Playstation Soccer: Featuring Shoe Commercials!

As I post this, the World Cup is just wrapping up and wow, what a wonderful event if you have absolutely no expectations. The United States’ coach said they couldn’t win and he was correct. But every little victory was celebrated.

We beat Ghana, the West African nation of 25 million that knocked the United States out of two consecutive World Cups! Woo!

We nearly beat Portugal! Yeah!

We lost to Germany but escaped the group of death anyway! YEAH!

Our goalkeeper is considerably better than the rest of our team! FUCK YEAH!

But if you go into the event with expectations, you’ll likely be disappointed. I can’t imagine what Brazil fans might feel – the host country, favorites to win it all, and they’re knocked out 7-1. They were dominated.

This was written before the third-place match but’ll go up after, so who knows? Brazil may pull out something there. But still.

In the following soccer games, I am Brazil and the computer is Germany.

Adidas Power Soccer

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Best-Seller in	Playstation Review Number
Psygnosis	Pysgnosis	6/96 (Europe) 8/31/96 (North America)	Europe (Platinum)	#47

This may be the first game I’ve ever played to include a commercial break.

Yes, every half time there’s an ad for Adidas shoes.

Adidas’ sponsorship of Adidas Power Soccer doesn’t end with the name on the cover or ads in the stadium. Every other goal is a PREDATOR GOAL; the German company’s shoe flashes up on-screen with the celebrations.

Adidas Power Soccer is the only one of today’s games to try to feature knock-off leagues instead of a knock-off international cup. It features German and French teams, as well as British teams – including Sheffield…Sunday and “Manchester”.

A fast game, Adidas Power Soccer’s arcade mode adds sparking tackles, fiery shots and cuckoo birds over injured players. And since I’m bad at this, being down 3-0 at halftime was the norm. Once my goalkeeper was left defenseless after making several saves – unassisted by one of my players, who was just standing in the goal itself. However, I did actually manage to score goals.

Thankfully, Adidas Power Soccer doesn’t really try for realism. It has the kind of simple, colorful look that worked well on the Playstation in a way pure realism just couldn’t.

Realism is demanded in sports games, but they can’t be too realistic. I was watching a video of Football Manager 2014 and the player complained about a dumb move by one player, calling it a glitch. It may be. But soccer players, even good ones, often do stupid things. They score own goals, they give up the ball to the other team, they regularly bite people. But that’s not the kind of realism people want.

I think I might have killed someone, but I wasn’t even given a yellow card. You can set the referee rate to “blind”, but they seem pretty blind even on default. 

Originally I was going to go the NBA Action route and simulate a whole season. However, several games in I was heading for relegation, so I just gave up.

But how are the goal celebrations?: The world GOAL flashes up pretty dramatically, but that’s it.

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VR Soccer 96

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Best-Seller in	Also Known As…	Also On…	Playstation Review Number
Gremlin	Interplay	3/96 (Europe) 7/19/96 (Japan) 10/31/96 (North America)	Europe (Platinum)	Actua Soccer, Ran Soccer	Saturn, PC	#48

VR Soccer ‘96 is a trying existential nightmare with a soccer game attached.

When starting the cup competition one page of results after another popped up. Advancing through them, witnessing the failures of those who came before, until your number is up.

I couldn’t triumph as the US. I couldn’t as Ghana. The cup was eventually won by Portugal, with runner-up Germany.

Other features include: unnervingly stiff players!

But how are the goal celebrations?: We see the team pumping fists while a big GOAL is displayed on a huge TV.

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Sega Worldwide Soccer ’97

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Saturn Review Number
Sega	Sega	10/31/96 (NA) 11/29/96 (Japan)	#44

The best of the games, one that reminds me of Decathlete: a nice-looking arcade (or sim?) sport experience. Also simulates a competition between national teams, allowing you to set up a whole multi-team tournament (VR Soccer just allows you to pick what teams are competing). I remember multiple things about this game, such as: Graphics. Controls. Menus. Goals?

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Thirty-two bits on a screen,

Polygons still jutting,

Thirty minutes of in-game time,

Pretty much stopped me dreaming

Child Fighters and Suicidal Rodents

32 Bits is a series where I play and review the most popular games of the past – the games that sold well in their day, not what we look back on fondly now. Why were they popular, what did their success mean, and do they hold up today? Some are loved, others loathed, and many more forgotten. 

Sega Saturn reviews consider the most acclaimed games for the system, cult hits, popular games and a smattering of others I choose as I please.

Information on what games will be reviewed can be found here; my reviews of 1995’s games are archived on this page, while links to reviews from the current season – and a list of those to come – can be found here.

Saturn Review #41:

Virtua Fighter Kids

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Originally For
Sega AM2	Sega	7/26/96 (Japan) 8/29/96 (North America) 10/3/1996 (Europe)	Arcades

1995, Sega offices, Tokyo.

“Any ideas for building on Virtua Fighter 2’s success?”

“Sure, but first, why are we speaking in English?”

“Because we’re practicing for our Fargo LARP later. Ideas?”

“Oh yeah. How about we just release a dozen minor variations on VF2, until we reach Hyper Super Virtua Fighter 2: The New Warriors?”

“How about we make the game easier and turn all the characters into kids, except they look the same, only smaller and with big heads?”

“BRILLIANT!”

“Who was even talking just then? This scenario is very vague and confusing.”

That’s how it went down. Probably.

Wikipedia informs me Virtua Fighter Kids was a promotional item for “Java Tea” and also a test of face animation for Virtua Fighter 3. The former is confirmed by the invaluable Sega Retro wiki; the latter fact, well, this article also has a “THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT CITE ANY REFERENCES OR SOURCES” banner, so take it as you will.

Virtua Fighter 2, but super deformed. And a bit easier, as you can program your own combos. That’s it.

Nothing is changed about the characters otherwise, so when Kage loses his mask you see scars – on a cartoonishly large head.

Last time I covered a rereleased game for the Saturn it was Virtua Fighter Remix and Daytona USA Championship Edition. Those games were apologies for the original subpar ports that accompanied the system’s surprise US launch; the former was given out for free. At least Virtua Fighter Kids was just an attempt at cashing in on the game’s popularity – and the presumably lucrative contract from “Java Tea” – and not a way of making up for past failures, since Sega was past that phase.

VIRTUA FIGHTER, but with kids. It’s as good as Virtua Fighter 2 since it is Virtua Fighter 2, unless there’s something I didn’t notice, but it’s also full of big heads and the like. So. 

Saturn Review #42:

3D Lemmings

Image Credit: Moby Games.

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Originally for	Also On
Clockwork Games	Psygnosis	7/6/96 (Europe) 8/23/96 (Japan)	PC	Playstation

1958. The year of Disney’s nature documentary White Wilderness. An Oscar winner for best documentary, it would find enduring fame for something far less laudable.

Up in Alberta, filmmakers tasked with filming a segment on small rodents called lemmings quickly found that lemmings are boring. But sometimes, during their migrations, they fall off cliffs…

David Attenborough they weren’t: that segment’s director flew lemmings into a foreign environment and launched them off cliffs to mockup the mythical mass suicide behavior these unassuming mammals are always associated with.

1991. Disney’s craven act of fraud and animal cruelty inspired a pretty good video game (there’s a sentence I never expected to write). DMA’s original Lemmings tasked players with saving little purple-and-green critters from themselves, turning individual lemmings into special ones that could guide their brethren to the exit and not into a gauntlet of deadly threats.

The 3D  debut of Lemmings adds a new type of Lemming, the Turner, who turns Lemmings 90 degrees – into the back or front. It’s basically the same Lemmings as before but with awkward camera positioning (like two-thirds of all 32 bit games). Good luck.

Taking a 2D game and moving it into 3D was a tricky business. Konami’s Metal Gear Solid improved on its predecessors so massively that few can remember, much less like the NES Metal Gear; but their troubled attempts at making a quality 3D Castlevania continue to this day. Sega’s 3D Sonic games are inconsistent in terms of quality. Lemmings, by contrast, is just…Lemmings, but with tedious camera problems that over-complicate everything!

This review began with a horrifying historical anecdote and now must end by saying 3D Lemmings didn’t try to reinvent the wheel with its franchise, without working around one of the biggest problems of its generation. 3D Lemmings: occasionally frustrating, never transcendent of its flaws. 

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Tomorrow: Die Hard Trilogy & Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Next Saturday: Soccer games for the Saturn and Playstation.

But here’s a preview of NBA Action!

Sega’s NBA Action, developed by Gray Matter, isn’t a…great sports game. And it feels heretical to play old sports games. They exist in the now. Also I never play them on my own so I have no real reference point. Originally I considered just banning them but realized that, even if they give little to discuss in terms of gameplay, they do have a historical context. For instance, how cancelling Madden NFL 96 caused Sony’s GameDay series to temporarily take the lead – back when EA’s Madden had competition.

In NBA Action I elected to play as the Chicago Bulls. All the players from ’95-96 are there: Dennis Rodman, the Croatian guy…and of course, the greatest player they ever saw:

ROSTER GUARD. The greatest. He puts up a prayer, the prayer is answered. You’ll believe a man can fly. What I’m saying is, the game’s announcer is absurdly melodramatic.

Who’s Roster Guard? He could be standing in for a famous player who licensed his image independently and thus couldn’t be included, but don’t be ridiculous. When he appears as the game’s top player he exists in perpetual shadow. What a wonderful move by the Bulls to add a Smoke Monster to their roster, one who oddly is in the same place as that unnamed player who once left to do baseball.

I had never played a full season mode in a sports game before, so I decided to go through the whole season in NBA Action. Then I learned that meant 82 games.  Plus best of 7 playoffs. So see NBA Action’s review either with the soccer games next Saturday or (more likely) with my reviews of football and hockey games in…quite some time from now. Gotta quarantine the sports.

CURRENT RATING IN THE 2013-2014 1995-1996 CHICAGO BULLS SEASON: 14-4. Lost to the Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs. I don’t know anything about basketball so I’m not sure if I should be surprised by those losses.

I also began playing Super Mario 64 in advance of a review in a while.

Nights Into Dreams

Saturn Review #40:

Nights Into Dreams

Developer	Publisher	Release Date
Sonic Team	Sega	7/5/96 (Japan) 8/31/96 (North America) 9/5/1996 (Europe)

September 1996. The month the Nintendo 64 and its flagship title, Super Mario 64, were introduced to the world. Super Mario 64 was a game destined to define the 3D platformer – for better or for worse.

Just before its debut, Sega and Sony sought to challenge Nintendo’s powerhouse platformer with a pair of games that their developers hoped would become iconic. Sony’s entry: an uninspired game that would fleetingly be a household name. Sega’s: a creative game that would gain a cult fanbase but fail to save its home console. Both wanted to be Mario killers.

I may overrate Nights somewhat. This isn’t due to nostalgia – it couldn’t be, since I had never played a Saturn game before this series and only played Nights for the first time this month. No, it’s because I played through Crash Bandicoot just before – that review runs next Sunday, so I’ll simply say that it doesn’t hold up well, and especially looks weak in comparison to the achievement of Nights.

Nights Into Dreams can’t be called a platformer. Or maybe it can. It’s a platformer without platforms, a racer without racing, an action game devoid of action. Perhaps it’s best called a acrobatics game, or just itself.

In control of a child after running out of time.

The player controls an androgynous jester who enters people’s dreams. Not exactly a character guaranteed to catch on. The game’s story is told largely silently with a few cutscenes and short intros to each stage. Alas, the game’s sequel – 2007’s Nights: Journey into Dreams for the Wii – burdens the game with voice acted, laborious cinematics – similarly to post-Dreamcast Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Nights is obscure. Not in terms of fame, but in terms of direction. You start, not as the flying Nights, but as a earthbound child. When colored orbs are stolen from you, you must make your way to a little temple to take control of Nights. Every level begins the same slow way.

Once you figure out Nights, it’s unlike anything else. Nights flies on a scrolling 2D plane, making loops around items to draw them in. Your goal: collect 20 blue “chips” within the time limit and give them to the stage’s “Ideya”, sending you into a bonus round. Return to the start in time to be shot off on the new path (four paths per level, six normal levels).

Enemies exist, but this isn’t a game about combat. Even running out of time just places the player in the shoes of the kid from the start, who clumsily make their way back to the start.

A sled section in the ice stage.

Many levels feature special sections and transitions are instantaneous. A snow world turns Nights into a sled, while they’re a mermaid grabbing chips undersea in another. These swift sections switch from sidescrolling to forward-scrolling. Each level also features unique mechanics like magnets in an industrial level.

Levels are bright but not always dream-like. The finest examples include the Soft Museum, whose gardens and statues recede and bounce, and the game’s garish boss fights.

A early boss fight.

Good thing the boss battles look nice, since that’s the only good thing I can say about them. They range from the dully typical to the obtuse. Unlike normal stages, running out of time here is an automatic game over, forcing the player to redo the preceding stage for another chance. It’s not that they’re difficult – they really aren’t once you figure out what to do – but more that they’re the only parts of the game to be uncreative, harsh and confrontational.

One fight entails throwing a rotund woman at targets you usually can’t see. Another features a cat who jumps from rocket to rocket, so you must spin into the lit ones. The game’s shifting camera that works so well in the normal stages falters here. The only one to feel like Nights is the first, where the player attacks a giant insect with loop-de-loops. At least they offer compellingly surreal vistas like the lurid dining room and mushroom-filled caverns.

A section in the “Soft Museum” stage.

Nights was a one-off, a last grab for mainstream success in the floundering Saturn’s last commercial viable year. Holiday season hopes were pinned on Sonic X-Treme, only for that game to be cancelled; Nights would fill the void left by the Hedgehog’s lost Saturn foray.

Nights proved a success by Saturn standards. Like its Saturn sibling Panzer Dragoon, Nights skipped the Dreamcast but was eventually revived for a sequel – on the Wii eleven years later. Unlike the Xbox’s Panzer Dragoon Orta, Nights’ sequel was greeted with shrugs from the public and a mixed reception from fans.

Nights occasionally makes “greatest games of all time” lists (towards the bottom, but still), and is usually ranked as one of the Saturn’s best games. It’s a great Saturn game, but one of the best games ever? No. I feel Nights may have been over-praised just because of how original it is. The central sensation of flight is wonderfully executed and Nights draws you in well when you’re dashing through the skies. But then you’ll be dragged out of it by the poor boss battles or a handful of slow top-down sequences. It’s a wonderful foundation to build upon, but unfortunately it would be left as a foundation by the Saturn’s short-life and the design proclivities of modern-day Sega. And so I must say that, yeah, it’s not perfect, but it’ll probably never be improved upon.

Nonetheless, it’s still worth playing because when it works, it’s like nothing else. This game is a must-play, but with an asterisk.

Next Sunday: Crash Bandicoot

Shining Force and Golden Axe Make Their Way Onto the Saturn – Along with Taxis and Dragons

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games of the recent past; from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360. Why?

• To chart the evolution of games.

• To destroy people’s nostalgic feelings by playing the “classics” they all know…alongside the detritus everyone played at the time, but no one remembers.

• To rediscover games unjustly forgotten by history.

The time is June 1996: six months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is three months away; while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

A full list of 32 Bits articles from the current season (1996) can be found here; further explanations of the “greatest hits” series and what games I’ll include can be found here.

As the Saturn was an unpopular console, I can’t just play its popular hits. Today is the last round-up of June’s Saturn games.

Saturn Review #36:

Shining Wisdom

Developed by Sonic!, published by Working Designs

Released: June 27th, 1996

The Shining series debuted in 1991 with the dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness, but it was its incarnation as a turn-based strategy game, introduced by 1992’s Shining Force, that brought the franchise enduring fame. And naturally its Saturn debut brings the series into a whole new genre.

An action RPG, Shining Wisdom is quite similar to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. You delve into 2D dungeons, you find new items, you use them to go into new dungeons. You’ll go into a cave to find sliding shoes, use those shoes to explore a forest and find a magical pair of boxing gloves, and then go back to the cave so you can use those gloves to reach the dungeon’s bottom. The only new element added to the mix are magical orbs; you can combine these orbs with other tools for new effects. Combining an ice spell with steel shoes causes your stomp to freeze water.

Shining Wisdom’s quest, past a certain point, allows for some freedom, letting you tackle dungeons as you are able. There’s quite a few hidden nooks and crannies scattered about, as is to be expected in this kind of adventure game. Enemies spawn endlessly and it’s smarter to just run from them, unless you need to grind for gold.

Traversing the overworld in Shining Wisdom.

Shining Wisdom started development on the Genesis and it shows. I’ve played many 2D Saturn games and the system was home to some fantastic 2D graphics. But the 3D characters of Shining Wisdom look diminutive and toy-like and are largely uninspired designs, and the environments are repetitive and simplistic. It’s quite a bland look in comparison to its 2D brethren, though at least the game boasts an energetic score.

Shining Wisdom is filled with references to past games. Alas, due to rights issues Working Designs could not use any names from past games – so all callbacks and connections are lost completely.

One of the curious aspects of video game storytelling is how often the protagonists fail. If Mario doesn’t get told the Princess is in another castle, he can’t go on bouncing through another level, after all. The hero of Shining Wisdom, Mars, is always just too late to save the Princess or to stop a great evil from being released. He’s typically silent and so this also prevents him from ever telling the truth or explaining anything. But this characterization is intentional – throughout the game characters comment on his lies and failures, and he gets promoted more for trying his best than anything.

Shining Wisdom doesn’t have the staying power of other Shining games. Those in ’96 waiting for a more traditional Shining experience would have their patience rewarded with the 1997 dungeon crawler Shining the Holy Ark and 1998’s Shining Force III. The Saturn lacked a quality Zelda-style game; Shining Wisdom is fairly bland but isn’t a terrible time. It didn’t set the world on fire in 1996 and it won’t in 2013, either, but it’s perfectly competent and better than its misbegotten conception would lead you to believe. 

Three Saturn Shoot-em-up’s: DonPachi, Strikers 1945 and Kingdom Grandprix

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games of the recent past; from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360. Why?

• To chart the evolution of games.

• To destroy people’s nostalgic feelings by playing the “classics” they all know…alongside the detritus everyone played at the time, but no one remembers.

• To rediscover games unjustly forgotten by history.

The time is June 1996: six months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is three months away; while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

A full list of 32 Bits articles from the current season (1996) can be found here; further explanations of the “greatest hits” series and what games I’ll include can be found here.

As the Saturn was an unpopular console, I can’t just play its popular hits. Today I’m playing three of 1996’s most popular shooters for the Saturn.

Saturn #33:

Strikers 1945

Developed by Psikyo, published by Atlus

Released: June 28th, 1996

Originally developed for arcades

Strikers 1945 is set during World War II, though it’s a version of World War II where every battle ends with the appearance of a giant robot and where the war’s finale takes place in space. The fine people at Psikyo would probably want you to know that Strikers 1945 is an original experience similar to, but legally distinct from, Capcom’s 1942.

Players choose from six planes which all play differently, and take them through entirely typical shooter stages. Gold bars may be collected to earn points. The usual bomb attack is replaced with a bomber flying by and dropping its payload on enemies. But the most notable deviation from the shooter norm is that colliding with an enemy doesn’t usually kill you; instead it takes away any power-ups you’ve earned.

 Strikers 1945 is entertaining enough but really nothing special; it lacks a strong central gimmick to separate it from the rest.

Saturn #34:

Kingdom Grandprix

 

Developed by Raizing, published by GAGA Communications

Released: June 1996

Originally developed for arcades

Kingdom Grandprix is centered around a genre combination so bizarre and original that I’m willing to look past its faults, just because we’ll never see a game like it again.

Kingdom Grandprix is a racing shooter; the player guides their “ship” through levels blasting enemies as normal, but they also need to keep ahead of their opponents to win a race. You can’t shoot your fellow racers but you can push them aside to take their spot.

The start of a race in Kingdom Grandprix.

Actually winning a race is complicated by the game’s obscure acceleration. I didn’t figure it out on my own while playing, but to accelerate you must hang out at the top of the screen. It’s a shame that the actual racing mechanic is hard to get at first and always hard to manage, but it’s not unexpected that these two genres wouldn’t mesh well. It’s a wonder anyone tried to mesh them in the first place.

Levels are frantic and short, and each features a towering boss character. These bosses are certainly quirky – one level’s boss is a floating vampire who tosses cards at the player. While many shooter levels can feel bland each level in Kingdom Grandprix has a strong central concept: a tropical sea with leaping dolphins, a gothic castle, a sewer with waves that push you under the water.

Kingdom Grandprix’s art is colorful, bright and quirky. It’s the most graphically accomplished of these three games. It also has a fantasy aesthetic; characters include witches, samurai dragons, fairies and dwarves. It’s unfailingly charming.

After each course you can select one of two levels to go through next. Complete the game in first place and another, harder loop opens up, taking you through the levels you didn’t choose the first time around.

 Kingdom Grandprix has its problems, but the unique combination of genres makes it memorable and its rapid action is hectic fun.

Saturn #35:

DonPachi

Developed by Cave, published by Atlus

Released: April 26th, 1996

Originally developed for arcades

DonPachi initially seems a bit generic; its art is traditional spaceships and there’s nothing immediately evident as different like there was with Kingdom Grandprix. But DonPachi is better than it seems.

DonPachi adds a touch of strategy to shooting by offering two different methods of attack. You can fire guns in short bursts as normal, or fire a constant laser beam. The laser is devastating, killing enemies quickly without requiring any precision – but it also slows down your ship to a crawl. A balance between the two methods makes winning easier.

DonPachi also takes you through a harder loop once you complete the game under certain conditions; unlike Kingdom Grandprix, DonPachi’s story is more than an excuse and completing the game reveals a darker twist.

  DonPachi is initially generic but eventually reveals itself as a thoughtfully designed shooter.

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TOMORROW: A look at SimCity and Worms for the Playstation.

NEXT TIME: Next Saturday – Blazing Dragons, Shining Wisdom, Tryrush Deppy and Golden Axe: The Duel.

THEN: NiGHTS Into Dreams on the 23rd.

Konami and Sega bring the Track and Field game into the 32 Bit era

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games in the past console generations, from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360.

The time is June 1996: six months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is three months away, while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

The only thing the Playstation games I play have in common: membership in Sony’s Greatest Hits line, or its European and Japanese equivalents. These games all sold at least 150,000 copies and are a guide to what everyone played then.

Some of these games are remembered fondly, some are despised and many are forgotten completely. Why were they popular then, and what can we learn from them today? Find out in 32 Bits.

A full list of 32 Bits articles from the current season (1996) can be found here; further explanations of the “greatest hits” series and what games I’ll include can be found here.

Playstation #31 & Saturn #32:

International Track and Field & Decathlete

Developed and Published by Konami / Developed by Sega AM3, published by Sega

Released: June 28 / July 17 1996

Originally developed for arcades

International Track & Field: Best-seller in Europe

1996 was the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic games. So naturally, they were held in…Atlanta? In the realm of gaming the world played platformers based on the Atlanta Olympic’s bizarre blue mascot Izzy and the then two-year-old industry convention E3 left Los Angeles for a brief run in Atlanta in 1997 and 1998.

And also in 1996 a type of game dating back to the days of the NES saw new life on the Playstation and Saturn thanks to Konami’s International Track and Field and Sega’s Decathlete.

A sequel to a 1983 game called Track & Field, International Track and Field features eleven Olympic events that you navigate with frenzied button mashing. That’s not a complaint; it’s the point of the game. Up to four players jam the square button to run as fast as they can.

Events include a sprint, hammer and discus throwing, long jumps, pole vaults and more. In some you run as fast as you can and then press an action button at the right moment. In others you use the run buttons to spin as fast as possible before hitting the action button to toss an object.

A race in International Track and Field

Track and Field’s frenzied minigames seem simple but are hard to master; simple enough to play easily with friends, quick enough so no one gets bored, and easy to jump in and out of. Additionally, the character animation can have moments that are quite realistic for their day – such as the characters falling over if they spin too hard.

Sega’s Decathlete is essentially the same at first glance; you still jam on run and action buttons. But Decathlete places a stronger focus on a single campaign – which makes sense, as it only allows two players versus the four in Konami’s game.

You run an athlete through a Decathalon of every event, all in one go. Decathlete is relentlessly cheery. The graphics are quite colorful in comparison to the realism of Track and Field; when you win, a cheerful – and poorly translated – message pops up saying “LET’S GO NEXT GAME”. The end credits display your character’s triumphs – even if you failed an event and scored nothing, it’s shown as an moment of glory.

A race in DecAthlete.

Decathlete explains how to play every game; the games work similarly to those in Track & Field, with running and action buttons. In some races you are shown your character and rival’s strength so that you can pace yourself. One unique event is a 1500 meter race. This race, which is joined with unexpectedly majestic music, lets you maneuver around other racers. But since Decathlete only allows for two players, only one other racer is a “real” opponent and the rest are a horde of anonymous clones.

Games like this rely on pure muscle memory. Doing well requires coordinated repetition of the same movements. Players of International Track and Field created whole “methods”, guides to the best ways to hold the Playstation controller to achieve better times. It’s a shame that no matter what method you devised, you couldn’t easily share your time with the world back in ‘96.

Which one’s better? Decathlete has better presentation and some unique events; International Track & Field has four-player multiplayer. The latter would have the edge in 1996 due to the increased number of players. Does it matter today? These games provide a window into an era where slack-jawed Smurfs represented the United States to the world, and where people spent their days furiously mashing square buttons in the hope of a better time.

Decathlete:

International Track & Field: 

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Next Saturday: A look at three early shooters for the Saturn.

Next Sunday: PC classics Worms and Sim City make their way onto the Playstation.

Mechs, More Mechs and Zookeepers

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games of the recent past; from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360. Why?

• To chart the evolution of games.

• To destroy people’s nostalgic feelings by playing the “classics” they all know…alongside the detritus everyone played at the time, but no one remembers.

• To rediscover games unjustly forgotten by history.

The time is June 1996: six months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is three months away; while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

A full list of 32 Bits articles from the current season (1996) can be found here; further explanations of the “greatest hits” series and what games I’ll include can be found here.

As the Saturn was an unpopular console, I can’t just play its popular hits. Here I play a representative sample of the Saturn’s library; this post covers three games from June 1996.

Saturn #29:

Gungriffon: The Eurasian Conflict

Developed by Game Arts, published by Sega

Released: June 19th 1996

Here’s a game that took me by surprise. I went in expecting a generic shooter, and was rewarded with a surprisingly challenging experience.

GunGriffon is a mech game, which doesn’t just mean “a game featuring giant mechs”. Mech games are a curious genre that prides itself for realism despite focusing on entirely fictitious weapons; it’s the realism of capturing the feeling of piloting a lumbering mechanical weapon. 1997’s Armored Core is the most enduring series of “mech games”, but the peak of the genre is 2002’s Steel Battalion for the original Xbox, which retailed for $200 and included a special controller the size of a table with 40 buttons. By comparison GunGriffon is a more arcade-y experience.

Jumping in the air to fight.

The controls are initially cumbersome; to move, you must first initiate forward or backward motion and then you can steer. The mech you control can also jump high in the air and fire below, though these jumps are limited. You can continue to move in the air, which opens up new terrain – for instance, in a city-set stage you can leap onto the roofs of buildings.

The player guides a mech in several missions throughout Europe and Asia during a nebulous future war. There are four weapons at your disposal, from cannons to machine guns, but ammo is limited. GunGriffon is obviously a product of its time with the requisite graphical limitations, but Game Arts builds a convincing atmosphere of being part of a larger conflict out of very little. You drop into missions, often alongside other mechs. In the city stage, I stumbled upon tanks firing at some other, unseen enemy. Helicopters fly in to resupply you, but they’re also targets and can be destroyed.

Four missions are available initially and more are unlocked by completing them, though it’s still fairly short. Missions generally task you with destroying every enemy within a time limit but there’s a impressive variety to how each mission plays out. One level takes place during a heavy winter storm and features a train as your target, while another is set among forests and hills and is heavy on air units – units you can’t track, as the trees jam your sensors. Though the core gameplay is just walking and shooting, the diverse settings and shifting challenges make failure a distinct possibility.

The presentation of GunGriffon also convincingly creates the feeling of piloting a war machine. The decision to present the game in the first person was wise. Not only does this avoid the awkward third person cameras endemic in games of this time, the first person camera view is slathered in militaristic data displays that further this feeling. There’s also a sporadically useful night vision display.

Convincing atmosphere, challenging level design and unique if clumsy controls elevate GunGriffon above most action games of its era and turn it into a small gem.

Who Made It?

Game Arts, a Japanese company noted for games like Silpheed (which gets a nod in GunGriffon) and the RPG Lunar. But I know them best for Grandia, my favorite RPG of this console generation. They’re still active today; in 2012 they released two games for the Playstation Vita, Ragnarok Odyssey and Dokuro. They also contributed to the development of 2008’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

There is a sequel to GunGriffon on the Saturn: GunGriffon II, which was rushed out in 1998 in advance of the Dreamcast. Later games were on the Playstation 2 and Xbox.

Saturn #30:

Baku Baku

Developed by Sega AM3, published by Sega

Released: June 19th 1996

Originally developed for arcades

This cute puzzle game adds a animal-themed twist to the “connect 3” format: carrots, bones, bamboo and banana tiles drop onto the board and you must connect them to the right animal tile – rabbits, dogs, pandas or apes respectively. The animals eat them, eliminating any connected food tile. This typical puzzler is charming if a bit odd, and the unique gimmick adds new pressures to the formula. 

Saturn #31:

Hyper Reverthion

Developed and Published by Technosoft

Released: June 7th 1996 (Japan only)

Originally developed for Playstation

A game I picked just because it looked cool, Hyper Reverthion is a fighting-action game where you control insect-inspired mechs. Their designs are identifiable and visually awesome, for lack of a better word. Even though the game’s cinematics are in English, the story is incomprehensible.

Gameplay-wise Hyper Reverthion is a mix of shooter and 3D fighting game that’s similar to Virtual-On, a more famous mech fighter. Virtual-On’s arcade release predates Hyper Reverthion, but Hyper Reverthion beat it onto consoles. Hyper Reverthion is a much slower and altogether less interesting experience, however. Strong visuals (if only with the mechs) can’t mask how dull Hyper Reverthion can be. 

Who Made It?

Technosoft, a Japanese company known for the Thunder Force series of shooters. They closed in 2001.

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Tomorrow – Konami’s International Track and Field and Sega’s Decathlete.

Guardian Heroes, X-Men and More: The Saturn Games of April ’96

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games of the recent past; from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360. Why?

• To chart the evolution of games.

• To destroy people’s nostalgic feelings by playing the “classics” they all know…alongside the detritus everyone played at the time, but no one remembers.

• To rediscover games unjustly forgotten by history.

The time is May 1996: five months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is several months away; while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

As the Saturn was an unpopular console, I can’t just play its popular hits. Here I play a representative sample of the Saturn’s library; this post covers three games from April-May 1996.

Saturn #26:
Guardian Heroes

Developed by Treasure, published by Sega
Released: April 24th 1996

Guardian Heroes is one of the Saturn’s most popular games. So in other words, it’s the cult classic with the largest cult.

It’s developed by Treasure, a cult developer founded by former Konami developers; they often make shooters, but are against dragging out series with endless sequels.

I was nervous before playing Guardian Heroes. This game is beloved to this day, yet its genre – the beat’em’up – bores the hell out of me. Saturn reviews in general make me nervous due to my ignorance of the system, and my inexperience with common Saturn genres like scrolling shooters and 2D fighters.

No need to be nervous: Guardian Heroes is fantastic, and in many ways is the apex of the beat-em-up.

The best innovation Treasure crafted for Guardian Heroes: simplifying movement. You don’t move around in a wide area, but leap between 2D planes. The three planes work like fighting game arenas: you can hit behind you and in front without fear of missing. It can be hard to see your character at times as the screen is crowded with enemies and as you leap from back to front.

Selecting a story path in Guardian Heroes

Some depth is added by a leveling system and branching paths that make each run different; in the story mode, you’re joined by a powerful AI ally you can command. Levels are kept brief but the branches in the story thanks to choices and morality, and the different playstyles of the character, keep the game fresh.

In terms of multiplayer the usual co-op mode is joined by a frantic versus mode that lets you play as any character unlocked in the story mode. Six combatants fight – they can be on teams, or every man for himself.

The innovative mechanics added to the beat-em-up formula, shaking up a moribund genre by drawing inspiration from the fighting games it spawned, make Guardian Heroes a towering achievement from Treasure. Turns out Guardian Heroes deserves all the praise it earned in 1996 and continues to attract today.

Saturn #27:

X-Men: Children of the Atom

(Slowdown and poor quality because of the recording, not the game; Guardian Heroes wouldn’t record at all!)

Developed by Capcom, published by Acclaim

Originally developed for arcades

Released: April 5th, 1996

The dawn of 3D graphics led to an unfortunate devaluation of 2D graphics – just as they grew to be more sophisticated than ever before in terms of color palette, size and detail, as developers with extensive 2D experience took advantage of new technology. Tekken looks primitive today, but in ‘96 it was valued over the gorgeous visuals of a game like X-Men: Children of the Atom.

With many 2D games released on the Saturn and Playstation, the Saturn port was arcade accurate, while the Playstation port was terrible. The Playstation version of Children of the Atom was delayed two years. When it was finally released in 1998, it was riddled with missing animation frames and slowdown.

Like Street Fighter Alpha, Children of the Atom uses a clean, colorful animated look instead of more jagged sprites. This game’s levels are also gorgeously detailed, from the partiers drifting by in Iceman’s stage to sea life passing by Omega Red’s undersea base.

Playable X-Men include Wolverine, Iceman, Storm, Cyclops, Colossus, and Psylocke; playable villains include one of the mutant-hunting Sentinels, the tentacled Omega Red, Silver Samurai and the multi-armed alien Spiral. It isn’t a large slate of characters, but at least all of them have their own style and a strong central concept – a wonder compared to the generic battlers of Battle Arena Toshinden or many other derivative fighters.

X-Men: Children of the Atom tweaks the Street Fighter formula in many small ways. It’s the first Capcom fighter to allow you to break through the floor of an arena to reach a new level. It also has an Alpha-style power bar.

Children of the Atom kickstarted a series of Marvel-licensed fighters from Capcom; though those games overshadow their ancestor, and it’s rather sparse, it’s still a well-animated and colorful game and one of the best fighters of its day.

Saturn #28:
Iron Storm

Developed by SystemSoft, published by Working Designs
Released: May 8th 1996

This World War II-set strategy game is the first Saturn installment in the long-running Daisenryaku series; it’s also the first game in the series to be released outside of Japan. Most of the following games are Japan-only.

You can play as Germany, Japan or the United States. Other powers, most notably the Soviets, remain NPC factions. The American release was handled by Working Designs (who also exported Arc the Lad); they must have felt strange about releasing a game that’s dominated by the Axis and lets you guide them to victory, as a portion of the game’s proceeds were donated to the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

A hex-based strategy title, Iron Storm renders battles in full 3D cutaways. These dynamic cinematics are fun at first, but eventually just slow down the pace of the game. Luckily, they can be skipped, but that makes the game a bit drab.

Challenging yet surprisingly accessible, Iron Storm is a well-designed but limited strategy game whose main draw, the 3D skirmishes, are dated now.

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Next Time:

On Saturday – another round-up of Saturn games. Fairly boring ones!

On Sunday – a look at the…exciting world of track and field games.

Livers and Magic Carpets: The Saturn Games of March 1996

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games of the recent past; from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360. Why?

• To chart the evolution of games.

• To destroy people’s nostalgic feelings by playing the “classics” they all know…alongside the detritus everyone played at the time, but no one remembers.

• To rediscover games unjustly forgotten by history.

The time is March 1996: three months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is several months away; while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

This is the first of the periodical Saturn round-ups; as the Saturn was an unpopular console, I can’t just play its popular hits. Here I play a representative sample of the Saturn’s library; this post covers two games from March 1996.

Note: I’ve update the 32 Bits page; the “32 Bits” option above now has a sub-menu linking to all the articles by year and by series.

Saturn #24:

Linkle Liver Story

Developed by Nextech, published by Sega

Released: March 1996 (Japan)

LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT IT. IT’S ADORABLE. SO ADORABLE. THE CUTEST GAME. YOU’RE THE CUTEST, ADORABLEST GAME EVER, AREN’T YOU, LINKLE LIVER STORY? YES YOU ARE. YES YOU ARE!

COUGH. Ahem.

Linkle Liver Story is a colorful game with detailed, and adorable, sprites; it’s also a Zelda-esque adventure with a inexplicable name.

“Linkle Liver Story”. The title is in English. Completely meaningless English. Victor Ireland of Working Designs claims the game’s producer told him “Linkle Liver” refers to the “people who live in Linkle”.

There is no location in the game named “Linkle”.

A early boss in “Linkle Liver Story”.

Linkle Liver Story is a Japanese game that never departed for foreign shores. My last experiences with games entirely in Japanese include SteamGear Mash, Gunbird and Tadaima Wakusei Kaitakuchuu!. The latter defied explanation; the game’s complexity and the lack of any information on it in English caused me to just give up. Isometric action game SteamGear Mash could be understood easily even if you don’t speak the language; the same is true of Linkle Liver Story, a extremely accessible game even with the language barrier.

Traversing a dungeon in Linkle Liver Story.

You play as a fox-person who lives in a field with a rabbit monk and her fox friends. When a man in a cave gives her a cape, she flies to the top of a mountain. There she finds a floating, magical fish. Soon a mole-person arrives, chasing the fish. Fox-lady and magic fish depart on a quest to save flowers and plant seeds. These flowers created the world, and the seeds grow weapons for you.  A investigation uncovered that this story is what it seems, though the fish is actually a seed-pod. Unless there’s a horrible scene I missed. If there is, please don’t tell me.

The fox-lady, Kittchu, fights with spears, boomerangs, staffs and more; the seed-pod, Puchimuku, charges at enemies. Together they traverse dungeons and other challenges.

Dungeons make the player leap over obstacles and fight enemies, then face off against a boss at the end. Other areas showcase more diverse missions. A rock conceals a giant lizard, who challenges you to hide-and-seek. In another area, a massive flower sprouts a seed. The player must roll the seed up a mountain, through fish-filled waters and past needle-shooting watermelons and into the maw of another giant flower. Which, yes, is an annoying escort mission; I said the missions were diverse, not that they were original or any good. Kittchu and Puchimaku travel from area to area via a 3D world map; you leave levels by jumping into tornadoes.

Growing new weapons.

Linkle Liver Story is a simple game whose main distinguishing factor, besides being super adorable, is its weapon system. Using water drops gathered from enemies, the player plants weapon-seeds in the light of certain plants. You find new weapons and upgrade old ones by growing them.

Linkle Liver Story won’t set the world on fire; it’s appealing thanks to its colorful, cute graphics but it’s otherwise just another Zelda-like 2D action game. It provides some fleeting fun, but would never be cited as one of the Saturn’s lost classics despite its understated accomplishments.

At least it provides an enduring mystery. It’s a nice game, but which one’s Linkle?

notes

• CORRECTION: Turns out that Nextech, developers of Linkle Liver Story and last season’s Cyber Speedway, also handled the Saturn ports of Battle Arena Toshinden and should have been credited as the developers of Battle Arena Toshinden URA last week. I apologize for the error.

Saturn #25:

Magic Carpet

Developed by Bullfrog, published by Electronic Arts

Released: March 1996 (NA/Europe); December 1996 (Japan)

Magic Carpet throws players into the action; floating over a small village in a large world, Bullfrog boldly deprives new players of any initial direction (unless they read the manual, of course, but who does?) and ask them to figure out their own way through a game that defies easy classification.

A original mix of shooter and strategy game, the player flies around the world on a magic carpet. The goal: build up your own castle, defending it from enemies while gathering mana. Enough mana and you can move on to the next world. The game’s many levels last upwards of ten to twenty minutes, making Magic Carpet a lengthy experience; though initially you’re just buzzing around in search of enemies to kill, later levels increase the intensity of the action and diversify the spells you can use.

Magic Carpet is a revolutionary PC game that’s an awkward fit for consoles; the free 3D movement and many spells cry out for keyboard and mouse control (though it does support the 3D controller, released with Nights Into Dreams). The Saturn version is also missing several levels. Magic Carpet’s console port is too rough to recommend over its originator.

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Next Time: 32 Bits resumes January 5th with the Playstation games Fade to Black and Tecmo’s Deception.

I’ve come a long way since I started this series in February (I’ve covered seven months in eleven). I’ve discovered Warhawk; I’ve learned way more about the Saturn than I thought possible; I found what I thought to be one of the worst games ever made, Loaded, only to play a even worse one soon after. I’ve traced the whole history of a mediocre, briefly popular fighting game series and watched the dawn of survival horror.

I didn’t use star ratings until recently, so I feel now’s the time to recap everything I’ve played so far:

: Must play games in their day and today. Rayman (part 2); Warhawk; Resident Evil; Panzer Dragoon II Zwei

: Games that are great for their day, but dated today; often, these are games eclipsed by their sequels, but others just fall short from being essential. Air Combat; Panzer Dragoon; Twisted Metal; Tekken; Doom; King’s Field; Astal; Virtua Cop; Sega Rally Championship; Policenauts; Virtua Fighter 2

: Games that were good or average for their time, and forgettable today; quality in their time, but you can give them a pass today. Ridge Racer; The Raiden Project; Daytona USA; Virtua Fighter; Cyber Speedway; Arc the Lad; Clockwork Knight; SteamGear Mash; Gunbird; Virtua Racing; A-Train; Street Fighter Alpha; Bust-A-Move 2; The Need for Speed

: Games that were mediocre or poor in their time, and skippable today. Battle Arena Toshinden; Destruction Derby; Wipeout; Shinobi Legions; Hang-On GP; Alien Trilogy; Mickey’s Wild Adventure

: Uninteresting failures. ESPN Extreme Games; WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game; Hi-Octane; Bug!; Dark Legend; Battle Arena Toshinden 2

: Tremendous failures. Failures so dreadful that they should be perserved for future generations. These game’s developers either failed on every level (Loaded) or made compellingly bizarre creative decisions (D) or both (Virtual Hydlide). These games are anti-masterpieces, if you will. Loaded; Virtual Hydlide; D

Coming up in 1996:

On the Playstation side – Namco Museum; Tekken 2; Crash Bandicoot; Die Hard Trilogy; Mortal Kombat; new Wipeout and Ridge Racer games; 2Xtreme; Destruction Derby 2; Jet Moto; Twisted Metal 2; Motor Toon Grand Prix; Pandemonium!; Arc the Lad II; King’s Field 2; Tomb Raider; Star Wars; Suikoden; Persona; Coolboarders; and others – from bowling sims to movie tie-ins.

On the Saturn – Many, through monthly round-ups; and individual coverage of games like Nights Into Dreams.

And most notably, the introduction of the Nintendo 64: Super Mario 64, Pilotwings, Shadows of the Empire and Wave Race introduce a new console towards the end of the year.

How Battle Arena Toshinden 2’s Failure to Evolve Doomed the Series

32 Bits is a series where I revisit the most popular games in the past console generations, from the launch of the original Playstation to the last days of the Xbox 360.

The time is May 1996: three months into the Playstation’s first full year. The Nintendo 64 is several months away; while Sega’s Saturn system is fading fast.

The only thing the Playstation games I play have in common: membership in Sony’s Greatest Hits line, or its European and Japanese equivalents. These games all sold at least 150,000 copies and are a guide to what everyone played then.

Some of these games are remembered fondly, some are despised and many are forgotten completely. Why were they popular then, and what can we learn from them today? Find out in 32 Bits.

The Saturn round-up I promised last week will be posted next Sunday.

Playstation #28/Saturn #23:

Battle Arena Toshinden 2 & Battle Arena Toshiden URA

(I made this gameplay video to test a program with no intent to upload it, but the ending was too great to ignore)

Developed by Tamsoft, published by Takara/Playmates Interactive

Released: Playstation – December 1995 (Japan), May 1996 (North America); Saturn – August 1996

Best-seller in: Japan (Playstation The Best)

Full overdrive meters in Battle Arena Toshinden 2.

In this series’ second week, I played a fighting game named Battle Arena Toshinden. Once so popular and omnipresent that it was sold in a box with the original Playstation, the entire game pivoted around an innovative new mechanic: the first truly 3D fighter, Toshinden allowed the player to sidestep around the arena and reposition themselves. Sadly, this was the only distinguishing feature of what was otherwise a mediocre fighter with a weak slate of characters.

Battle Arena Toshinden 2 unfortunately makes only small improvements on the original; now that its innovations are familiar, there’s no reason to give it any attention – and gamers in 1996 must have agreed, as they rejected the third Toshinden handily. The fourth and final entry could be found only in Japan and Europe, skipping North America entirely.

One new mechanic of note: an Overdrive bar. It fills up as you take damage. When it’s full, you can unleash a finishing blow on opponents. Not that tricks are necessary to win at Toshinden.

Like Virtua Fighter 2, you can win bouts by ring out. Unlike Virtua Fighter 2, ring outs usually happen without any effort on your part. AI fighters commonly roll out of the ring for no reason at all, which is goddamned hilarious every single time. Less hilarious: when actual players commit the same error.

The original Battle Arena Toshinden was ported to the Saturn – the “Remix” version added one character, tweaked the gameplay slightly and added a ridiculously terrible story mode. Battle Arena Toshinden 2 wasn’t ported to the Saturn, exactly – the Saturn version, Battle Arena Toshinden URA (Ultimate Revenge Attack) is different in many ways but has the same framework.

The newly playable Gaia, versus returning fighter Duke.

All the characters from the original return. They’re joined by three newcomers – but two newcomers are system exclusive. Both versions share Tracy, a police officer who fights with a pair of batons. The Playstation also features a character named Chaos and the first game’s final boss, Gaia, as playable characters. Gaia is distinctly less imposing when you’re playing as him.

The Saturn’s two exclusive fighters are Ronron, a scientist who looks more a archetypal schoolgirl, and Ripper, a red-suited man who fights with two arm-blades (the second character in the game to fight with blades on their hands, for the record). The Saturn version wins out here: Ronron is a wash, but Ripper is more cool than the Playstation’s Gaia or Chaos.

The Playstation version opens with a bombastic intro that mixes the character’s 3D models with shots of real live actors. Except only three characters are portrayed by actors: generic swordsman Eiji, young Ellis and whip-wielding Russian…detective Sofia. Due to this exclusion the shots of the actors are inexplicable. Why only stage a few shots in live-action, and not the whole thing? URA’s intro features an entirely different intro that confines itself to 3D models. Again, the Saturn version wins out.

Unfortunately the Saturn versions loses out everywhere else. Just like in Virtua Fighter 2, arenas that are fully 3D are changed for the Saturn so that the ring is 3D while the background remains 2D.

A stage on the Playstation, and on the more limited Saturn.

Not that it matters since the levels aren’t especially memorable. Neither were they in the first game. But it still delivered an occasional gem – Kayin’s stage, a dark cityscape where a large TV screen showed off the fight in the background, stands out. In this game, his level is…just a standard issue decayed cityscape. On the Saturn even this is transformed – you fight on an elevator; a CAUTION sign passes by occasionally.

You still can’t save, so there’s nothing to unlock permanently. Which wouldn’t matter if the fighting were any good. But you can win most fights with constant jumping and kicking. No combos necessary, and I only used the much-vaunted rolling mechanic rarely. The new characters Tracy and Ripper are well-designed but beyond that, what’s new here? Tamsoft could have transformed Battle Arena Toshinden into more than a flash-in-the-pan, but they took the easiest possible path to fleeting success. Almost nothing is changed and little is added in this hollow rehash of the first game.

The same week I review Battle Arena Toshinden I analyzed another popular game from the Playstation’s launch that failed in later years. Sony’s ESPN Extreme Games was a skateboarding-themed Road Rash knock-off. Not long after its release, Sony lost the ESPN license and redubbed the game “1Xtreme”. I’ll be playing its sequel, 2Xtreme, sometime next year.

Both series have identical trajectories. An impressive debut at the system’s launch, diminishing returns with a marginally successful sequel, and outright failure with their third installment.

And I loved that I played these games as early as I did in this series’ first season; it demonstrated perfectly what I hoped to accomplish. Here are two forgotten games that were once commercial giants. Neither is a hidden gem or even memorably bad. They’re in the expansive middle – competent enough and nothing more. By playing them I was able to discuss a game everyone played but no one remembered, and now – with their sequels – I can analyze why, exactly, their popularity faded.

I don’t want to comment on 2Xtreme yet (as I haven’t played it, though I have played parts of 3Xtreme) but with Battle Arena Toshinden 2 I can safely say that the series’ problem is a failure to evolve.

Sofia was once the Playstation’s mascot. Just a reminder.

Tamsoft invented something creative, the game’s rolling ability, and called it a day. They believed innovating once was enough. They also inexplicably believed that when a shallow game does well on system launch day, it’ll do just as well against stronger, more substantial competition. When Toshinden took off it was the only game in town; now, it was up against Tekken, Virtua Fighter and many other superior fighting games. Battle Arena Toshinden 2’s improvements over the original are minuscule, and it even introduces some new problems.

The third game, released in 1997, was a radical change that overhauled the game and introduced 17 new characters. For the first time in the series, you could actually unlock new characters and save them, not just use a cheat code and lose them when you shut down your console. Alas, it’s a case of too little, too late. Battle Arena Toshinden 3 isn’t a Greatest Hit, Platinum or the Best game, and so I will not be able to play it as part of this series. Toshinden will have no chance to redeem itself in my eyes.

And so the final word on Battle Arena Toshinden is that it was a playable enough game with some interesting ideas and bland design, developed by a company that failed to change until it was already too late. Toshinden is, ultimately, a victim of complacency.

 A uninspired rehash of a game that wasn’t very good to begin with, Battle Arena Toshinden 2 was thoroughly inessential in 1996 and doubly so in 2013

notes

• Speaking of Toshinden 3 and 4, I’ve considered a “100% Completion” week where I play the unsuccessful sequels and spin-offs of the games I play in 32 Bits and consider why they failed when their siblings thrived. The only problem is, this often happened because the games weren’t great to begin with, and what’s interesting about saying “everyone realized this wasn’t very good and didn’t buy the sequel” a dozen times?

• A symbol of Toshinden’s fall: Sony published the original and showed so much faith in it that it was one of two games you could buy packed-in with the original Playstation (the other was Ridge Racer); yet they passed on the sequel. A company called Playmates Interactive picked up the franchise.

The new boss, Repli. Or as I call him, “Fashionable Raziel”.

• The Saturn port also swaps in unique bosses: Repli and Wolf.

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NEXT TIME: The Sega Saturn.