Retro|Spective 131: Battle Arena Toshinden

[Neon Ignition]

History in Games:
1995 - Battle Arena Toshinden
1995 - Battle Arena Toshinden 2
1996 - Battle Arena Toshinden Ura
1996 - Battle Arena Toshinden 3
1996 - Battle Arena Nitoshinden
1999 - Battle Arena Toshinden 4
2009 - War Budokai: Toshinden

Overview:
Launching alongside Sony's debut console, the Toshinden games were at the forefront of 3D fighters with the games offering weapon based combat but in a style that attempted to adapt a Street Fighter style play into a 3D movement space before any of the existing big franchises attempted the same. Able to move forward and backwards around the floor space, players would attempt to avoid projectiles and moves to side step their opponents. The game drew a reasonable amount of attention though an attempt to port the game to Saturn failed to grow interest. With the second game launching very quickly the series aggressively marched on but the 3D fighter genre moved on very quickly as the bigger players entered the market with Tekken, Soul Edge and Virtua Fighter quickly drawing attention away from the scrappy lowkey series. Despite this the franchise continued on throughout the generation before resting ahead of a failed attempted reboot on the Wii where weapons were removed. The series now looks to be permanently stuck in gamings past.






Share your thoughts and memories of this early 3D fighter series

[Atticus]

It's a game I never owned but genuinely couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it running on a Japanese PlayStation around launch time.

[Baseley09]

Yeah let's be real when it came out, it was exciting.

[Neon Ignition]

When I first played it I so badly wanted it to be better than it was. I thought that with a sequel they would potentially refine and nail what the first game set up but each entry just moved further and further away from something I liked.

This stage is my defining memory though and its music:

[Asura]

I was ~12. My defining memory was not of the music.

->Open Spoiler<-

[Neon Ignition]

I remember lots of magazine arguments about how the Saturn couldn't do the transparency effects on the green haired girls dress... till it did

[Anpanman]

Loved the first one, got it at launch along with Ridge, D Derby and WipeOut.

Put silly amounts of hours into it, used to have tournaments with the sister and brother-in-law. Jaw dropping graphics, great music and a nice variety of locations too.
Was even better with panic mode activated, Ellis (ballerina) and Rungo (muscle bloke) my two favourites with Ellis my pick of the two.

Also had v2 and 3 but thought the series moved away from its core with those and ultimately less enjoyable, Tekken on the other hand went from strength to strength with T2 and T3.