Review by Chakan

"An excellent witch doctor party game"

In the later days of the Dreamcast, Sega's sports powerhouse Visual Concepts developed a party game called Ooga Booga. It was good, but the game was soon forgotten, even by Dreamcast fans. Why it was so easily forgotten, I'm not sure. The game was more than likely just lost in the last season of US releases.

Ooga Booga is, as I stated earlier, a party game. Basically, the game revolves around witch doctors from various tribes trying to out-do each other. You do this through various games in the single-player mode, scoring tokens and unlocking games and other features for the multi-player mode as you progress. The action is hectic, and a match can go to any victor, due to the skill of the other players and pure chance.

Ooga Booga's standard game mode, ''Smakahuna,'' features the witch doctors smacking, throwing shrunken heads, mounting boars to deal out damage, and casting all sorts of various spells such as fireballs and lightning. Of course, there's much, much more for you to unlock, and I've just covered the game's first four levels.

Some of the other play modes are a riot. My favorite is the Boar Polo game, where players mount boars to push a boulder through your opponents' side to your goal. It's like a whacked-out version of a hockey game, and I can't get enough of it. It is easily the favorite mode of play whenever multiple people are involved. Everyone seems to enjoy it very much.

Each of the various witch doctors have their own personalities, taunts, strengths, and weaknesses. The game approaches the whole thing in a rather humorous manner (as if you couldn't tell already), and some of the taunts are hilarious every time you start up the game, while others just get old real fast. Some of the in-game dialogue between the characters is great. Beat the hell out of Fattie and he'll scream at you, calling for your blood (well, not quite your blood, but you get the point). This humor only adds to what is already a solid party game.

Ooga Booga was released with the ability to play the games online with other gamers. I attempted to test this with a couple friends, but the server for the game was always down or slow. Either way, it is more than likely not available as of this writing.

OB's presentation style is fantastic. The characters are all animated very well, or should I say they're very animated? Either way, the graphics in the game are sure to please. The music is perfect for this game. Lounge-like in nature, but very tribal non-the-less, with tribal beats and chanting sprinkled throughout the game's soundtrack.

I definitely recommend Ooga Booga for anyone who bought a second controller for their Dreamcast, hoping to use it whenever friends stop over and feel like playing a game. When they do, bring out OB. They will be impressed, and good times will be had. But still, for the rest of you losers without friends, I wouldn't skip on OB just for the lack of buddies. The game's Offline Skirmish mode allows you to take on CPU-driven players as well. You will, however, miss out on the opportunity to taunt your opponents right along with your character. Bow down, I rule!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10 | Originally Posted: 10/31/02, Updated 10/31/02

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