Check out The SoberDwarf's Video on DreamFactory HERE ➤ kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z8x6f9CntLTNdWw.html

*breaths in* THE BOUNCER

Ah yes, the game where I thought Sora from Kingdom Hearts grew up. 🤣

This was back in an era where every single Square protag looked exactly the same with the same spiky hair.

PS2’s “we have final fantasy at home”. “IT’S NOT EVEN THE SAME GENRE MOM!”

The 🅱️ouncer

Fun fact this is the last thing Mimi woods who originally voiced major Motoko Kusanagi ever did before she retired

6 year old me thought the main trio were the coolest looking characters ever

"Decaying fighting game paradigm" .....Bold words to say about a 3D fighter at a time when Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament were dominating the market.

3:46 as soon as this hit I just said out loud “just say it. I know. I could tell immediately.” “Tetsuya Nomura designed all the main characters” “There it is.”

oh how i love Sion, a man haunted by a tragic past. Within him lies strength and kindness, but also a great sorrow. All this will change when he meets a girl named Dominique. These are the residents of DOG STREET: The Bouncer

"THE BOUNCER". Always love this sting.

The Bouncer is... bizarre, to say the least. It's a game where Proto-Sora Final Fights his way to rescue his robot not!girlfriend from the Shinra Corporation.

I'm honestly kind of shocked to hear that the game didn't sell well. I worked at a Blockbuster Video at the time and the game was always out of stock, with people constantly asking when we were expecting to get them returned.

The Bouncer = Road House meets Final Fantasy

If the Bouncer ever came back, all they gotta do is just copy Yakuza/Like a Dragon 100%

I love this game. It was one of my first ps2 games. The final battle against Duragon C. Mikado was something ill hate forever.

Tetsuya Nomura is like the eternal edgy teenager with his character designs.

I played the absolute hell out of this game. DAURAGON C. MIKADO

Why does Sion look like an adult Sora ☠

For anyone wondering, seiichi ishii is currently making a little game called Brain Fighters for a company called Minnapad. Keiji Inafune is also making his Beastroid game with them as well. The downside so far is that this company seems focused on NFTs, and their youtube channel has been pretty silent lately, so I'm not sure what's currently happening.

Honestly, this has always been one of my favourite PS2 games. The fighting was fun (if sorely missing co-op) and the story was cool. The big twist with Dominique was one of the first times a video game made me emotional.

Now I'd fancy seeing a Flophouse Plays video on Ehrgeiz to see why it apparently gives Matt a case of the heebie jeebies!

The Bouncer walked so Urban Reign could run.

Fastest click ever right when I open up youtube.

VS Screen Announcer when you select a character fast: 🎤 "DURAGON C. MIKAD, DURAGON C. MIKAD, DURAGON C. MIKAD, DURAGON C. MIKADO!!" 😂

I remember seeing pictures of this game in PlayStation Power magazine and thinking “oh my God, the future has arrived!” Little did I know how short lived the future would be…

Why they got Pence wearing a dogstreet shirt in kh2

The Bouncer is my all-time favorite video game. This video taught me some interesting things about its development cycle. I was already aware of the planned interactive environments and Dominique’s potential playable role in the story, but I _wasn’t_ aware of the reason why the game’s release was pushed to March when it was originally due for January. In my perspective, The Bouncer was unfortunately subjected to immensely high expectations, which Square relied on exceeding for the game to financially succeed, but The Bouncer is an excellent game when you see it as it is, rather than what the press wanted it to be. I don’t think The Bouncer is as underwhelming as people say. The combat is surprisingly intricate and fun to learn once you’ve gotten the hang of the battle system and design. Movement is smooth and the attacks themselves are much fun to perform, even better when you learn how to string moves together wherever possible. The EXP system is unorthodox but enjoyable, and I think the story is by far the highlight in typical Square Enix fashion. The Bouncer is one of their best works in my opinion, as it tells one primary story that is broken up between three characters who all provide their own unique pasts and relation to the current plot. Every character outside of the main trio plays their own distinct role-there’s something to discover and learn about each of them. The mystery, the emotion, and everything in-between makes The Bouncer’s story stand out, which makes it such a shame that almost nobody understands it or even bothers to study it. The Bouncer is not a game you can understand just by playing it once. It requires replays, discussion and thinking, just like most other Square Enix games (Kingdom Hearts, for example). Those are just my two cents. The Bouncer is a very important game to me. Also, the Dog Street tribute in KH II definitely counts as acknowledgment towards The Bouncer. We’ve yet to see a remaster or re-release of some kind, but let Bouncer fans have this one. 😂

I will never forget when i finally got to experience this game back in Summer 2005, me and my cousin use to be dying laughing at the rag doll physics/body colliding for extra damage in VS mode. He hated when i used Volt for the Giant Swing. Good memories indeed 🙏 😂

Bruhhhhh, I still have this game. First Square game I ever played. Funny enough this game got me into Final Fantasy

Wow people remember "The Bouncer". I had some good times playing this with my good buddy from middle school.

Oh mannn i've been waiting for this😭. I still play this on my ps2 lmao

I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten about a game as hard as I had forgotten about this one. It came out, I rented it and played it nonstop for like 2-3 days, and that was all the fun that could be had. It’s like I literally blocked out that game’s existence until I saw this video’s thumbnail.

*THE BOUNCER!*

This game was...something. if I remember correctly I rented The Bouncer from the local video store, returned it the very next day, and never thought about it again until Max and co. posted a vid.

I’ve noticed a pattern with Sony…they tend to botch their console launches due to being very thin on killer apps the first year of the console life. Lucky for them it hasn’t hurt them yet, but if this was the 80’s and early 90’s, a lack of games in that first year would have absolutely hurt them if they were competing with Nintendo and Sega

I really liked this game back in the day, but it definitely didn't live up to what they promised

Me, my brother, and cousins spent many hours playing versus, such good times!!!

I remember this game being like 80% cutscenes.

A lot of The Bouncer content recently on youtube!

Hell Yes! I really liked this game. Felt like a cool RPG Beat Em Up with the Square vibes we all crave

"I know I'm The Bouncer but when do I actually start being A Bouncer?" A question with an answer that has eluded me for years.

This was the first game I really connected to. Getting a historic breakdown of how rough it’s development was is very entertaining! I feel like I’m 5 years old again~

I. Fucking. Loved. The Bouncer.

“Stop it Dauragon!” - Volt Krueger

I still find it funny and cool that Sora's outfit is based on Sion's outfit, actually color scheme wise but still a cool and funny fact

For years this was my fever dream game, couldn't remember the name, but could vividly remember the gameplay, it wasn't until over a decade later that I finally learned the name and was able to get a copy to play it again

I was at a local street fighter tourney yesterday and my friend said "hey, come on" in a tone that reminded me of Sion more so than Terry and I told him it was from The Bouncer and i imitated it and talked about the trinity attack... and this vid comss out today. How topical.

I think I have the DNA of Scooby-Doo. I read the thumbnail as "The Rouncer"

Love this game man. The graphics were so ahead of its time.

A What Happened episode on a Sunday? i don't mind if i do, thanks for all the work and dedication you put into this series Matt, i love it :)

This was my 2nd PS2 game (1st being Street Fighter EX3). I enjoyed this game a lot. Kou was the best character to use for me while 2nd place goes to Adult Sora.

Loved all 2 hours of this game. The gameplay looked like a ps1 cgi, and the cgi looked like peak 3d anime

This and Tekken Tag were my first real experiences with the PS2, and will forever hold a special place in my heart. Nobody's cooler than Volt and nothing will ever change my mind on this.

Playing with 4 people on multi-tap was infinite fun for me when I was a kid. There's something extra fun about exploiting the janky combos and ragdoll physics the game has against your friends lol.

I genuinely love this game, still holds a special place in my heart as one of the first ps2 games I bought with my own money as a kid

Wild that Josh Strife Hayes mentioned this game in a new video yesterday and Matt makes a whole dissertation on it today. I went from not knowing what Josh was talking about to complete understanding in 12 hours.

Man. I remember playing this game when I worked for Blockbuster. I wanna say I made it half way through the game.

Not gonna lie this was one of my favorites back in the day. Trying to get everyone's skills and endings was pretty addictive. I wish they would revisit this in some way 😢

I think it will be tricky to put The Bouncer on the ps4/ps5 as ps2 digital because the game relies so much on the Dualshock 2 button sensitivity tech which the Dualshock 4 and the Dualsense do NOT have.

I know I'm one of like 6 people who loves Ehrgeiz. Playing the demo disc was one of my first gaming experiences.

This game is such a guilty pleasure for me. At the time it came out it was certainly ambitious, had mind blowing graphics and I played the hell out of it and got all the characters to S rank. Don’t get me started on the escort mission through the robot factory though…

IGN: "decaying fighting game paradigm" Matt: "And I took that personally."

Best ragdoll physics in any game ever imo…

Omg The bouncer . Man this was my favorite game . Beat it more than 20 times lol .

I never played The Bouncer, but there's something unique about late 90s Nomura's artstyle, I think I kind of prefer the look of Final Fantasy VIII compared to VII. It also seemed like Squaresoft wanted to diversify their game output outside the realm of RPGs with games like Einhander, Bushido Blade and The Bouncer as well, but it seems like the failure of Spirits Within and their merge with Enix put an end to many of their plans

EHRGEIZ MENU NOISE LETS GOOOOOOO

I do hate how that one thing says it only has a playthrough of 45 minutes but if you have to play through all the characters to get the full story then wouldn't that literally triple the time so all in all at 2 hours story and a handful of side stuff so not bad for a launch title on PS2

*The Bouncer.* 🤯

The Bouncer, the game I first learned from... you, about 12 years ago from a video from you lol A game that hasn't had anything new for it in decades, yet the usual suspects always bring it up. Also, I don't think I've seen a company just, stop, not die, but just... stop, and with only one employee left. I consider that even sadder.

The Bouncer was one of my favorite games of all time. Loved the combat and multiplayer.

As a kid who played a crap ton of Streets of Rage, I rmr being so excited to visit the game store just to stare at the front and back of The Bouncer's game case. I just couldn't believe how great those graphics looked for a beat-em-up. I also rmr the utter disappointment I felt in discovering there was no couch coop for me and my brother. At least the ragdoll physics were funny af lol

Not sure why, but I still love The Bouncer and will bust it out every few years. Dauragon C. Mikado and Mugetsu are still great villains to me. I think I'm broken.

Wow you weren’t lying when you said this was worth the wait. Amazing as usual

I just loved this game. It was my very first ps2 game. Played it over and over again with my cousin

Maybe am the only one, but I loved this game back in the day. Definitely one of my favorites on ps2

I actually loved this game but yeah it was heavy on the cinematics. That doesn't make it a bad game though, look at Metal Gear Solid. I even bought the 4 controller adapter so all my friends could play Vs. mode together. I'd knock opponents down then use Scion's move where he spins in a circle with his fist straight out in a T-Pose and it would do massive damage to downed opponents. It was cheese but it was so fun. The only thing that really disappointed me was the lack of a co-op story mode. I maxed all the characters moves out and unlocked everything, I really liked this game.

I wouldn't mind a remaster or remake of The Bouncer. I had fun with the original, especially with the triple team moves!

I genuinely loves this game as a teenager and still do. It's a bit clunky, but I love the open area beat em battles and the absurd story. It also has a pretty deep vs mode with multiple characters you can play as, including Echida and Dauragon. Plus, having Steve Blum voice Kou doesn' hurt.

OMG I fucking love this, still own a copy thought the concept was great but needed a sequel to bring it all home

Got it when it came out, loved it, played for a hundred hours and still come back to it. Chuji wuuuuuuu!

This was my first game for PS2. My dad bought me it with the console because I'd talked about it, and he was trying to win back my affection after leaving my mom. The condition was I could only play it at his apartment, to get me to want to visit 😅 I still fondly remember the game though. I still own the same copy, and I'm glad since it didn't get a re-release.

It's one of those game were the characters, story and atmosphere was better than the gameplay. After seeing games like Jet Set Radio getting a sequel, the once niche Yakuza series now becoming a bigger hit in Western countries, I believe that a successful sequel to The Bouncer can happen. The Bouncer may have not been a good game but it was never forgotten.

DURAGON C MIKADO loved playing this game with my brother growing up, the rag doll effects had us cracking up as kids. My favorite was Mugetsu.

I loved this game. Used to love making them all flop down the stairs playing Dominique 😅

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for ambitious beat em ups. Give us more I say! Even better, take any IP and make it into a beat em up like in the 90s, where you had X-Men, Simpsons and Turtles all amongst the side scrolling beat em up ranks.

Memory unlocked. Back then I blooming into a HARDCORE gamer (owning a PC and all three systems) and had a friend who was really into Square and FF. He pushed me pretty hard to get The Bouncer because of that and... it was probably one of the first experiences I had wasting my own hard earned money on an LJN quality game.

How about Metal Slug 3d?

That better be foreshadowing I see there Matt. Human Head put out some certified classics back in the day. The story of how they went from Prey, to whatever the hell the Quiet Man was needs to be told.

I bought The Bouncer back in 2007 for a dollar. To this day I still feel ripped off.

You should totally review twewy 🤘🏾

funny seeing games are just interactive cutscenes now

I rented this game from blockbuster back in the day. I remember having nothing to do one summer and playing it over and over. I hated it.

Thank you for making this video

for a second i thought this was a spin off of KH because of the MC

This games infamy refuses to die!😂

How does this channel not have like 3 million subs at this point? The content is always amazing

Damn thats crazy was watching somecallmejohnnys vid on the ps2 and this game stuck out cant wait to watch and see how this game came to be

I tried playing through this 4 times over the past 20+ years, including owning a copy for a time in the aughts, and playing a ROM with enabled cheats around ten or so years ago. Every time, I get bored and give up, or move on to another game.