Battle Arena Toshinden Remix

"THIS is the one that launched the Playstation?!?"

I think one of the reasons the Sega Saturn didn't sell so well was the lack of advertisement. I mean, what good is making the console if you don't tell the major public what games it has. I'm sure they advertised in video game magazines like Game Pro and Tip & Tricks, but not many people (including me) collect them and they should have expanded more to other types of media. The only commercials I remember seeing was for SEGA RALLY and FIGHTING VIPERS. Sony Playstation, on the other hand, barrage us with commercials for their products. One of the most remembered was a scene of an elderly sophisticated couple in a mansion, introducing a game called BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN. Years later, after Sega stopped production on the Saturn, I saw the Saturn version of the game, BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN REMIX and bought it. I was wondering if the game lived up to the advertising and after playing with it, I got mixed feeling from it.

BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN REMIX is one of the early 3D fighting games that came out on the Playstation, then ported over to the Saturn, with added features. Gaia, leader of a secret organization invited 8 fighters in a tournament to find the best fighter. They accepted this for each have their own personal reasons for being there. Each character have unique and unusual personalities. The green-haired knight, Duke. Bounty hunter, Kayin. Little girl Ellis. Creepy old man, Fo and others. There are 4 games modes. Story mode, which has an interlude story between fights, mostly discussing the philosophy of fighting. There are 7 battles, 3 of them are bosses, Gaia, Sho and Cupido. 1P Game, have you face all 11 fighters. Although it has endings, it's shorter, different and not like Story Mode. Vs Human has another player join in and fight you, even using the same character. You can do that on 1P Game as well. Finally, vs Computer is used mostly for practice. This is not a bad set-up.

The background graphics look a bit stunning. Very sharp, detailed and colorful. The problem is that some stages look drab and boring. The character models don't look good as well. The look jagged and distorted almost freaky and non-human. Ellis with her yellow skin and no nose. The mutated physique of Sofia and Rungo. I wonder what happened to Mondo's face during his winning pose till I discovered his hand is in front of it! It just didn't look like that. The only characters that look half way decent is Fo and Cupido. The animation is fluid and the sparkling effects when the fighters use their special moves are impressive, though. Having 4 camera views to choose doesn't help much, because Normal and Long are good to use, while Overhead and Sky are useless and hinder the playing.

The sound effects are usual collection. Fighters groaning and screaming, weapons clashing. The voices in Battle Mode sound fuzzy sometimes, yet in the Story Mode interludes, they sound sharp and clear. Some of the music is great to listen to. The sound track is mostly guitar riffs and oriental music. There are 11 tracks on the CD that play the fighters' themes you can listen to without playing the game.

The controls are tight and responsive, but that's all it's going for. Each characters has only around 4 or 5 special moves, compare to 20+ moves you'll find on VIRTUA FIGHTER and FIGHTERS MEGAMIX. The game play is a little like VIRTUA FIGHTER and LAST BRONX, for it has ring-out and each character has a weapon. The problem is the fighting is not in depth and the A.I. is so easy to beat, that you can use only one or two moves over and over to beat it. You can play three bosses after you beat the game and a code to have big heads on fighters, but it doesn't help much.

TOSHINDEN REMIX is a decent game to have for story mode and a new character, but because of poor graphics and shallow game play, it won't be as popular as TEKKEN and VIRTUA FIGHTER. It's a good game to rent and even buy as a last resort, if you can't find the other Saturn 3D fighting games.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/03, Updated 06/09/03