There is another guy (link given below) who is doing the same as me and writing tosh (rubbish) about old 3DO games.
He, would you believe, gave 'Primal Rage' a 'C' grade. As in A, B, C, D, E, F. A 'C'? Which I'm guessing means by his standards that Primal Rage is OK... OK? Is he nuts?
Well, stick with me and I'll steer you through the straight and narrow. A 'C'? For 'Primal Rage'? I appreciate that a review is simply an opinion... but a 'C'? Come on now?
Anyway --!
I was thinking. How can I beat my competition? How can I reign supreme as the ultimate resource for 3DO claptrap?
I apparently thought too hard and too long. The idea I came up with was that of 'Obscure Japanese games'. It was not until after wasting some time and money, and then looking back on what I done, that my idea now seems a wee bit silly.
For two very good reasons: Firstly - nobody cares. And those that do care can probably read a good Japanese review. Secondly - Obscure Japanese games usually come in Japanese language and I don't speak or for that matter read Japanese.
'Yu Yu Hasuko' is an obscure Japanese game. A Japanese game that no-one seems to care about. A Japanese game that is in Japanese language. Actually 'Yu Yu Hasuko' comes with lots and lots and lots of Japanese language.
Perhaps I am being a little unfair at least in part. Plenty of people seem to care about 'Yu Yu Hasuko'. Admittedly they all seem to be obscure Japanese people. However, a quick trawl of the internet produces a handful of interesting facts about 'Yu Yu'. For example the game contains a character called Botan. Who presumably is a female character. She was voted number 23 in the 'hottest women of anime'. However, even having played the game, I still have no idea who Botan is and can't comment on how 'hot' she is either!
More digging around uncovered a 'Yu Yu Hasuko' trading card game. Apparently there was also Yu Yu Hashuko game on the Super Nintendo and one for the Microsoft Xbox.
Perhaps 'Yu Yu Hashuko' is less obscure than I first thought. There also seems to have been a TV show, which helps explain a lot.
'Yu Yu Hashuko' on the 3DO Multiplayer is a fighting game. It is in a similar vein to Street Fighter II and Ultraman. The game consists of a variety of characters, which sadly for me, all speak Japanese. I should point out at this point that there was so much Japanese language that I have no real idea as to what was going on.
The game might have been broken down into a number of modes. None of which made any sense either because of the use of Kanji characters or Japanese language. One mode I did understand was 'Story mode'. The only reason I knew it was a 'story mode', is because story mode appears to be pronounced 'Story mode' in Japanese.
Before I forget, there is really good introduction after the game loads.
The introduction is actually a lovely bit of Japanese Anime and is really professional. I'm guessing but it was probably borrowed from the TV series. The story line didn't make any sense to me, the same goes for the character introductions.
After some assertive keypad pressing I managed to work-around the language barrier and the game eventually started.
The game play can be described in a word: 'Awful'. Slow. Heavy. Unresponsive. All of which was unaided by the 3DO D-Pad.
To give 'Yu Yu' a fair crack of the whip, I did the old 2D fighter button bashing routine: I tried some well known SFII style moves. You know the ones: half moon and then press 'A' or back-back kick, nothing happened.
What didn't appear to be helping was my character - he was tiny. My opponent on the other hand was enormous, easily twice my characters size. He kept pointing and shouting. I kind of wished my little character would run and hide but he stood there. Bobbing the way he did. Trying to look ready for a fight. A fight he would lose. No thanks to me, the game designers or the academic power house behind the 3DO controller. That little kid was going to receive a pounding and then he did.
I shed several virtual tears for the little fella.
After going through my entire repertoire of Virtua Fighter, Tekken, King of Fighters, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat moves and having nothing really happen, I decided to give up.
The in-game graphics are rubbish too.
So there you have it!
A review of an obscure, well loved but ultimately rubbish Japanese game.
I have only ever seen one copy up for grabs and I grabbed it.
3DO Kid.
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TEH 3DO Kid ENEMY!!!111!!!
http://www.videogamecritic.net/index.htm
Oh come on. Can't you show a little more love for an original 3D0 fighting game with decent load times? I remember renting a 3D0 years ago and renting this game from a local video store. My friends and I sat around for hours playing it, and out of them all, only I remotely had an idea of what Yu Yu Hakusho or anime were. Now, I proudly own the game, having bought it after buying a Sega Saturn and a 3D0 off of a crack-head for 50 dollars combined back in 1997. Yu Yu is far more controllable than Ultraman. I admit the in-game sprites are a little weak. They are also a little unique. I feel like the artists were trying to make the characters look in-game just like they do in the cartoon. All of the fighters have a cel-drawn look. Rather than being anime-inspired, they are simply anime, and perhaps they aren't optimized for a fighting game experience because of that.