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an alternative to the "Tekken" series...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Tobal No.1 was one of the outcast games for the Sony Playstation, and was not very popular amongst fighting game fans. This game certainly does not touch the Tekken series, but if you're looking for something different than choosing Nina Williams or Kazuya Mishima all of the time, then here is your answer.

This game has an arsenal of about 10 characters to choose from, which each has their own (very colorful) levels. The background and scenery of the levels on this game are absolutely breathtaking. I think they must have hired the top executives in japanese art to come in and give it their best shot. The levels are located in various places, and each character has his or her own planet, and the outer space of the light greens and off-orange colored planets and solar systems are detailed here. The artistic work is probably the most amazing feature on this game, though many hardly take the time to recognize this.

One other thing that bothers me is that the characters are 3D, but their storylines aren't. Who the character is and what they stand for is what makes the game interesting, but nonetheless, the game is a good fighting game to play with a friend or perhaps alone on a boring afternoon when you have nothing better to do.

There are four modes on the selection screen: Arcade Mode, Vs. Mode, Quest Mode, and Option Mode. Arcade Mode is your simple game of fighting the computer. In Vs. Mode, you challange a friend. In Quest Mode, you set out on an adventure to collect diamonds and various jewels and other items, but I never really fancied that part of the game. Option Mode is self explanitory.

Whenever you complete a game, you expect to see a nice animated movie at the end. Well, there's one here...but it's very bland. It's the same for all of the characters, and all it shows is you walking up to a podium, grabbing a trophy, and you jumping for joy with your trophy held high. Not a strong point in the game, but the other features make up for it.

To sum it up, this game is merely just a fighting game meant for the average gamer who wants something else to try, or perhaps wants to avoid the "Tekken" or "Battle Arena Toshiden" hype. Not that amazing, but it serves its purpose for a fighting game.

Well worth it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Tobal No. 1 is a good fighting game, with great character designs and a grappling system that still hasn't been bettered, or even matched in the genre. I'd say it's well worth a buy at this value price, especially since you can play it on your PlayStation 2 if the old PlayStation is buried in a closet somewhere. It is a sad fact that Tobal No. 1 didn't sell well enough in North America to encourage Sony and Squaresoft to bring the even better Tobal 2 over here. Tobal 2, available only in a Japanese version, is regarded by many as the best 3D fighting game ever made, even to this day.

Possibly the best fighting game for PSX

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome. There is more to choose from than in tekken and tekken 2, including the quest mode. in this mode, it is like an RPG, you make your way through traps, doors, elevators, and monsters to battle on the way to the final boss, if you beat that boss, you get to plays as that character. You can't win any extra characters in the tournament mode, the mode similar to the arcade mode in tekken. ...but other than that, the game is flawless.

Square, back away from the fighting games...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Square needs to not make fighting games. They are always horrible and this one is the worst. The control and the system is aweful, and there is no reason to replay this idiotically easy game, ever. The music is pretty decent, and I heard from a friend that if you put the disc into the cdplayer you can listen to it like that. It would be a better use than actually playing the game.

The best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: November 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is one of the best fighting games for plsystion. I can no stand those games like mortel kombat because they are just SO blody. This on the other hand has no blod at all, and if parents are afrid if thier kids are getting exposed to something bad, the only thing bad is the fighting.

Fighting standards

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I hate fighting games.

I have a problem with the entire genre. It's not the blood or the violence or whatever the more paranoid parents groups think these types of games will do to their unborn children. My problem stems from the fact that what was once a fun way to earn the right to talk smack to your friends on your way home from the arcade now has more in common with the average Gran Tourismo-esque driving sim. Keeping your chosen warrior alive while he/she/it quests for their particular Soul Calibration means either weeks of banging buttons during the practice mode while making careful notations, or memorizing pages and pages of conditional button combos from a strategy guide. Until somebody releases "Tai Chi Beatdown!:Mandarin Juice" for the PSX's EyeToy, I don't see investing that much work into a game about fighting.

That said, Tobal is one of the greatest games of it's time. Not one of the greatest fighters, mind you. The fighting is just good enough. There are not a lot of moves/combos to memorize (praise your favorite diety) or practice in the appropriate mode, but the ones that are there are effective enough if used with a bit of strategy. Movement is smooth and, more importantly, logical. In fact, there are very few moves in this game that anyone with five years of dedicated martial arts training couldn't do on their own. It's all good, solid, virtually violent yet blood and mucus-free, fun. What makes this a game every PS owner is required to own is the Quest mode. It is this part's inclusion in the total package that makes this gaming app perfect.

Most reviewers of this game hate the use of the fighting mode controls and movements in the big bad basement. I love having to coax my avatar d'jour into their in-fight running and jumping as I navigate the big boss's cellar. In addition to providing a secondary-yet-practical use for all of the controls you were forced to learn in order to play the game at all, it keeps the whole thing from feeling like just a tacked on mini-game. The constant from-behind camera is no more annoying here than it is anywhere else, plus it never winds up wandering off and hanging you out to dry like some computer or even player controlled cameras do. In terms of gameplay, the four quest levels are well designed, with challenges and enemies appropriate to the subterrain chosen. In fact, "designed" doesn't exactly apply to the final quest, as the sub-levels there are randomly generated on the way down. This means that each sub-level appears out of thin air when you take the elevator down, but once it's poofed into existence, it's permanent 'til game over. Strategy and resource management are major parts of each trip down, thanks to the inventory limitations (everybody's only got two hands and no pockets!) and the randomness with which discovered assets can appear or affect you. And the quests are not just there to smooth your fingerprints, either. Training level aside, each quest completion unlocks a new playable character for the main fighting part of the game, the final quest revealing a character that litteraly personifies irony; it's physical appearance may hurt your feelings, but it's fighting ability will hurt everybody elses. This excecution of the quest mode is the standard by which I judge that RPG section that all the major fighting game franchises seem to have since Tobal came to be. I'm pretty sure that if Cassandra and Yoshimitsu had followed the example instead of just ripping it off, they and their genre mates and I would get along a lot better.

In the end, this game is now what it was during it's state-of-the-art days: a fun way to kill an afternoon or an entire rainy day. No college course or binder-full of printed website pages required. It's simply good and solid in every area it needs to be, making it fun enough to replay on occasion. To stick with my earlier driving related reference, Tobal is to virtual fighting what the Honda Civic is to street tuning; simply a solid base to work/play from. To me, the rest of the full 3d-fighter-with-RPG-mode games are just like Toyota with the Scion gig; just trying to cash in on a good idea without admitting to it.

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