Toshinden 1 rocks!

[Kevincal]

This 1995 PS1 game is truly great and was ahead of its time. Watch me do a rather epic play through of the game. I am particularly proud of my comebacks versus Gaia and Sho! Eiji's special combo is just so badass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5TF0tVzIGg

Thanks for watching!

PS - LOVE the music in this game...

[Gamevet]

That game sold a lot of Playstations that fall. I always preferred Virtua Fighter, warts and all.

[celerystalker]

Not to be a downer, but wouldn't this be a video sub-forum thread?

[Kevincal]

That game sold a lot of Playstations that fall. I always preferred Virtua Fighter, warts and all.

Man it sure did sell a lot of PlayStations. I never got into the first Virtua Fighter in the arcades. And then the problem with the Saturn was, Sega went and surprise launched on everyone in May 1995. I mean I was a poor teenager and I would need months to save up money, especially for a $400 system! And that was another problem with the Saturn, too expensive... Jeez Sega, you sure screwed up the US Saturn launch didn't you...

That said, I am a pretty big fan of Virtua Fighter 4, on the PS2 though. :P I remember how shocked I was when it was first announced Sega would be making games on the PS2. Heh.

Not to be a downer, but wouldn't this be a video sub-forum thread?

Oops I didn't even realize, but eh oh well I thought maybe we could just chat about Toshinden.

It is kinda hard to pull off moves in Toshinden with a stock PS1 controller... But actually I prefer just using basic weapon moves mostly, and rolling around a lot. :P

[SpaceHarrier]

I thought I was the only one that liked Toshinden well enough to post a statement like that, without irony. Good to see I'm not alone.

Toshinden was the first Playstation game I ever played, at a kiosk in Fedco (a membership department store). I was instantly sold on the system, and convinced my parents to rent one for me from Blockbuster video along with Toshinden and wipEout. I was a broke teen so it took awhile to actually get the system and game.

I still play the game fairly often, I sort of enjoy its brokenness. Flipping out of the way and watching Duke dash off the stage, covered in sparkles, is one of the small joys in life. Another thing I like about it (besides the side-step innovation) was that the battles weren't over in 10 seconds like a lot of other fighting games.

Duke's stage theme is my favorite video game song, bar none.

I didn't care for the sequel as much, though I still love the music and character designs. The matches were too short, due to the overdrive moves.

[Flojomojo]

It was certainly flashy, with a graphical style we had never seen before. Too bad the controls and gameplay weren't so hot. There's a reason it hasn't been brought back for a digital rerelease or sequel or remake -- it just doesn't hold up very well. I remember being wowed by a friend's copy of Toshinden, before we happily abandoned it when Tekken came out. Tekken 1! That slow boxy game.

P.S. I remember the game and will happily talk about it, but I'm not clicking on your video link just because you're pimping it here.

[Kevincal]

I thought I was the only one that liked Toshinden well enough to post a statement like that, without irony. Good to see I'm not alone.

Toshinden was the first Playstation game I ever played, at a kiosk in Fedco (a membership department store). I was instantly sold on the system, and convinced my parents to rent one for me from Blockbuster video along with Toshinden and wipEout. I was a broke teen so it took awhile to actually get the system and game.

I still play the game fairly often, I sort of enjoy its brokenness. Flipping out of the way and watching Duke dash off the stage, covered in sparkles, is one of the small joys in life. Another thing I like about it (besides the side-step innovation) was that the battles weren't over in 10 seconds like a lot of other fighting games.

Duke's stage theme is my favorite video game song, bar none.

I didn't care for the sequel as much, though I still love the music and character designs. The matches were too short, due to the overdrive moves.

I was super pumped on the PS1 in 1995... I was drooling over the first games in the magazines in summer 1995. I preordered it sometime in summer 1995. Got it on launch day 9/9/95. I guess I was about 14 years old, had saved up money from mowing lawns. Toshinden was the game I bought alongside the system. The system didn't have a pack in game. I do believe the PS1 was the very first system to launch without a pack in game. So ya, I chose Toshinden and it was freaken awesome. Some of the moves were a bit tough to pull off, but with practice, not hard at all. The graphics for the time were mind blowing, and the music and sound effects were just outstanding. The game had a cool story too and the stage themes are very well done. The characters are very interesting too and the bosses are badass especially Gaia. The super moves are super cool as well. I also loved that most of the characters had similar d pad motions for their moves as street fighter, which, street fighter is my favorite fighting series.

Lol you are right about Duke and his special move sometimes he just flies off the stage. The game is only slightly broken, just a touch, but not much. Side stepping is GREAT and if anyone takes the time to watch my video they will see it is essential to use it often when playing on the hardest difficulties. I agree the matches do last a bit longer than average. By the time Toshinden 2 came out I was on the N64 bandwagon. My PS1 had broke down, I think Resident Evil 1 toasted my PS1 due to all the loading going in an out of doors... So on to the N64 it was. I think I got Toshinden 2 sometime around 5 years ago and hardly cared about it. I love the first game though. Obviously. Who cant forget Fo's special fart move?

It was certainly flashy, with a graphical style we had never seen before. Too bad the controls and gameplay weren't so hot. There's a reason it hasn't been brought back for a digital rerelease or sequel or remake -- it just doesn't hold up very well. I remember being wowed by a friend's copy of Toshinden, before we happily abandoned it when Tekken came out. Tekken 1! That slow boxy game.

P.S. I remember the game and will happily talk about it, but I'm not clicking on your video link just because you're pimping it here.

Fireballs and Shoryukens were a bit tough to pull off in Toshinden, I think mainly due to the weird d pad on the PS1 controller... I like the gameplay though. The introduction of weapons and side rolling was fantastic. Before if you just used a strong punch in say Street Fighter, it was nothing special. But now with Toshinden you had swords and just pressing one button meant a pretty badass sword slashing move.

I am also a big fan of the original Tekken. I got that game around the time it came out in 1995 as well, I think it came out not at PS1 launch but shortly after iirc. Its a completely different style to Toshinden so the games compliment each other rather than compete with each other imo. I love them both equally.

Maybe I should have elaborated in my original post that the link to my video is not just some shitty Toshinden gameplay video, rather its quite an epic, short 15 minute play through of the game, matches being 1 fight instead of 2. I play on the hardest difficulty in the game and I win every single match, except I have 1 loss against Sho, the final boss. I have several epic comebacks in the video. Its worth a watch! Sorry for not being humble but I am quite good at the game! Only been playing since 1995 lol. The recording quality of the video is quite good too.

[Damaramu]

I was working in the video games department at TRU when the 32-bit era fired up. I remember when we got our PlayStation kiosk with a full copy of Toshinden in it. A co-worker and I would spend hours after our shifts had ended on that kiosk, playing Toshinden. It's not the greatest fighter, but it certainly was a lot of fun.

[Kevincal]

I was working in the video games department at TRU when the 32-bit era fired up. I remember when we got our PlayStation kiosk with a full copy of Toshinden in it. A co-worker and I would spend hours after our shifts had ended on that kiosk, playing Toshinden. It's not the greatest fighter, but it certainly was a lot of fun.

TRU was HEAVEN in the 1990s. Seriously. The video game section, with all the cards for all the different games, and the paper slips. And the kiosks. The magazines. The systems showcased side by side in the long case (NES to N64). God, miss those days...

But ya I can elaborate enough, Toys R Us was video game heaven. Man. That's where I preordered and got my PS1 and N64. And of course where I also got NES, Gameboy, Genesis, Jaguar and Ps2 stuff, it goes on. The most blown away I ever was with a kiosk game, was seeing Super Mario 64 for the first time on screen. Was summer 1996. Totally mind blowing those smooth graphics and massive environments. And the analog stick.

Oh and then when you bought a game or system at TRU, and after paying you went to the plexiglass protected area where they had ALL the systems and games just stacked up EVERYWHERE, like a literal gold mine of classic gaming.

how could I forget, I got a virtual boy system brand new in box for 30 bucks at tru. thank you tru.

[Damaramu]

^ Yup, it sure was.

I remember when we had STACKS of Earthbound on clearance for $9.99. We must've had at least 20 copies out on the shelves on clearance. Never bought one. I always thought Earthbound looked too kiddified, and by that time I was really into fighting games.

I did pick up a copy of Star Tropics II, though. Still have that one.

[Kevincal]

I thought earthbound looked really stupid in 1995 too! Looked like a game that belonged in 1990! lol. I have played it and I think its overrated...

By the way there was a cool Toshinden anime too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ8mypbIrlk

[Gamevet]

Man it sure did sell a lot of PlayStations. I never got into the first Virtua Fighter in the arcades. And then the problem with the Saturn was, Sega went and surprise launched on everyone in May 1995. I mean I was a poor teenager and I would need months to save up money, especially for a $400 system! And that was another problem with the Saturn, too expensive... Jeez Sega, you sure screwed up the US Saturn launch didn't you...

That said, I am a pretty big fan of Virtua Fighter 4, on the PS2 though. :P I remember how shocked I was when it was first announced Sega would be making games on the PS2. Heh.

I was 25 when the Saturn surprise launch had happened. I accidentally discovered the early launch, when I was in Toys R Us back in May of 1995. I plopped down the cash and played Virtua Fighter for a couple of weeks, until I could afford to pick up Daytona USA.

I didn't get my Playstation until @ February of 1996, and one of the 1st games I'd gotten was Toshinden. Destruction Derby was the very 1st title though.

[XianXi]

When I worked at Walmart, when we were told to take down the kiosk that had the playable demo we moved it into the break room and we played the hell out of that game with the few characters you could select.

[Tanooki]

I never had a PS1, at least not until it was called PSOne and came with an LCD in the box. That said there is (was) an awesome conversion of this to the PC back in the day, and that I did have access to. I remember really getting into using a few of the characters for a time and I hate 3D fighting games for the most part. There's like Soul Edge and Soul Caliber and then Toshinden and that was about it other than Dead or Alive 1 and 2 which I really got into with its rock scissors paper style of attack and defense. I could tolerate SF2 EX a little but hated it compared to the normal stuff, and the VF games sucked.

Might as well throw it out there, but Battle Arena Toshinden got this really awesome 2D port by Takara for SNK to stuff up on the Super Gameboy back in the day. Because of the PC version of the arcade/ps1 game I ended up buying it and it's a whole lot of fun too and converted quite well even with 2D and chibi looking sprites. It's a dirt cheap like all those fighting games on GB are these days too which is nice.

[Gameguy]

Just realized this thread was about a different game than I thought it was, I was thinking it was about Tobal No. 1 because of the thread title. Pretty sure I only played Tobal and not Toshinden.

[Bloodreign]

I picked up Toshinden 1 on the PS1 and Saturn, and Toshinden 2 on the PS1 earlier this summer. No not the greatest fighter, but I was looking to add fighting games to my collection after a post KoF frenze I had gone through late last year (bought a boatload of 2D KoF games to go with my only KoF I had at the time, Neowave, all PS2 except KoF Orochi Saga which I got on the Wii, and recently KoF 95 on the PS1), and Toshinden fit the bill. Played it a bit back in the day, but at that time it didn't grow on me just yet (nor did many 3D fighters, still won't touch Tekken to this day, give me Virtua Fighter, a game I hated when it was new too).

[kupomogli]

I don't think the PSX games are very good. I did like playing the Gameboy game though.

[Tanooki]

Takara had a way of making really excellent fighters on the limited Gameboy format. The ability they showed in converting SNK games was incredible, and their best ones we didn't even get in the US like KOF 96 and especially Samurai Shodown 3. Also they did a GBC conversion of Transformers Beast Wars too in the same style and it's a quality release. They found good ways to make all the moves work as they did on the big games with just 2 buttons and kept a lot of animation in there making 'chibi' style characters instead of shooting for more of a copy cat like Capcom did with SF2 which was slower and lacked some fighters. The Takara stuff had them all and even added in extras.