Battle Arena Toshinden was my, and many psx owners', first "next
generation" game. part of the popular fighting genre, Battle Arena offered
a play mechanic never before seen in that style of game--truly
three-dimensional movement. although the availability of infinitely more
directions of attack isn't utilized to the fullest, when it's considered
that takara whipped up this gem from scratch in only 6 months, it's an
amazingly well-polished stone.
in numbers:
ORIGINALITY - 8 - being the first fighting game to offer full
three-dimensional movement will certainly score you some points in this
category, but Battle Arena does show its lineage--with a "ken and ryu" pair
of characters, as well as an abundance of fantastically outrageous special
attacks that range from spins across the screen to fireballs. in addition,
though 3D movement is, granted, a completely new territory for fighting
games to venture over, there are many aspects of it that remain untapped.
RESPONSE - 7 - Battle Arena offers some relatively soft controls for a
fighting game, and you'll find yourself executing a fair amount of
accidental attacks or dodges. for the most part, however, difficulty in
execution of special attacks (or regular attacks, for that matter) comes
not so much from poor pad programming as it does from the constant and
sudden shift of the camera angle, leaving you wondering which way is
"towards" your opponent (in terms of your D-pad). the "damn it, i was
BLOCKING!!!" shouts will come fast and furious from your playing area.
GRAPHICS - 7 - Battle Arena's graphics are pretty damn sharp, again,
considering the situation surrounding this game's creation--that whole "six
months from scratch" thing, which still amazes me. the backgrounds are
wonderful--from eiji's wooden platform in a canyon to duke's castle
interior, complete with flames lighting the room from columns and glimpses
of the french countryside peeking through the massive windows. also, the
character art on the selection screen is done in the ever-popular anime
style--two slick sketches of each character are available. as far as
character graphics in the game go, arguably the most important set of
visuals in a fighting game, there's a nice variety. rungo is an enormous
club-wielding construction worker-type, whereas mondo is a japanese
pikeman, dressed in a loose-fitting gi. there is some very noticeable
polygon flickering on the characters in Battle Arena, but this shows its
age more than anything else, and it doesn't really detract from gameplay.
selectable camera angles add some variety, but two of the four are useless
in a practical sense, showing off the hardware more than the game's
playability.
ANIMATION - 10 - here is where Battle Arena's six-month gestation period
amazes me most--the animation in this game is on par with Tekken's, meaning
it's INCREDIBLY smooth. should you manage to score a hit on your
opponent's back, you'll get to see them stumble forwards and occasionally
trip onto their face--strike with your hard-punch or hard-kick button up
close, and you'll see characters like duke and kayin pull off an
impressive-looking double swing with their swords. and of course, any good
fighting game has throws; but few fighting games offer a crop as amusing as
Battle Arena's... sofia, a whip-wielding russian beauty, picks up her
opponent by their shirt-front, and slaps them back and forth for a few
moments. ellis, a turkish faerie-girl, clambers up onto her enemy's head,
and jumps off of it with a nice little backwards kick. beating Tekken to
the punch in terms of release date, Battle Arena offered new psx owners
their first look at what kind of realism their new system was capable of
generating--Battle Arena runs at a very impressive frame rate.
SOUND FX - 9 - there's some degree of repetition here, but at least there's
enough variety in the "i must announce my attack" voice samples to keep you
from pulling your hair out. besides, hearing gaia shout "whole wheat," or
"hold me," or whatever it is he says every time you fire his
shoulder-cannon attack will hopefully dissuade you from using that one
attack exclusively.
MUSIC - 8 - the music itself is certainly not bad at all, and actually
tries (and succeeds to some degree) to match the environment you're
fighting in. mondo's temple background, for example, features an ersatz
oriental flute composition for theme music. some of the volume levels,
most notably on the never-ending guitar solo in eiji's canyon stage, seem a
little too high.
in practice:
on the M.A.R.C.H. scale (of IGNORE IT, RENT IT, or BUY IT)...
BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT
BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT
Battle Arena truly offers the buyer a worthwhile amount of bang for their
buck. this was the first game i got for my playstation, and 12 games and
5.5 months later, i'm still breaking it out about twice a week for a few
hours at a time. with incredible animation and nice graphics, two hidden
characters (one moreso than the other), lots of special moves and voice
samples, and, most importantly, a very long lifespan in terms of replay
value, Battle Arena Toshinden, dated though it is, still holds strong to
the title of "best TRULY three-dimensional fighting game." with Battle
Arena Toshinden 2 on the way, the game is also looking to build the same
nice sense of character history that helped Mortal Kombat and Street
Fighter become such universal hits.
This review was received by email or copied from
a newsgroup. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Image
Pros. If you have questions, email
Webmaster@vidgames.com.
This review was received by email or copied from
a newsgroup. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Image
Pros. If you have questions, email
Webmaster@vidgames.com.