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Critics have often wondered if and when the 'Golden Age' of great gaming from the 16-bit era could ever be replicated again. At its highest point, SNES and Genesis owners had the greatest games on the planet: Axelay, Contra, Castlevania, Final Fantasy III, Sonic, Gunstar Heroes, and the list goes on. Well, it's time to stop wondering. We Playstation owners are truly the luckiest and most fortunate gamers in the world as we have finally reached the New Golden Age in gaming history. Not to overyhype anything, but truly, within a span of a few months, the Playstation has managed to either come out with the Best game in a genre or 'Genre-Shattering' games that redefine the meaning of that category: For racing, Rage Racer; arcade ports, Soul Edge; for RPG's, the king, Final Fantasy VII; then recently, for the action platformers, Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight. And now, for the Fighting genre, comes the best 3D fighter of all time: Tobal 2. Does this mean that Tobal 2 is 'better' than all of the games aforementioned? Not necessarily. But 1 Awesome game doesn't make a 'Golden Age,' as Mario 64 proves that. What Tobal 2 does do is provide that 'Final Genre-Smashing Game' that finally makes the PSX, the Master of All Genres.
What makes this game great? And what's new? For starters, the graphics: From the start, we are treated to a well-crafted CG Intro movie on par with Tekken 2. Then as you start the fight you realize the greatness: Tobal 2 utilizes the Playstation's amazing 60 frames-per-second, High Resolution graphics mode! What can I say? The motion capture and animation on all the characters annihilate every other 3D fighter out there, even surpassing the motion in Tekken 3. From the amazing recoil on a blocking animation when you get hit by a mid-Roundhouse, to the stunning animation as Epon gets tripped by a low roundhouse kick, and does a Quick Recovery to balance herself by doing a handstand and flipping back upright(!), it truly has to be seen to be believed. All the fighters are beautifully designed, fully gouraud-shaded 3D models that use little if any texture-mapping. This gives the game an extremely clean, smooth look without pixellization that can occur with texture mapped fighters such as in Soul Edge, VF, and Tekken. This is one area where I can see a potential downfall of this game: Graphics. There have already been a few ignorant people who blew off this game because "the characters don't look 'real enough'." Suffice to say, please don't pass judgement on this game until you've seen it in motion and played it at least once.
Characters: There are 10 fighters to choose from (with hidden bosses of course). They are all distinctive in their own way, as the returning warriors have a plethora of new moves. The two new fighters, Doctor V and Chaco are both excellent characters as well. Doctor V is the most original and awesome Kick Boxer to ever hit a fighting game, and his 'Boxing Dodge' mode has to be one of the coolest ways of fighting that I've ever seen. Chaco is a deadly 23 yr. old fighter with some of the coolest Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan moves ever! And she just _exudes_ classic Toriyama charm and kawaii-ness.
Music: The music is especially worth noting, as the music tracks on this game are wonderfully original compositions, ranging from adrenaline-pumping guitar riffs to Enigma-style Gregorian chanting. And they all work wonderfully to complement the fight.
Gameplay: The most important area of any fighter, this is where Tobal 2 shines the most. Before elaborating, the most important area in the gameplay is the excellent design: _Anybody_ can come in and 'feel right at home' with the controls. Like Street Fighter II, the beauty behind the gameplay is that a beginner can jump right in and have fun with the basic punches and kicks, while an expert can also play the game and totally push his skills to the limit. There is an excellent and strong learning curve that is challenging but not overwhelming. There is 'Block Countering' where if you block a move you have a chance to immediately initiate certain counter moves. There's 'Recoveries' where if you get thrown, you can still Recover from the throw and potentially Reverse the grab and end up throwing your opponent! If you get knocked down, as aforementioned, you can potentially quickly recover and spring back up and deliver some counter attacks. And this is 'Body Sensitive,' meaning if someone kicked you from behind and you fell forward, the character will use both hands to regain balance quickly, and if you got tripped from the left side, they'd use their left hand and leg to stop the fall! Again something you have to see to appreciate!
There are also projectiles (fireballs) in the game now. And they are unblockable, _but_ Tobal 2 has solved the cheese: They take away your _own Life_ to use! And the opponent can easily side step out of the way to dodge it. Finally, there's a whole, new 'Super Combo' system where you can potentially link a bunch of Super moves together. And again, here, Dream Factory has done it again: This isn't done by 'robotically' memorizing a bunch of buttons and tapping them over and over again; this isn't cheesy chain combos either. Rather, Tobal 2 relies on true fighting skills that utilize expert timing as well as choosing the right moves to link together.
There's the new Quest mode as well, where players are treated to an awesome real-time 3D RPG-type quest, using one of the 10 fighters. Suffice to say that this 'extra game' is worth buying by itself! There's a town that you can buy items from merchants and basically four huge dungeons to explore. The creatures and bosses in the dungeons have gotten the greatest upgrade from Tobal 1. And the AI for them is much better. And what do you get for traversing this mammoth game? Well... I can't spoil everything for you.
In conclusion, this is truly yet another Must Buy game! Even if you don't like fighting games, please don't pass up the opportunity to check this game out. I know my words cannot do this game justice: You must see it in motion. And of course at the heart of it are the great character designs from the godly Dragon Ball artist and creator, Akira Toriyama. Tobal 2 proves that you can bring the Anime Look to 3D fighting games without going the 'realistic' route (ala VF, Tekken). The voices are all excellently done and give each character an amazing sense of personality and attitude that is sorely lacking in most of the 3D fighters out there. From the refreshing gameplay, to the awesome CG endings, to the most Original fighting game system out there, Tobal 2 is the King of the Hill.
Final Scores (out of a perfect 10):
Graphics 9.5
Music 8.5
Gameplay 10.0
Originality 9.0
Overall 9.5