Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Review (DC)

Today I will be looking at one of the Dreamcast's coolest fighting games, Jojo's Bizzare Adventure. The game is based on one of Japan's longest running manga series. The story has Jojo and his allies traveling from Japan to Egypt to face a vampire known as Dio. Dio has placed a curse on Jojo's mother, and the only way to break it is by beating the ever living sh*t out of him. Along the way Jojo and crew will face many henchmen including a man that turns people into kids and a dimension warping villain called Vanilla Ice ( not the rapper.)
This game includes Jojo's Venture and Jojo's Bizzare Adventure on one disc. Originally these titles were released at arcades running on Capcom's coveted CPS3 board( think Street Fighter 3.) Two versions were ported to home consoles one for the DC, and another for the PSX. The Playstation lacked the graphical capabilities of the Dreamcast but introduced a Super Story Mode with mini games like poker. The Dreamcast retained all of the CPS3's sweet animation and both games from the arcade. I have played both versions; the Dreamcast edges out it's competitor with it's 128 bit graphic capabilities.
The game is a fighter; but the stand out feature is everyone has a Stand (bad pun not intended.) A Stand is each character's unique guardian that can be called out to do battle for them. If you are familiar with the anime or manga, Jojo's cast have many unique stands. Dio's stand can stop time, Avdol blazes the screen with fire attacks, and Alessi makes his enemy a child temporarily to induce more damage; these are just a few examples. Some of their attacks are odd ( Dio drops a steamroller on his enemies) but really cool as well.
The graphics are beautiful 2-D like only Capcom can deliver. Animation is smooth, and some little effects look great like when you finish your opponent a giant manga image of them dying splashes across the backdrop. Jojo's music is pretty catchy, and some stage's themes are awesome (checkout Jojo's last stage in story mode, the music is so badass.) Little sound effects are cool too like Dio's Muda Muda Muda when he attacks.
If you are an anime or manga fan check into Jojo, you will probably enjoy the game and the series. Fighting games should check it out as well. The American version slightly censors some content; but has english for the story mode...so it is well worth tracking down. The Japanese version has better cover art, and leaves everything intact. Don't miss this strange and wonderful fighting experience.

Random Stuff:

• Jojo occasionally smokes a cigarette in his victory pose in the Japanese version, this was edited from the US release
• Jojo's Venture and Jojo's Bizzare Adventure are the only games to run on the CPS3 besides Warzard and the Street Fighter 3 trilogy
• Many of the series' characters are named after famous American musicians such as Pet Shop (Pet Shop Boys), Vanilla Ice, and Mariah (Mariah Carey)
• Cool combo from the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbArvIqZzkI