The fourth in a long series of fighting games for the popular Takahashi Rumiko series, RANMA1/2, RANMA 1/2 BATTLE RENAISSANCE breaks out of its 2D world and blasts into the 3D world of the Sony PlayStation.
As with most fighting games, there are characters the player can choose to fight their battles. The game has eight playable characters: Ranma, our title character; Akane, his tomboyish fiancee; Happosai, the elderly, perverted martial arts sensei of Saotome Genma and Tendo Soun, Kunou, the indecisive kendo master always lusting after Akane and the elusive pig-tailed girl; Saotome Genma, Ranma's father; Shampoo, a Chinese amazon martial artist who is in love with Ranma; Ryouga, the ever-lost rival to Ranma; and a new character featured in the manga, Kumon Ryu, a military style fighter.
The game starts out with short movies of the characters on Kunou Island where the Kunou Family have decided to build an amusement park. The stories vary depending on which character a player chooses and include quick little dialogues between the characters as they challenge each other. The common goal is to defeat the evil oni girl invading Kunou Island, Rouge, and believe me she is very, very difficult to beat.
The 3D versions of the characters look very close to their 2D anime counterparts. The game is very reminiscent of TEKKEN 2 in playing style and appearance. Although it is not very smooth in parts and sort of pales in comparison with TEKKEN 2 with its stilted character movements and fairly plain backgrounds, RANMA 1/2 BATTLE RENAISSANCE is one of the more decent 3D fighters out there on the market.
BATTLE RENAISSANCE's moves are rather difficult to pull off on the Playstation controller, and players may have a bit of trouble. One of the added bonuses of RANMA 1/2 BATTLE RENAISSANCE is the cold/hot water events that occur during gameplay. Four of the eight characters can transform into their cursed spring forms and vice versa: Ryouga into P-chan, Shampoo into Shampoo-neko, Genma into Panda, and Ranma into his girl form. This leads to hilarious moments such as P-chan or Shampoo-neko fighting against one of the normal human characters. Apparently, it is impossible to block the diminutive P-chan's advances, and P-chan's opponent will inevitably get pummeled repeatedly if caught in this vicious cycle.
The game stays true to the previous games and keeps the special moves intact such as Ranma's whirlwind attack, Hiryuu Shoten Ha, or the lightning fast punch attack, Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken.
The whole voice cast is back and does a great job in reprising their roles. Players will have no problem keeping this game a challenge as RANMA 1/2 BATTLE RENAISSANCE's AI is very smart and becomes progressively harder, as game play continues.
RANMA 1/2 BATTLE RENAISSANCE is a formidable adversary to the 3D fighting game market. It will appeal to the die-hard RANMA 1/2 fan and will keep him playing for hours. High recommendations on this game for fighting game fans who are also RANMA 1/2 fans. If not, probably best to pass up and play TEKKEN 2 instead.