Battle Arena Toshinden

"Take away the pretty pictures and what do you have...? A so-so 2-D fighter."

Even before it was released, Battle Arena Toshinden achieved enormous popularity on the strength of one thing: its eye-candy graphics, which blew everyone away at the time (including me, I'm afraid). Once it came out, millions fell in love, but the truth is, without those graphics, all you have is a so-so fighting engine with only limited (very limited; in fact, almost no) 3-D movement. The irony is, of course, this is the kind of game that was touted as being "the wave of the future." And so it was, but not in the way you might expect....

Graphics: 8/10

These were very good for a first generation PSX title, even if they haven't aged too well. Give the game its due, the visuals are very nice and well-designed, and the animation is excellent; the graphics were better than in Tekken, although Tekken is probably the better game overall.

Music/Sound: 8/10

The music is nice. It isn't anything special to me, but it doesn't bother me; a few of the tunes are catchy. The sound effects do their jobs sufficiently.

Control: 6/10

The basic moves are all right, but some of the specials and all of the supers are almost impossible to execute, not because of the motions themselves but because of the awkward layout of the Playstation's control pad, something that Sony should have improved but never has. This game is a real thumb-burner and blister maker if there ever was one in a furious fight. Ouchie.

Concept/Playability/Etc.: 4/10

The story is incredibly convoluted and dull, but since that's the case in just about all fighting games I won't bother with mentioning it further. At least we don't have any should-have-been-retired-10-games-ago-evil-dictators-who-run-organizations-named-Shadowtoilet.

No, the real problem with this game is that it seems to be so much more than it is. Weapon-based fighters based around the SF move arsenal aren't anything new, but this one isn't very well balanced or executed. The AI is terribly cheap and unforgiving, especially in the harder modes, and the characters themselves just aren't that much fun to use; they're terribly generic and bland for the most part. It's a horribly overrated game, and the fact that nearly all its sequels have flopped in this country indicate just how integral the graphics were to its success; once other, better-programmed games could match its splendor, there was no need to play these games anymore.

Ironically, its true value lies in the fact that it really was a harbinger of the future--today, pretty-pretty graphics (and now expensive FMV cut scenes) rule over gameplay, the feature that should be up front and center in all games.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 01/13/01