"Take that" , "no you take that" .
This can only be the sounds of
Namco and Sega's constant arcade
feud. Each trying to out do the
other, this struggle has resulted in
some of the best arcade and
console games in recent memory.
For a while Namco in my
opinion had an edge up with the
incredible Soul Edge on
Playstation. A 3D weapon fighter
with unfortunately for Saturn
owners was way better than
Fighters MegaMix, especially in
one player mode. Well Sega isn't
one to stay down for long, so along
came Last Bronx. Well, is it better
than Soul Edge ? Let's find out.
In terms of graphics of course the
Saturn has trouble competing with
the Playstation, but Last Bronx
succeeds in another respect. While
Soul Edge had awesome lighting
effects, Last Bronx has the more
frightening weapon blurs. Also the
haracter in Soul Edge although
possessing more polygons per
character where exceptionally
grainy in comparison to the super
smooth characters in
Last Bronx. In terms of
backgrounds each game has its
strength Last Bronx has ceilings
and awesome parallax, while Soul
Edge has 3D scenery. The problem
is in both games the scenery is ultra
dull with absolutely nothing
interesting going on, unlike 2D
fighters like K.O.F. 96 or SFA2.
Another point is the intros Soul
Edge has the king of rendered
intros along with a song. So in
retaliation Last Bronx has the king
of anime intros with an even better
song. This may seem insignificant
but an intro if it is good (ala Road
Rash) can get you really psyched
about playing the game.
As far as music goes unfortunately
Soul Edge wins hands down with
its inspiring classical overtures.
While Last Bronx is loaded with
the usual Japanese rock/pop tunes.
This brings up a good point about
music in games. A great example of
this I Way of the Warrior for 3DO,
a lame game taken to awesome
levels by its White Zombie sound
track. So for last Bronx I hit the
mute button and turn on the
Metallica, White Zombie, or
AC-DC and suddenly every bone
breaking hit is all the more
pleasurable. So with the right
musical CDs on hand Last Bronx's
can actually have a great
soundtrack.
Now the all important gameplay
section. Despite having a heavy
Virtua Fighter influence the game is
very different. Although the motions
and button sequences are the same
this game unlike Fighting Vipers is
not only original but on par with
Virtua Fighter. Instead of the
strategy and timing (and very cool
because of this) based VF this
game focuses on egression, juggles
and mercilessness. This is not a bad
thing as many players are more
quickly pick up this game and
enjoy it. Also the brutal fights can
get incredibly intense. The only
annoying thing is the ability to block
after the first hit of a combo, or
stop a combo in the middle. This
results in large scale throw wars the
can easily frustrate some players.
Now in comparison to Soul Edge
the game is much better. With
quick, intense, fair and surprisingly
some what strategic fights Last
Bronx is much more interesting than
the ultra (uuuuultra uuuuultra)
combos and special move wars
contained in Soul Edge. The only
place that Soul Edge whups up on
Last Bronx is in the one player
mode. Soul Edge's rpg mode in
which you faces different challenges
to win new weapon made the game
last for a long time while Last
Bronx only has the token survival
and time attack mode (yawn...) .
In my opinion Soul Edge would
receive a 93% and Last Bronx
would get a 95%. Why you may
ask, because in a nutshell Last
Bronx though devoid of incredible
longevity is much more fun to play
especially in the two player mode,
and is so much more of an
accomplishment for the Saturn in
producing a game that in my
opinion can graphicly spar with the
Playstation. Also on a personal
note the anime sceens and whole
gang motif ended up being much
cooler than the whole 3D medieval
thing. Perhaps the best way to end
this review is with this : "In Soul
Edge you get to combat medievally
, but Last Bronx will let you get
medieval on somebody in combat.
"
P.S. The second disk is totally
useless because all it is a training
mode that requires a high level
comprehension of Japanese, but if
you had that you could just read
the manual. The only real use is if
you really like the music it is like
getting a free copy of the
soundtrack because it has all the
tracks from the first disk and has
no real game value.
SOCRE: 9.5
