While Playstation owners get to revel in the glory that is "Final Fantasy VII," one consolation that Saturn owners have always had is in the area of 2D fighting games. Indeed it seems that the Saturn (import) was almost made just for 2D fighters. Recently we've been blessed with such excellent games such as "Street Fighter Collection," and "Samurai Shodown 4," and now, in what seems to be 'Fighting Game Frenzy Month,' the Saturn import gets another excellent fighting game: "Asuka 120% Limited." Now before continuing I must qualify this statement by saying that "Asuka 120% Limited" is _not_ a 'serious fighter,' but rather a fun, entertaining fighting game for those times when you want to take a break from 'Street Fighter,' and the SNK fighters. The "Asuka 120%" (a.k.a. "Burning Fest.") series has had a long history, dating back to the days of the PC-Engine. The developers, Fill-in Cafe, have indeed come a long way from their humble beginnings. The most recent incarnations of this game have been on the Sony PSX, namely "Asuka 120% Excellent," which seemed to be their best game in the series. Usually when a game that already exists on one platform gets 'ported over' to a competing system, you usually expect 'same' or 'worse' gameplay and quality. Having played the Playstation version for awhile now, I can only say that the Saturn "Asuka 120% Limited" is a Complete Upgrade and literally a whole New game. If the Playstation version of "Asuka" was like 'Virtua Fighter 1,' then the Saturn version is 'Virtua Fighter 2.' It's that big of a jump! Upon initial inspection, this looks like a cheesy, wanna-be fighter made for all those 'H' fans, since all of the fighters in this game are high school girls. What lies beneath the surface though, is the best 2D fighting game combo engine outside of Capcom and SNK's games! What "Asuka 120% Limited" delivers is an Anime-style cute, wacky, fun fighting game that never takes itself too seriously, and ultimately ends up being one of the funnest, cool diversions to hit the Saturn in a while.
Let me first address some initial hesitations about this game. I, too, was hesitant about playing any 'fighting game,' that sported a cast of only female fighters, and in fact, I thought it would be excrement along the lines of "Criticom," "Rise of the Robots," or even the failed "Ranma" and "Dragonball" games. Well after playing the game for only 1 match, all of those fears went out the door; I knew that this was going to be a fun, _good_ fighting game. This game will definitely appeal to most Anime fans out there, and especially those Anime fans who also appreciate fighting games. If you're looking for live-digitized actors spilling blood and guts, or (as N.Rox says,) 'the 256-hit plastic death-fest,' then please look elsewhere.
The premise of the game is simple, as once a year the 'MegaFight Tournament' is held and female high school fighters from various clubs compete. As a result you end up with a rather diverse group of fighters to choose from: For example, the main heroine, Asuka, is from the Chemistry club and she uses vials of combustible chemicals to help her out (instead of the typical 'chi'-power Hadoken fireball). Some other fighters include one from the gymnastics club, baseball team, Judo club, etc., for a total of 11 regular fighters to choose from. They all have distinctive moves and play different from one another (which is good). There are also at least 2 hidden characters in the game.
Perhaps the biggest jump for this newest "Asuka 120%" game is in the area of graphics. For those who have played (or seen screenshots) of the Playstation version, you will immediately notice how Huge the character sprites are now, and how nicely redrawn the backgrounds are, and how smoothly most of the characters animate, and well, just about everything. Indeed literally every single aspect has been improved tenfold for this new Saturn version. The backgrounds, while lacking any major parallax scrolling, has enough detail to compliment the atmosphere, while also being simple enough so as to not intrude with the (more important) foreground, where the fighting takes place. The character sprites are huge (when compared to the PSX version) and animate almost as smoothly as some of SNK's offerings. It seems Fill-in Cafe tripled the size of their art staff and it shows! The Super Moves are done with Anime-style (and Capcom style) flair and are very pleasing to the eye. Even more pleasing to the eye are the excellent 2D portraits for all the characters and the many other Anime-style drawings for the characters that are littered throughout the game. One other note is that the Saturn version even comes with a fully animated Anime intro movie highlighting the setting and introducing the main character, Asuka. The quality is decent and again, for a first effort on the Saturn, Fill-in Cafe has to be commended.
Sound and Music also astound! For the first time in Saturn history, the Saturn version of a game has _Better_ sound effects and music than the Playstation version! I couldn't believe it either, but it seems Fill-in must've upped their musical staff as well. The music is good, and Saturn owners are even treated to _two_ vocal songs (one in the '2nd introduction' - which is very nice - and the other in the end Credits). The voices are where it really shines: They are actually pretty clear and Not muffled! Yes, it seems someone else besides the creators of "Astal," has also figured out how to make crisp, clean sounding voices - not the muffled crap (ala VF2, MSH, etc.), but just well acted voices for each of the fighters.
Now for those of you who have not seen or played the previous "Asuka" games, you may not fully realize just how much of an improvement Fill-in Cafe has made with this Saturn version. I would say that while the graphics and sound may not win the approval for many first-timers, the Gameplay will. For it is in the area of Gameplay that "Asuka 120% Limited," really shines - indeed, this is the area that won me over as well. As aforementioned, Fill-in Cafe has done the impossible: They have made a 2D fighting combo engine that plays better than any other 2D fighting game with the exception of Capcom's fighters and SNK's KOF series. Yes, this game plays even better than the Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting series, IMHO. What they've done is come up with a system where you can combo almost _all_ of your moves into each other. As a side note, interestingly enough, there has never been a company outside of Capcom/SNK that has successfully made a good, fun 2D fighter, from Atlus' failed "Power Instinct/Groove on Fight" series, to Data East's wretched "Fighters Dynamite" series, until now.
Again, it is with Gameplay, that "Asuka 120%" shines. There are 2-in-1's, so you can combo regular moves into Supers, pseudo-Alpha counters, Counter Attacks, double jumps, etc. The controls seem a bit too simple at first, with only 2 attack buttons: 'Weak' attack and 'Fierce' attack. On this point I can only commend Fill-in Cafe for starting off 'with the basics,' so to speak, and while it may not seem like 'enough,' after a few minutes of playing, you won't remember that fact, as there is more than enough in terms of combo 'improvisation' to make up for it. Here's an example of one of _many_ cool combos you can do in this game: Shinobu Kawasaki is the 'Ryu'-inspired female fighter in this game, and as a result she has a 'Fireball,' 'Dragon Punch,' and 'Hurricane Kick.' She also has a Ken-inspired 'Shoryu Reppa' Dragon Punch Super. One combo is: Jumping Fierce attack, into a low short kick, into another low short kick, into a low Roundhouse, into a short Hurricane Kick, into another short Hurricane Kick, into a Roundhouse Hurricane Kick, into a Jab Dragon Punch, into her Super "Shoryu Reppa" type super, for up to a 16-Hit Combo! How's that for SF combo madness?
Ultimately, "Asuka 120% Limited" comes through as a very polished, high-quality, fun fighting game. Again, be warned: If you're looking for that 'ultimate serious fighter,' I highly recommend you getting (if you haven't ) Capcom's "Street Fighter Collection" for "Street Fighter Zero 2 Dash," or SNK's awesome "King of Fighters '96" w/ RAM cart. In light of the fact that I have both of the above games (and I love them to death), "Asuka" offers enough fun and diversion that I found it to be a very welcome breath of fresh air.
Final Scores (out of a perfect 10):
Graphics: 8.0
+ Gorgeous 2D Anime character art (Kawaii!)
+ Well-animated fighters
+ Nice effects for specials and Supers
- Inconsistency in animations, as some fighters seem a little lacking compared to others.
Sound/Music: 7.0
+ Crisp, clean voice samples for the fighters (moves and introductions/taunts).
+ Solid, competent fighting game music.
Gameplay: 9.0
+ FUN, 'Street Fighter' style combos and gameplay!
+ Over-the-top, wacky style exchanges (like exchanging 4-5 blows/blocks in the air)
+ Uh, did I mention FUN 2-in-1's, special moves into Supers, and cool gameplay?!
+ The ability to combo almost anything.
- The ability to combo almost anything: Since you can do it, so can the computer (or friend). As a result, you can get 'cheaped' or 'air juggled' a lot. But remember, it's not a serious fighter! ^_^
- Poor character balance. Some moves are way too powerful or unblockable (cheap).
* Please note, that this score is NOT in comparison to SF/KOF; this is just an individual score, how it rates to itself (1=poor, 10=awesome).
OVERALL: 8.0
