Battle Arena Toshinden

"Better to rent than to buy"

This is the first review I ever wrote so I am sorry if it is bad. I first heard about Battle Arena Toshinden when I bought the game boy game (which was the best one). That was so fun that I thought I might by the psx one version. I bought it for 4$ and soon found out why they sold it for that cheap of a price. When I first played it everything looked great. A week later if found out that there was only 2 secret characters, 8 other characters that aren't very good, and no replay value. A lot of the characters are really cheap. This game has a pretty face but not as good as it looks.

Graphics: 6
When I first found out that the game was 3D I thought great, a good 3D game. Boy was I wrong. The graphics are really choppy. Plus you can see the polygons and the scenery isn't that great. As for the cut scenes, what cut scenes? There are no real cut scenes in the game. Even though it is 3D doesn't mean it has good grapics. If you are looking for a real 3D fighting game play Tekken2 or Mortal Kombat 4 but don't buy this. Overall the graphics aren't very good.

Music: 9
This is probably the best feature in the game. It is weird but cool and it kind of fits the scenery. Plus you can put it in your CD player and listen to it. Unfortunatly there aren't many arenas in the game so you don't hear the music as often. It gives you a beat when you are hacking up you enemies.

Controls: 5
Nothing special just your basic controls for a fighting game so I am kind of disappointed with them. They do however help you doge attacks really fast and they are easy to get used to. That helps because the combos are really hard to pull off and the fact that the controls are easy does help.

Gameplay: 7
The game play is good fun for a short period of time. There is absolutley no replay value to this game. The characters are your basic. Cool looking guy, dude in a karate suite, big strong guy, a fast little girl etc. You get the point. The bosses their are only two are also pretty lame and cheap. The do look pretty cool though. The 1 player game is not really good. The multi player isn't as fun but it gives you something to do. Some good things in this game is that if you are loosing you still have a chance to come back up. You have desperation moves and can knock your opponents out of the arena. The moves are really neat but every thing is too hard to pull off. Your better of press the Triangle button and hoping your opponent gets knocked out soon. After a while it gets very boring. I personally kept it because I collect fighting games. Try the sequels I haven't touched it after I played the sequels.

Rent or Buy:
Rent. Use the codes to unlock the bosses, play it with your friends or buy yourself then take it back. That is about all you can do with the game. If you are a collector like me than just buy it for about 4 bucks at a gamming store.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/03, Updated 02/09/03