3RRSS BattleArena

Flash back to the year 1996. A time when 3D graphics weren't very
hot, and 2D was still holding it's ground. However, it was a time of
change, as the winds of tomorrow began to blow. More companies
started to embrace the third dimension so there were more and more
3D graphics being developed. However, the transition from 2D to 3D is
not always easy. What works well in 2D might not work well in 3D. But
it was 1996 and we were hungry for anything 3D. Here we have Battle
Arena Toshinden: Remix, the updated version of the original early 3D
fighter. The Toshinden series is no longer around today, to my
knowledge, and there is probably a reason why. Maybe it had to do
with the game being so terrible. Read on fellow fighters.

The story is as clichéd as fighting games can get. There's a new
fighting tournament going around, and so fighters from across the
world have come to enter. But what mysterious dangers lie within the
tournament? Who is the sponsor? Yeah, it's a story that has been done
in almost every fighting game, but what about the character selection?
You start off with 8 playable characters, which was the norm back
then. Three additional characters can be unlocked. The characters
themselves range from Eiji, the wandering adventurer looking for his
older brother, Kayin, a man in search of his father's killer, and Fo Fai,
an old man who loves the color of blood. So the characters are ok,
although clichéd, of course.

In this version of Toshinden there is a Story mode. That is the main
mode of the game. Here you watch a small cutscene (still pictures and
voice) of your character and his or her opponent talk to each other,
and then fight each other. Each round will bring them closer to Gaia, or
even Sho and Cupido (these are the bosses). There is also a Versus
mode for combat between two human players or against the computer.
There is one-player mode which is Story mode without the stories. Add
in Options mode, where you can set times, health, camera angles and
the norm, and that's all you've got. No team battle, no survival, no
training. It's kind of bare bones minimum, but the Story mode is an
improvement over the original Playstation release (I don't think it even
had a story mode!).

But, how does the gameplay? Well, to be honest, it is one of the worst
handling fighting games I have ever played. You get two kick attacks
and two slash attacks, and you can also dodge attacks by rolling. Each
character has a few special moves, and that's about it. Characters are
far too slow, and the controls are way too crappy. They are just
unresponsive, slow, chunky, and bad. It's not hard to pull of special
attacks, but just moving around is a chore and it hurts. It doesn't offer
the fluid ease of the 2D fighter; instead it introduces gamers to a world
of pain. But it was 3D pain and we were ready to embrace it. Also of
note is that the Saturn version had more moves in it then the PS
version (one can only imagine how limited the original version was).

Early 3D graphics best describes the game. But if you don't know what
that means then "ugly blocky garbage" should provide the picture.
Sure the anime drawings of the characters all look nice and each
character gets a few drawings-and the mouths do move when they
talk-but the in game stuff is not too hot: maybe good for the time, but
don't expect much at all. The backgrounds can be kinda cool, though,
some in the clouds, others at Stonehenge, and others in cities and
temples. The game kicks off with a poorly rendered 3D opening, and
while it has some cool thoughts going into it, it really doesn't look
good. An anime opening would have been much better. Also, the game
is kind of colorful, so at least it's not dull with too many brown and gray
colors. They were definitely trying to succeed back then.

Musically, there are some tracks on here that I really like. However,
the music section is killed by the fact that you can barely hear the
music over the sound effects and voices. They mixed the music way in
the background, so now you get to hear the wonderful voices. The
voice acting in this game is in one word: offensive. Since the
characters all come from different places on the globe, they all have
voices that reflect those locations. This equals bad Japanese, German,
Scottish, and other racial stereotype voices. And they're not even
done well! There is no sound test to listen too, and that stinks because
I would have liked to listen to some of the background music again.

With such a bare bones minimum of modes, the replay value is poor.
You could play Story mode with all the characters to get the full story
of the game and see what happens to everyone, but that won't last
long. You could bring a friend with you to enjoy two player fighting, but
they probably don't deserve to be hurt like. There are the three hidden
characters that can be unlocked, and other little button codes for stuff
like big head mode. I'm sorry but this is one fighter where I will not be
picking up my sword again anytime soon.

This is one game where you kinda know that it was one of the pioneers
of the genre, and the technology at the time was limited, so you know
that it's trying to be something great but it just isn't. Toshinden is just
not a fun game to play. Its blocky controls and poor graphics, with it's
quiet sound and low replay, just doesn't cut it. Heck, even the box art
is terrible; it's a picture of a sword cutting through flames. But it is an
important game, and maybe the sequels fixed a lot of the errors made
here. So in closing, if you want to hear some really bad voices, this is
your game. Or hey, go rent the anime based on the games. At least
that one has a shower scene that might keep you more interested in
the plot then this.

Review By: Orochi Sonic