When Capcom first hopped onto the Dreamcast development bandwagon, they were one of the shining stars for Sega's console. They had a legendary catalog of classic game franchises, and they had the drawing power and game-making prowess to make new classics come to life on the Dreamcast. Indeed their first Dreamcast title, POWER STONE, proved to be one of the most refreshing, original, and fun-filled titles ever released for the system. True 3D movement, brilliant textures and art direction, and refreshing gameplay that breathed new life into a dying genre. Then after some solid 2D fighters, and a few shoddy 3D fighters (cough STAR GLADIATORS 2 cough), along comes Capcom's newest 3D fighter, MOERO! JUSTICE GAKUEN (a.k.a. RIVAL SCHOOLS 2), and after seeing their initial 3D skills with POWER STONE, the new JUSTICE GAKUEN is simply disappointing.

For fans of the original game years ago, JUSTICE GAKUEN (RIVAL SCHOOLS) pitted various high school students (from rival high schools) with super powers against each other in the classic 2D fighting game paradigm. What made it such an eye-opener was the over-the-top ridiculous Super Moves and Tag Team moves, for example, where you and your teammate would hop out and simultaneously pummel the enemy into the ground with a variety of attacks. At the time, the "rough" controls were forgivable, and it was one of Capcom's first 3D fighters. Flash forward to today, and guess what? The new MOERO! JUSTICE GAKUEN has prettier graphics, but almost the exact same fighting engine, which makes for a very sluggish, stilted fight.

To start with, Capcom added in a bunch of new fighters while keeping almost all the old ones, but unfortunately most of them are just downright weird: For example, you have Momo Karuizawa, a little girl who's armed with a tennis racket(!); Nagare Namikawa, a tough guy and swimmer from the swimming club who's dressed in nothing but a tight pair of Speedos, and who attacks you with swimming moves (dives, etc.); Ran Hibiki, a Japanese high school photographer who attacks you with... her camera!; and topping off the list is Yurika Kirishima, a high school girl that attacks you with musical notes from her magic violin! Okay...

Graphically, MOERO! JUSTICE GAKUEN is definitely a step up from the original PlayStation 1 game, but that's not saying much. Indeed, in light of SOUL CALIBUR, DEAD OR ALIVE 2, or even Capcom's own POWER STONE, this game just can't compare. The 3D models aren't as well built, with fewer polygons, and the texture quality is lacking. It's still acceptable and not that bad to look at, but it's definitely not the cream of the crop. The highlight of the game graphically are the 3D special effects, like layered translucencies, various trails and glows, and so on, as seen in their new beefed-up Super Moves and Team Attacks. But even the special effects and slightly bumped-up polygon counts can't hide the basic / stiff animations. These were great for a 3D fighter from two years ago, but with the improvements made to 3D fighters today, it is simply bad form.

To make matters worse, the audio has also taken a turn for the worse. More specifically, in the PlayStation 1 version, there was nearly full-voice overs, with every line of text in the story mode spoken by great voice actors. Now in this new version, there's still an interesting story, but there's no spoken voice overs at all for the inbetween cut scenes! So the "powered-up" Dreamcast version—and a sequel, no less—has even less audio features than the original PSX version that came out years ago?! Very strange indeed.

Finally, the real killer is the gameplay: Folks, this is the exact same fighting engine with some slight tweaks to make it a little tighter, but again, this feels just like RIVAL SCHOOLS 1 practically. When you press an attack button, the move comes out a half-second or second later, which makes this game utter garbage if you're trying to play competitively with others. Now of course, this game was never meant to be taken seriously - you've got a high school girl who attacks you with a violin! - but even no-brainer "party game fighters," like MARVEL VS. CAPCOM, were far more responsive than this. And finally, this engine is built off the first part's engine so the core fighting style is using chain combos - basically, by tapping buttons in a correct order (and if the first attack connects), you are guaranteed to do that combo, so it turns into both opponents trying to stick out a Light Punch / Kick constantly to "get that first chain combo starter going." Of course, in "classic" Capcom cheapness, their AI sometimes goes haywire and manages to pull off / connect with combos that no human could possibly do at the right time to interrupt your move (fight against a CPU-controlled Momo and see what I'm talking about). But even if they get in a legitimate light attack hit, all you can do is sit back and watch as your fighter gets automatically chain-comboed with no way to break the combo or counter it. In the end it almost feels like you're typing: Just positioning yourself to connect with a light attack, and then mindlessly "typing away" inputting in the "light attack, light attack, heavy attack, Special Move / Super Move" chain combo (which is nearly the same for all characters)... all at a sluggish pace.

Perhaps the one big innovation that they did do was the cool "mini-game" board game that is included with MOERO! JUSTICE GAKUEN, called "Nekketsu Seishun Nikki" (Burning Youthful Days Diary or something like that). This cool party game allows up to four players to participate in what essentially is a board game that allows you to build your own custom fighter for use in the game later! While that part is cool, the funnest aspect of the game is playing the game itself: Going around a giant "game board" broken up into hundreds of squares. Each turn, you "spin a wheel" and find out how many spaces you can move. The ultimate point of the game is to get as many points as possible (going to the right "class" (square) and getting points), collect as many Super Moves, and win the Tournament at the end. But again, the coolest part is just playing the board game: You can run into cute, SD (Super-Deformed) versions of the RIVAL SCHOOLS 2 fighters, and ask them to be your friend, etc.

In the end, MOERO! JUSTICE GAKUEN (RIVAL SCHOOLS 2) for the Dreamcast is a big disappointment from Capcom. From the mediocre graphics, to the lack of voices for the story cut scene, to the outdated, sluggish fighting engine, this is something that Capcom should not have released. Even for hard-core otaku (or fanboys) who just have to have the next fighting game with Japanese high school girls, this is not the game to get. Capcom should be ashamed of themselves for their lack of innovation, although it is far more cost-effective for them to spit out another rehash using their existing game engine technology (w/ slight tweaks), than it is to build a new fighting engine from scratch. But after seeing their innovation for games like POWER STONE, or their 3D prowess for games like RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA, it makes no sense why they'd take a step back with this game. With MOERO! JUSTICE GAKUEN, and even their sluggish STREET FIGHTER EX 3, one thing's for sure: Capcom still has a long way to go to capture the magic of 3D fighting games.

Rating: 6.1 / 10.0