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Bruce Lee is one of those people that is so well loved that his products, regardless of quality, will sell.
It’s a great thing to have such fame, and makes you wonder why there haven’t been more Bruce Lee games out there. Universal Interactive is going to satisfy your request with Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon.
Bruce Lee is back, not in film form, but virtually through our Xbox systems. The game starts off with someone making the mistake of angering Bruce and now he is on a mission to avenge his father’s death. Bruce Lee’s father gets killed for no reason whatsoever. His assasins had nothing better to do on that particular day and Bruce Lee’s father paid for it. It is up to you to get revenge and you take on the assasins. You travel and go through levels collecting tokens that let you buy moves. These moves will be added to your move list and you’ll have an easier time progressing.This adds some adventure elements to the standard fighting game but it may turn some people off.
The game’s biggest selling point, besides the license, is the multi-opponent battles. You are able and often times fight more than one person at any given time. Multi-person battles have been tried before but ultimately proved to be less fun that it is worth. Universal Interactive tried to pull it off and for the most part it did. It is very hard to fight several opponents, as you’d need to turn around, move and fight at the same time. I’m not sure why there are more and more of these games coming, that approach seems to take away instead of add, fun to the game. To get out of these tricky situations you need to result to button-mashing which takes away the appeal of a fighting game to some. Surprisingly, even though the gameplay is repetitive there is something about the game that makes you want to continue playing.
The multi-person battles seem to make sense as the storyline attempts to explain why you fight each battle.
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon features very nice graphics. The Xbox’s processor is used during the game and you will no doubt adore them. Bruce is excellently animated, dressed and designed. He looks very authentic and Bruce Lee fans will no doubt recognize him. The enemies in the game look just as good, which is quite refreshing. To add to the nice designs, the characters are all excellent animated. There are no missing animations and the martial arts are very realistic. The environments feature a lot of detail. From the ground to the bricks on buildings, everything was designed with attention to detail.
Soundwise, the music and sound effects fit right into the game. The Bruce Lee license is used since the game has his trademark voice. He makes the same grunts and whines seen in his movies. You also get a bit of Bruce’s philosophical phrases such as “The highest form is no form.” The voice acting is on par with his movies and brings the sound up just that much. The background music is standard stuff, nothing to get excited about.
Ultimately, Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon is a good game to add to your shelf. It doesn’t really innovate the genre, but it makes for fun gameplay. The biggest selling point is no doubt the Bruce Lee license, and Bruce Lee fans will love the game. If you don’t care for Bruce Lee, you’ll still find an enjoyable game. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jan 20, 2003
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