The Bouncer

A launch title for the PS2, The Bouncer was a terrific showcase for the new console and a game that I still care deeply about.
The fighting engine borrowed moves from Tekken and had variety and lots to unlock, showing off the touch sensitive buttons which changed hits and combos. The only downside is that your ability to block runs out and there's no dodge function.

It's essential a movie where you pick who to be in the fight scenes but who you picked will change multiple outcomes and the ending, making it very replayable.
The music and voice acting are great, each character getting an abundance of personality.

The coolest part is probably the journey of Dauragon, it took me a long time before I discovered that if you're rank A or higher at the final fight that he has a 4th and final form complete with dragon tattoo. That moment combined with the music Dauragon: Awakening made for an unforgettable experience.

I wish it would come back on newer consoles so I could play it in 60hz as opposed to the slowed down 50hz I had to deal with thanks to PAL.

Style over substance, the uncut kind, all the way. The Bouncer still looks really good to this day and legitimately pushed the enveloped in terms of console post-processing effects (many of them done to battle with the PS2's failure to handle anti-aliasing), and while the story is corny and has many contrivances to fit all the martial arts in with no guns to speak of, the branching paths and different dialogue scenes are handled fairly naturally making your character choices feel just impactful enough in the moment. The art design is peak Nomura ridiculousness, but the music is pretty good!

But the gameplay. There is just absolutely no finesse to what you're doing and no flow to speak of. You cannot make combos on your own, only rely on the automated strings the game gives to you, and suspect collision detection makes the whole thing feel way stilted. Worth a play for the curious, but the right lessons were taken from this one. Even FFXIII wouldn't focus on bombast to the detriment of everything else like The Bouncer.