Battle Arena Toshinden

"Where's the cream filling?"

Intro
I only had one fighting game for PlayStation. That was Tobal No. 1, and I was getting just a bit tired of that. Sure, it provided a little fun at the start, but it eventually grew extremely boring due to the fact that there really wasn't much replay value (that and the endings were crap). I mustered some money and decided it was a good day to get some new games. I was set on getting both a fighting game and an RPG. The RPG I picked was Wild Arms and the fighting game, obviously, was Battle Arena Toshinden. I remembered seeing the commercials and hoped this would live up to my standards. It provided a little entertainment for a while, but the entertainment soon went sour. I found myself almost hating this game before I really began to enjoy it.

Okay, Enough with the Tournaments! We Get the Point!
In BAT, several warriors have pulled together for another fighting tournament. Yep, it's ''The sigh heard 'round the world,'' as I call it, and it's happened to many fighting games. Just another fighting tournament. The only difference here is that this one is also somewhat of a struggle between good and evil. OH GREAT! Another cliche! Don't we get that in every game?

Shall We Play?
BAT is supposedly the first 3D perspective fighter with 360 camera angles. I don't know if that's true or not. The gameplay is like any other 3D fighter. You hit enemies with some basic attacks (weapon shots and kicks) and can also do special moves (a la Street Fighter). When your energy gets low, you can do an ultimate attack (a la just about any Neo Geo fighting game). In short, this game is a major mutt of a fighter. The only difference is the 360 degree camera.

The Few. The Proud. The Hidden.
Of course, there are two hidden characters. Unfortunately, they cannot be saved as this game does not have any sort of save support. So, every time you turn the game off, you've lost the characters and must re-enter the cheat codes to get them back. The hidden characters are almost nothing special, that is almost. Playing as Gaia rocks, even though his moves are cheap as hell since his attacks have a long range and hit very hard. A couple other hiddens would've probably improved this game's rating; That and some better options.

Combos
Like most every fighting game now, you get those insanely powerful super combos that require you to push so many buttons, it's a wonder your head doesn't explode. Okay, so there's a way to make it easier, but eh... I really didn't find much to grabbing the combos. By the time I learned the combo (when you've finished the game, that is) I was already tired of the game.

Graphics
Even for an early PSX game, I think the graphics are somewhat of a mixed bag. The character designs are quite blocky. The edges that were plainly seen on each character added to the homeliness gingerly. I don't expect hugely round graphics, but they could have at least toned down the blockiness just a bit. I think that really had the biggest tug back on the graphics. On the other hand the backgrounds were well rendered. They held their own beauty and gave you a sense of each character's life and surroundings. As far as the colors go, the game displays slightly beautiful colors. Some of the areas and characters seemed to have too many different colors, almost making the colorizing annoying.

Sounds
Yet another area this game doesn't exactly excel in. First, you have your irritating voices. Most of them just sound too overly obnoxious or crappy. The music isn't too bad, though. It actually fit the fighting theme (like Gaia's theme). Then there's the music on the soundtrack that you could really do without (such as Kayin's music). The sound effects were a nice contribution, though. The loud whack and shing noises made by the weapons added a certain level of slapstickesque comedy to the gameplay. It also did help the action just a bit and possibly pulled this game from a fate called 4/10.

Final Word
The game is challenging, which brings its rating up just a bit. The gameplay is fun the first time you've gone through. There is no depth to the game and almost no replay value except maybe to find all the ultimate attacks for every character, but why do that when you can just look them up on the Internet? Okay, so maybe you don't have Internet connection, but still, after you've gotten all the moves written down, there's really not much more of an incentive to play. The biggest letdown of all: The characters do not have specialized endings.

In short, this is a mediocre fighting game with no real incentive (or cream filling, as the title suggest) to play.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Good backgrounds, back character design 5/10
Sounds: Bearable music, annoying voices 5/10
Control: Easy enough, although some moves are just too complex 7/10
Plot/Storyline: Yep, it's a major cliche-fest 1/10
Gameplay: Well, it's a good challenge 6/10
All Together: 5/10

Perks
*Decent music
*Good challenge factor
*Nice backgrounds
*Playing as Gaia is somewhat fun (somewhat)

Downers
*Character graphics
*Stupid voices
*Another tournament...
*No endings for any character
*Have to keep entering in the cheat code to reactivate the hidden characters

Recommendation
Not a very high recommendation. Actually, I think you really should play the game before buying. I would only recommend this for hardcore fighting fans that like every fighting game they play.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/01, Updated 01/02/02