Squaresoft's first venture into the fighting genre

TOBAL NO.1 was squaresofts first venture into the fighting game genre and was their first release for the playstation back in 1996. Many consumers were actually skeptical, including me, about Squaresoft launching off their first playstation release with a fighting game because they were mainly known for their exquisite roleplaying games. Afterall, Squaresoft produced the extremely popular Final Fantasy role playing game series. I decided to buy it anyways because to my knowledge Squaresoft has never released a bad video game into the consumer market. As soon as i popped the disc into my playstation and heard the opening music and intro i knew that Squaresoft didn't let me down.

Let the fight begin!
Tobal No.1 is one of the first games to allow you to maneuver all around your opponent as opposed to simple face to face fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. This unique little idea has been used many many times over since then. I think Tekken 1 & 2 came just prior and was the first to use this style of fighting game mechanics. The game has interesting moves and combos that make for interesting play. Each character has their own signature moves including the fundamentals. It has the basics of most fighting games during the mid 90's with a time out rule, out of the ring rule, and must win 2 rounds out of 3 to win the match.

Comeon move....Work!!
The controls are fairly easy to grasp as soon as you understand how to use the L1,R1,L2,R2 buttons and the special maneuvers are similar to Tekken(forward, forward, attack). The powerful throwing techniques can be somewhat hard to execute but they should be hard to do.....you try to pile drive someone when he's throwing attack after attack at you. One interesting feature is that you actually have to block in this game because the cpu won't do it for you. This just adds to the gameplay because it forces you to think and decide what moves will work and what will leave you open to a strike. All characters also have special attacks that aren't revealed in the booklet that you are forced to figure out on your own.

Whoa! Who the heck is that?!
I especially like the characters in the game. This game has some of the most unique characters in a fighting game. When the setting is in the future where other planets compete, of course, there are going to be some rather unique warriors. Most of the fighters are actually humans(Chuji-Wu, Epon, Fei-Pusu, Mary Ivonskaya, and Gren Kutz) but they each have thier own specialty from wrestling to kicking. The alien characters vary greatly but all are similar in structure to humans. Oliems(a white furred blue finned kientak) is a boxer with both speed and power, Hom(a robot created and trained by Fei-Pusu) uses a lot of surprise attacks, Illgoga(a humongous Wakoibayai with a tail and two head spikes) uses his overbearing strength to conquer his enemies. The bosses in the game are the funkiest around as well, with Mufu-who uses his extendable arms to hit from a distance, The Mysterious Nork-a super giant who takes up half the screen, and the final boss Emperor Udan-who is considered the strongest fighter ever.

Hmm...besides the characters what's so special about this game?
The innovation of Tobal No.1 comes from its added feature...The Quest Mode. This turns the Tobal No.1 into two games for the price of one :), a fighting game and an adventure game. In Quest Mode your go off in search of money inside of a deep and mysterious dungeon that has many traps and monsters. The dungeon is extremely long but is somewhat required to finish because by defeating the bosses in the dungeon you will acquire the right to use them in fighting mode. If you want to play Mufu then you have to beat him inside of the dungeon. The dungeon can be very difficult so you have to practice with your character of choice in the fighting mode before you tryout the dungeon. The music in the game is very good and is one of the best i've heard for a fighting game. The warriors movements are noticeably more realistic than other games of the time...even more so than Tekken 2 and the one-dimensional Street Fighter.

So what do i think of this game overall?
Well, overall i think this game was extremely well done and drove away all doubts about Squaresoft's ability to produce non-roleplaying games. It's obvious that Squaresoft puts alot of time and effort to release quality games. It is a very innovative game but probably doesn't match up to the games that are out now. The movements and sound were the best but again probably won't match up to the games that are out now. If your in the mood for an old school fighting game that surpassed all epectations and was in my opinion just a little better than Tekken 2, although it didn't have as many characters to choose from, then you should check out this game, even if only to rent.
"I've said my peace-SQUEEBS OUT!"