Review for Battle Arena Toshinden on PSone from CVG 160 - March 1995 (UK)

2 years ago by Out of Print Archive to c/retrogaming

Review for Battle Arena Toshinden on PSone from CVG 160 - March 1995 (UK)

They might have been a bit too generous on this one.
And yes, I did buy it when it came out alongside the system itself, and was dazzled by the graphics.
The gameplay? Well, not so much...
Luckily Tekken 1 released only 6 weeks later. 😅

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Review for Battle Arena Toshinden on PSone from CVG 160 - March 1995 (UK) score: 96%

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Thad 2 points 2 years ago

@OutofPrintArchive@mstdn.games It seemed like a big deal at the time. I haven't played it in 30 years but my recollection is that it felt fast-paced and the mechanic of moving into the foreground or background seemed like a really impressive use of the 3D space.

It impressed me more than Tekken at the time, though obviously history has vindicated Tekken as the better (and more significant) game.

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OutofPrintArchive 1 point 2 years ago

@Thad@brontosin.space

Oh, it brew me away visually at the time, and I did play it a lot.
Heck, I even bought the sequel.
But a 96%?
Virtua Fighter 1 didn't have the looks, especially not the launch version on Saturn, but when it comes to gameplay, it's not even close.

Toshinden was so incredibly basic and really stiff. Laggy even.
But again, 3D fighters were quite new at the time, so it certainly had the wow factor.

Tekken 1 wasn't a looker at all, but the flow of the game was so much better than Toshinden.
Way more moves and way more opportunities to be creative with any fighter you picked.
Tekken 2 massively improved on it and 3 went even above that.

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Thad 0 points 2 years ago

@OutofPrintArchive I suspect it's a case of reviewers' novelty bias — their career involves so much repetition that anything that feels different is likely to impress them, even if it's not the kind of different that impresses the average player.

Toshinden didn't feel like other fighting games. That probably accounts for its critical consensus at the time being so much better than the consensus in hindsight.

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OutofPrintArchive 0 points 2 years ago

@Thad

Oh, for sure.
I can't really fault them for that.
And looking back 30 years later like this isn't exactly fair either. 😅
But seeing the direct comparison and it getting 96% to Virtu Fighter's 94%, that just feels wrong on so many levels to me.
And at that time, I wasn't even a Virtua Fighter fan, so these reviews did impact how I viewed the Saturn.

Again, 94% definitely isn't a score to sneeze at, let alone complain about, so I'm not sure what I'm waffling on about. 😬

And also, that's why I still love picking up new consoles on launch day.
It's not the smart thing to do.
They normally went down in price later on, and the selection of games is very meagre for the most part.
But it's one of those things that still gets my really excited about this hobby and lets me relive my childhood, which is way too many decades behind me now... 👀

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