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Last Bronx is the latest in a long line of Sega arcade to home translations for the Sega Saturn. These quality arcade to home translations from Sega include some of the Saturn's greatest titles like Virtua Fighter 2, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop 2 and Virtual On. But, when put up against these titles, even an arcade perfect Saturn conversion of Last Bronx would compare unfavorably because the arcade version is not in the same league as the above mentioned games.

Despite what you might think the name implies, the game does not take place in the Bronx, NY, but rather in Tokyo, Japan, during a period of time where the economy has fallen apart and a fighting tournament solely between the leaders of rival gangs has been ordered to determine who would gain control of Tokyo. This secret tournament is called the Last Bronx.

Initially the game begins with eight selectable characters, each with his or her own weapon and fighting style. The characters are: Yusaku, Joe, Lisa, Tommy, Yoko, Zaimoku, Nagi, and Kurosawa. There is also a hidden character named Redeye that will become playable if you complete certain requirements. Each of the characters are armed with unique martial arts weapons that are integral to the gameplay, including Sai (steel rod daggers), San Set Sukon (three sectional staff), Nun Chaku, Double Stick (fighting batons), Ton Fahs (similar to police clubs) and a large and powerful wooden mallet. I personally like the character designs overall, but none of them seem quite as good as the ones in Sega's Virtua Fighter series.

In addition to having a decent variety of characters, Last Bronx also features loads of hardcore gameplay modes. It has an arcade mode, V.S. mode, Saturn mode, survival mode, time attack mode, aerial combo practice mode and free practice mode. Plus, it also has options to view any movies or portraits you have opened and allows you to customize the game through an options menu.

The arcade mode allows you to choose any character than have him or her fight through each of the other characters in order just like in the arcade version. It also will allow a second player to jump in by pressing start on the second controller. The V.S. mode is your basic two player mode where you and your opponent will each choose a character and it plays exactly like the arcade mode.

The Saturn mode is a special mode in which each of the characters have a special end boss that is his or her natural enemy among the other characters in the game. Also, the other characters that you come up against while heading towards the fight against your rival will come at you in a random order, unlike the pre-set order of the arcade mode.

The survival mode has the same basic gameplay as the other modes, but you fight in a one-round elimination format and don't fully heal in between each fight. The time attack mode has you take on all of the characters with the intent of defeating them in the least amount of time. The aerial combo practice mode is a neat little mode that allows you to practice juggling type combos and see how long you can keep a player in the air. The free practice is similar to the aerial combo practice mode, but doesn't have any of the limitations or restrictions.

The game's options will allow you to change and select the difficulty, match point, time limit, life gauge, select mode, and key config. In addition to being able to change those, you can also check out the rankings, audio, BGM, sound effects, and voices in the game's option screen.

At its heart the gameplay is similar to Virtua Fighter 2 in that many of the controls are the same, but the fighting in Last Bronx does not appear to be nearly as deep as VF2 and it seems much closer to the likes of Tekken, as it has plenty of huge juggle combos and seems to reward random button smashing. Like in Virtua Fighter, the basic moves include a punch, kick, guard, throw, ground attacks and jumping attacks. What Last Bronx features that is new includes the use of weapons, the ability to stop your attacks mid-way by pressing guard during the move and taunts to mock and ridicule your opponent.

The game does prove to be very fun to play in a mindless fashion and can give you a nice break from Virtua Fighter 2's much more complex gameplay style. But, it still features way too many flaws for it to be considered a solid fighting game. For instance, even if you have the life gauge meters set to the maximum, the attacks are way too powerful and do too much damage. I am pretty sure that in real life if someone gets a clean hit on you with a huge sledgehammer or wooden sword that you might get knocked out with a few blows, but it should not be like this in a video game. Many times you will find yourself with a huge advantage over your opponent and he will come back and win by connecting with two or three clean shots.

Another problem is with the spazzy gameplay that features several 100% combinations and really seems to favor button smashers too much. And in the one player modes, the computer just does not offer much of a challenge with the exception of Red Eye. With just about all of the characters, you will be able to fly through the single player mode on the high difficulty level just by using one or two buttons repeatedly. Still even with all of the major flaws, the action is very fast and the game can be a blast to play in the two player mode.

The graphics in Last Bronx are both the game's greatest feature as well as its worst. How can it be both great and horrible? Well, read on. On a positive note, Last Bronx runs in the Saturn's hi-res mode and moves at a smooth 60 frames per second. With the hi-res, both the characters and backgrounds look great and are well detailed, in fact the characters in Last Bronx are more detailed and look better than the characters in any other previous Saturn brawler, including Virtua Fighter 2. The backgrounds are mostly 2D, but do feature some 3D elements and look really sharp overall. The animation of the characters are very fluid and are the best of any U.S. released Saturn 3D fighting game.

Now, here comes the problems. First and foremost, flicker, flicker, flicker and more flicker. It doesn't happen too often during the actual fighting, but the flickering really plagues the winning poses, the pre-fight poses, and when you execute throws during fights. Another problem is with the constant clipping of the 3D fences that surround the fighting areas. They are constantly popping in and out of the sides of the screens and it makes you wish they would have put in an option to have them removed. There is also some minor slowdown problems, although they don't seem to be as bad as the slowdown that would occur against the fences in both Fighters Megamix and Fighting Vipers.

The sound in Last Bronx is pretty solid, but at the same time doesn't really stand out in any way. The sound effects of the weapons clashing and player's movements are well done and the voices of the characters during the game are crystal clear and don't appear to be muffled in any way. The music is nice and doesn't appear to have any flaws, but it doesn't have the same power as other fighting game soundtracks like VF2 and Fighters Megamix. Another thing worth stating is that all the voice during the game and in the animation sequences are in Japanese, which should please those who don't like it when American publishers butcher the voices of Japanese games. Although, I seriously doubt that this was the reason that Sega did this, it was probably more to avoid putting any time and money into it when it wasn't needed.

Last Bronx is a seriously flawed game when you consider the shortcomings in the gameplay department and with the flaws in the are of graphics. Yet, I still found myself enjoying it while playing with my friends and even found myself in awe of the graphical splendor during instances where the flickering was absent. If you want a fun weapon-based 3D fighter for the Saturn and don't think that you will mind the flaws, Last Bronx is the game to get.

RATINGS

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Control: 9/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Replay Value: 7/10

OVERALL: 8.0/10