''Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.'' is a 3D fighting video game released by Midway in 1998. It was originally planned for arcades. Prototypes of the game were tested at arcades, but the final arcade release was canceled (although a ROM image of the prototype was eventually dumped and works in MAME) and the game was later released for the PlayStation,

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

and Microsoft Windows.

Plot

In the not-too-distant future, the United States fell like all great empires throughout history. Fifty states were broken into private territories after the Techno-Industrial Civil Wars. Technology and

bio-engineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

accelerated at an incredible rate, and forced an industrial competition of corporate espionage. The government tried to keep control of the country by a single thread, but the effect of the giant corporations'

white collar White collar may refer to: * White-collar worker, a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales-coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor ...

wars drove the economy into a tailspin. Neo-Amerika rises as the result of the government bankruptcy and technological companies' takeover. To maintain order, the Secret Games Commission (SGC) is formed to organize tournaments deciding which organization gets to control all of Neo-Amerika, leading to the creation of Biological Flying Robotic Enhanced Armored Killing Synthoids (Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.) serving as the champions for each participating organization.

Gameplay

The game uses a fully polygonal fighting

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

, with 8 different fighters, and 2 boss fighters. ''Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.'' uses a mix of hand-to-hand and long range combat. Each character has an assortment of special attacks, both close and long range, as well as "finishing attacks". Much like the

Fatalities Fatality may refer to: * Fatality (''Mortal Kombat''), a finishing move, originated in the ''Mortal Kombat'' series of fighting games * Fatality (comics), a character published by DC Comics * Fatal1ty, the screen name of professional electronic ...

of the '' Mortal Kombat'' games, these moves can execute the player's opponents while some, like in '' Time Killers'', will remove limbs. Damage from powerful attacks can add up, causing a limb to be destroyed as well. The game takes place in 3D fighting arenas. Emphasis was placed on mobility, giving dashes a great range and in multiple directions. The face buttons are assigned to specific limbs. The shoulder buttons are used for dodging, flying, and basic long range attacks.

Reception

The Nintendo and PlayStation versions received mixed or average reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{moby game, id=/bio-freaks 1998 video games 3D fighting games Cancelled arcade video games Fighting games Midway video games Mortal Kombat clones Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer video games Nintendo 64 games PlayStation (console) games Saffire games Video games about death games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Aubrey Hodges Windows games Video games set in the United States Video games set in the future