While the original Game Boy featured a huge library the fighting genre was badly represented. Developers attempted to port their console brawlers over, but the results were almost always poor. Street Fighter II is a particularly good example of this; it moved at a snail’s pace. The two button set up also did no favors. Then came Battle Arena Toshinden. This was a very unlikely Game Boy release; the original was a launch title for the PlayStation console and it was heavily advertised by Sony. That’s why it always seemed a little odd to me that the developer resorted to releasing a scaled down version for Nintendo’s super popular but very limited handheld. It always seemed strange to me that there was no port to the Nintendo 64 to coincide with it. Somehow this release is able to overcome the problems of other fighting games on the platform, and is even my favorite installment in the series. Battle Arena Toshinden is an extremely underrated fighter.
The story here focuses around a tournament which, in typical fashion, is organized by a crew of shady characters for reasons that aren’t totally explained. Each of the participants receives a letter, and are soon off to break some bones. One thing I really like is the lighthearted approach the developers took in this version. The story is quite different from the console iterations in this regard, and to be honest I prefer this. Because of the hardware limitations the developers didn’t try to re-create the 3D gameplay and instead opted for a more traditional one-on-one method. You’re given several different options for play. You can participate in the story mode, select a specific opponent to fight, or face off against a human player. What’s easily the best feature here is the fact that, by using a Super Gameboy on the SNES, you can bypass the link option and face off against a friend locally. As far as I know this is the only fighting game on the platform that allows for it. It’s extremely cool, and it’s obvious that they put some actual work into it rather than the remake being an afterthought. Already we’re off to a good start, and it just gets better from here.
What’s really impressive about this title is just how many special moves each character has. Given the two face buttons the system has you would expect only one or two different ones, but the developers really went all out here. Most of them feature four or five special moves. The A button is for kicks, and B is for punches. What’s interesting is the fact that you can still use different power levels for these. The developer overcame the limitations by allowing for varying degrees of pressure. Tapping the buttons is a light punch/kick, but holding them leads to a harder but slower strike. In typical fashion you can move left and right, and even jump by pressing up. What’s cool is the fact that some specials can only be performed while in the air which is quite technical by Game Boy standards. There’s even a combo system that reports how many subsequent strikes you’ve performed (stated as ‘beats’). One of my favorite features however is the ability to knock your opponents out of the ring. You must keep them at the edge of a stage for a specific amount of time and then hit them once which leads to a victory regardless of how full their life bar is.
There are a plethora of options and features included here. You have a nice border while playing on the Super Gameboy, and though the color palette is limited the developers did incorporate it in a smart way. You can select from three different difficulty options, but to be honest the main game is a little too easy on anything except expert mode. You can also change the amount of time required for a ring out which is pretty cool. I also really like how different each fighter feels from one another. Most of them use weapons which is very non-traditional for most releases of this kind, and the special moves cover a wide spectrum of variety. In addition you’re given codes to unlock two characters (including the final boss) when you finish the main story. If I remember correctly this wasn’t even possible in the original release, and makes the already impressive eight character roster even moreso. In addition as I’ve already mentioned you can link up with another player or participate in a one-on-one match on the big screen on the SNES. This is the most fleshed out Game Boy fighting game, and compares even to those on the Neo Geo Pocket.
Battle Arena Toshinden makes some sacrifices when it comes to graphics, but makes up for it in other areas. For starters the character models are small. These aren’t down scaled versions of their console counterparts, and instead the developers went with a more chibi style. Normally I’m not a huge fan of this, but it works here given the limited hardware and the small character models look really nice here despite the pixelation. This sacrifice was made so that the frame rate would stay steady. While it’s not as smooth as most console fighting games the flow is constant and steady. The character models are really nicely done; especially the hulking final boss Gaia. The only area of the visuals I was unimpressed with are the backgrounds. These are single tone, and very simplistic. It really isn’t a big deal when the game flows at such a pleasant pace. The soundtrack is also really well done. While I couldn’t recognize any versions of songs from the console iteration everything sounds nice and the game has a style all its own musically. The audio is pretty well done overall and makes great use of the limited Game Boy sound chip.
This is, hands down, the best fighting game available on the original Game Boy. That’s coming from someone who isn’t even a big fan of the franchise; Battle Arena Toshinden always seemed like a C-tier fighting game in my opinion and it seems to me that it coasted on its graphics entirely. There’s a reason it was long forgotten, but unfortunately this Game Boy title was dragged down with the rest. It really makes me wish that the developers had instead focused on 2D gameplay because they got it right here.
