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Shall we discuss Mid 90s 3d Fighters?

PopetherevXXVIII

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One thing I love about collecting for Japanese systems is finding interesting fighting games. I have trouble finding a good Platformer I never heard of, but fighting games were the hotness.

Here's a little sample of game I have enroute to me from Japan. This is just the japan exclusive stuff.

Toshinden 2 Plus (I think only regular 2 came west)
Nitoshinden
Goiken Muyou 2 (HUGE fan of the first game on saturn)
Critical blow
Zero Divide 1 and 2 (2 never came stateside)
Tobal 2
Genei Tougi
Heaven's gate

Then I have Japanese versions of Tekken 2 and 3, and Ehrgiez (Power stone before Power stone)

All of these seem at least kind of interesting and there's a ton of these on PlayStation. I'm sure they aren't all good but I think some of these looked awesome. Critical Blow especially. One thing about games of this era, even if the game is eeeeehhhhh, the music is usually really really good.

I know alot of people like to dump on Toshinden, but I really enjoy it. Again it's a case of even if the game is meh, the music is good enough to keep you engaged.

I don't know how fondly people remember Ehrgiez other than it has Cloud and Tifa in it, but it's an early example of what became Power stone.

Zero Divide, Virtua Fighter with Robots.
 
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speedyink

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I don't mind Toshinden either. Honestly when the PS1 was relevant I remember spending time with both Toshinden and the Tekkens. I don't ever remember thinking Tekken was better at all, they were both fun series, for different reasons.
 

Allie

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Confession time...

I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I've always loved the first two games in the Battle Arena Toshinden series, or at least their respective Saturn variations: Remix and URA. While it's not technically part of the same franchise, D-Xhird was developed for the Saturn by the same company responsible for those "conversions" (Nextech) and even features Eiji from Toshinden as an unlockable character. Sure, its gameplay isn't up to the standard of AM2's efforts, but it remains a great visual showcase for what the Saturn could do.

As for Goiken Muyou II, this one has always been on my radar because of its subway stage, complete with a moving train that caused damage, which felt to me like the developers were intentionally referencing Sarah's level in Virtua Fighter 3. For those unaware, the original Saturn game was produced by Mediamuse with the assistance of four VF tournament regulars, including Shinjuku Jacky, BunBunMaru, Kashiwa Jeffry and Ikebukuro Sarah, the latter also being one of its programmers - all four appeared as hidden fighters, too!

I'd never previously thought of Ehrgeiz as a template for Power Stone, but now I think about it, they do have a few similarities. On the subject of this game, did you know it was designed and produced by Seiichi Ishii? If the name isn't familiar, he worked on the first Virtua Fighter before moving to Namco, where some of his unused prototype character ideas were recycled into Tekken. Around the same time, Kenji Sasaki went from helping create Ridge Racer at Namco to joining the team behind Sega Rally and Sega Touring Car.

How's that for some Sega trivia?
 
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PopetherevXXVIII

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D-Xhird is definitely something I'll be picking up soon. I need a few more 3d fighters to complete the Saturn 3d set, some might actually be impossible.

The PlayStation was still where it was at for 3d fighters. N64 had a handful of gems...that I never touched. I never did get MACE while I had an N64. I always wanted to check that out. I did have Fighter's destiny I wasn't crazy about it.

I did know about Ehrgeiz's Namco connection, but not it's Sega connection.

I didn't even know Goiken Muyou II existed until somebody on Twitter told me about it. It and Zero Divide were as close as Playstation got to Virtua fighter until 4 came to PS2.

Tekken 3 is a game I've loved and played for YEARS. I have the Bleem disc. I even played Beta versions. in February 1997 I was in London on a Beatles pilgrimage. While I was there I popped into a Namco Arcade somewhere in London and what did they have but a 30% complete version of Tekken 3. Eddy wasn't even in the game yet. Tekken 3 isn't my favorite Tekken, that goes to Tag 2. But it's the one with all the nostalgia. Sega World still existed then. That Place was sexy.
 

Johnny

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I still play stuff like Soul Edge, Star Gladiator, Bloody Roar, Tekken series,...

Haven't played Battle Arena Toshinden in a while, but i do remember enjoying the 2nd one back in the day. I only own the first one though.

Also, most people don't give much credit it, but Last Bronx has a great port in the Saturn.
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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I made an entire thread pondering why Last Bronx didn't become a Franchise. It's the best 3d fighter on Saturn.
 

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Oh god where do I start, you didn't give a lot of starting info, I'm going to assume 32 bit systems.

Street Fighter EX+a
Street Fighter EX 2+
Rival Schools
Fighting Vipers
Fighters Megamix
Last Bronx
Dead or Alive
Soul Edge
Tobal No. 1
Tobal 2
Bushido Blade
...

The list goes on. I tried to list the more obscure ones that haven't quite been mentioned or that I like. I was really into Fighters Megamix back in the day, if you ever looked at its completion screen, good luck with 100% completion in that game. Rival Schools super fun, Street Fighter EX super underrated. If we delved more into the late 90's there are some Dreamcast games to talk about.

I think Toshinden was good at the time when the PlayStation had no really solid fighting games, but kind of didn't live up to the name in later years when more prominent games came out.
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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How about that Bastardization of Fighter's Impact with the Punk Rock Soundtrack Vs?

Speaking of I've been having a hard time locating a copy of FIghter's Impact.
 

Anthony817

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Although I am not a HUGE fighter fan, I did grow up playing them and had lots of fun with them. My favorite 3D fighters from the mid 90's would have to be Virtua Fighter and Tekken, hands down the best. My favorites were Virtua Fighter Remix, Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 3. The Saturn I got later into it's life in 98, but I loved it every bit as much as my PlayStation that I had in 97, even though it had way more games and "better" 3D. Objectively the PSX was better for 3D no doubt about it, but the Saturn was still great.

For a similar genre, I would choose Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka/Dynamite Cop as well as the PSX game based on Die Hard Trilogy which also had beat 'em up sequence, and Fighting Force. They were just like fighting games, but in a 3D beat 'em up setting. The PSX game not so much which was not even the same game as the Sega one. It was made by Fox.
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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Crisis Beat is a 3d Beat Em up that's currently on my radar.
Basically Dynamite Deka 2 before Sega made Dynamite Deka 2.
 

la-li-lu-le-lo

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Some of my favorite 3D fighters from that time were Virtua Fighter 3, DOA, Fighters Megamix, and Bushido Blade. Killer Instinct Gold kind of counts, since the backgrounds are 3D, though maybe it'd be more accurate to call it 2.5D.
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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I've never played Bushido Blade, Japanese Copies are dirt ass cheap so I should take the plunge.

That's what I enjoy about collecting Japanese Playstation, you can't give some of these games away.

But there's the odd one here and there, Like this game Fighting eyes that's between $60-100 depending on condition. I don't know if it's worth that as it doesn't look much different from others.
 

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I am partial, and I made the videos, but I have really grown to enjoy Battle Tryst



Entire playlist of character specific playthroughs. Still some more coming!
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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I was wondering when you'd pop in.
I'm not crazy about Konami's 3d fighters. Lightening Legend on PS1 is very sluggish.
 

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Battle Arena Toshinden 1 was the game that sold me on the PS1. It was the first game I picked up for it. I later got Toshinden 3, which had a much different gameplay feel, but had lots of crazy and interesting elements such as a huge character roster and tons of great music. Rented Toshinden 2 back in the day but never could get into it like I did with BAT 1 and BAT 3. The graphics, gameplay and sound all seemed like a step down from BAT 1 imo.

Tekken 2 was another huge fav for me back in the day. Bloody Roar 2 and Bushido Blade 2 were really good, too. I think BAT 1 ran at 30 fps or less, while Tekken 2 ran at 60 fps. I remember switching back and forth between them and going from BAT to T2 made T2 look buttery smooth, while going from T2 to BAT made BAT look ultra choppy. I recommend giving this a try if you own both games :)
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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I never really played Toshinden 3. Tekken however..

My cousin and I played the hell out 2 and 3.
 

la-li-lu-le-lo

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I've never played Bushido Blade, Japanese Copies are dirt ass cheap so I should take the plunge.

I'd definitely recommend it. You should be aware that all versions have Japanese speech in parts of the game, and the US version has subtitles for the speech, whereas the Japanese version has no subtitles and some Japanese text. So, with the Japanese version you won't understand the story - whether that matters or not depends on what you want really, but personally I don't think it makes that big of a difference. You could also probably find a transcript of all of the text in the US version, and then you'd know the entire story.

Another thing I've noticed is that the overall look of the game is significantly improved if you play it on a PS2 with texture filtering on. Bushido Blade is one of those games that has particularly blocky looking textures, so texture filtering eliminates that. It's not necessary, but personally I prefer to play the game that way. You might want to play it with and without filtering to see which you prefer.
 

Awbacon

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I was wondering when you'd pop in.
I'm not crazy about Konami's 3d fighters. Lightening Legend on PS1 is very sluggish.

Generally Konami 3D fighters are a bit crap. I still need to play Fighting Bujutsu but finding a pcb for that is hard as hell
 

PopetherevXXVIII

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I think Bushido Blade is in my future.

Generally Konami 3D fighters are a bit crap. I still need to play Fighting Bujutsu but finding a pcb for that is hard as hell

I recall Kensei: Sacred Fist being solid if not bland.
 

Allie

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I have fond memories of reading about how Konami's Cobra board was the only hardware on the horizon that could potentially topple Sega's Model 3 platform, and I was absolutely stunned when my local arcade took delivery of a machine known only as PF573 (or Polygon Fighter Konami for those who don't get the reference), which later became Fighting Bujutsu. From my extensive time with this location test cabinet, I'd say that it was definitely the closest rival to Virtua Fighter 3 graphically, but it fell very short in terms of gameplay. While a straight arcade-to-home conversion was likely off the cards for technical reasons until the arrival of the Dreamcast, it should be noted that Konami at least tried creating a standalone console game with the same basic essence and less ambitious visuals - this was the aforementioned Kensei: Sacred Fist* on PlayStation, which even featured a few of the same levels as its Cobra-powered counterpart (such as the dojo and coastal areas, which both returned in extensively downscaled form, yet still retained some pseudo-3D elements in their non-interactive backgrounds).

*Taking inspiration from VF3, Kensei switched out the standard block for something closer to the evade/dodge mechanic that AM2's game introduced to the genre.
 

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