

Adding to the gory fun is a pseudo- first person perspective for fights, where your fighter becomes transparent rather like the old Punch- Out! games. This kind of view was available in Tekken 2 as a cheat, but this is the first time it's been made a selectable feature.

Developed by British programmers Saffire, Bio Freaks makes use of a 'soft-skinning' technique on the characters, which means an end to texture glitches as the fighters move around. The same technique is being used by hbC Nintendo for 10800 Snowboarding, and hopefully everybody else will take it up. Just say no to manky polygons!

A release in America is scheduled for this summer; GT Interactive will be putting the game out over here around September. We hope to bring you more on this exciting title next issue!

In the future, cable TV will beam the exact show you want to watch directly into your brain, tiny robots will give you a full-body workout as you sit in your armchair, and wars will be fought not by resource-consuming armies but by armed androids in one-on-one combat to the death. It's all happening! In the future!

Bio Freaks puts you in the synthetic skin of some of these androids, charged by their company overlords (the world is ruled by evil multinationals like Micro-Gene, NewCell Inc and Disney. This kind of thing happens all the time. In the future!) to get out there and conquer new territories. Plot aside, it's beat-'em-up action as usual... with a few exceptions.

Firstly, Bio Freaks has a distinctive look, through the use of a 'soft-skinning' technique that gives all the fighters, no matter how bizarre, a realism not often seen in fighting games. The technique has now started to be more widely used, but Bio Freaks is its most effective showcase to date.

Secondly... well, it's gory. And not just in a Mortal Kombat gallons-o'-ketchup way, but in a hilariously sadistic manner that the “but they're only androids, not real people" defence barely covers. Limbs fly, heads roll, bodies are sliced clean in two, with severed arteries helpfully marking the point of impact by spraying huge red geysers into the air (and occasionally onto the camera). Not that this stops the fighting - until they're finished off permanently, the Freaks just keep on going even with limbs missing, like sci-fi versions of Monty Python's Black Knight.

It's Just A Flesh Wound

Other additions to the usual fighting formula include aerial combat (all the Freaks are equipped with jetpacks), weapons and shields, but these don't make as much difference to the gameplay as you might think. Shields defend against weapon attacks, but can still be penetrated by slower-moving impacts from blades and fists. Flight allows the Freaks to dodge some attacks and to reach upper platforms of the arenas, though apart from a few arenas where a misplaced landing if you run out of fuel can drop you into iava or toxic waste, the tactical value is fairly limited.

Despite the weapons and shields, most of the game is spent going toe-to-toe with the opposing Freaks, so the success or otherwise of Bio Freaks comes down to whether the combat flows as smoothly as the blood. In general, it does. Some of the moves are a bit too reminiscent of the Mortal Kombat series, which has frequently been criticised for being somewhat jerky and awkward, but it also has a selection of Street Fighter-sty\e rolling moves, which are easier to pull off.

However, it's the gore and amputations that are the obvious selling point, and they do actually make a difference to the gameplay - lop off a character's weapon arm and they can't shoot at you, take off both limbs and they're left waving their stumps and trying to kick you to death. All good clean sick fun. For sheer pace, Mortal Kombat 4 is probably the best N64 fighter, but Bio Freaks has enough going for it to make it a worthwhile alternate purchase.

In the future, wars will be fought by androids hacking off each others' limbs. Sounds like a good fighter, and it is...

Commendable limb loss and 3D arenas. Not the finished article, though.

Arm-ripping beat-'em-up with excellent graphics, but a little bit shallow on the gameplay front. Fun for a blast every now and then.

During a fight, hold Left on the Dpad and press start to switch to a first-person view.

What d'ya get when you plop a gun-totin' bounty hunter and a sword-wieldin' synthoid in an arena surrounded by a moat filled with lava? One heck of a bloody battle, which may even result in someone losing a limb or two. Despite this cool premise, Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. will surely be over shadowed by other solid PlayStation arena-based fighting games such as Bloody Roar and Mortal Kombat 4.

Sporting characters that could've jumped right out of The Road Warrior, F.R.E.A.K.S. is more of a 3D-action battle game than a true beat-down brawler. Bio is ruled by hit-and-run techniques (like in Virtual On), with little emphasis on combos. In fact, the only time combos are effective is when you blow off your opponent's arm and can get in close--and even then it's a matter of exact timing, 'cause chances are they still have enough firepower in their remaining extremity to blast you clear across the screen.

If you're a fan of weapons-based fighting and gore galore, Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. offers a good round of pugnacious fun. However, if you like more of a straight-up brawl, all fists point toward Tekken 3 and Bloody Roar.

Graphics

Bio's graphics are pretty smooth, but some backgrounds look really pixelated when the camera zooms in. The combatants sport clean textures and nice, if not gruesome, details. However, the first-person view is a bust because it's hard to tell your location in the arena.

Control

Bio's controls can be a bit finicky at times, and it'll take practice to master 'em. Once you get your timing down, though, you'll be shooting off your opponent's limbs with ease.

Sound

The background music features an average mixture of industrial and techno beats. The in-game battle effects work well, from the blast of Sabotage's machine gun to the wet gush after you blow off someone's arm.

Fun Factor

While it's clear that Tekken 3 (and probably Mortal Kombat 4) will rule the PlayStation ring, Bio's futuristic freak factor makes it worth renting just for the sheer pleasure of destroying your opponent while fighting with one arm.