TOBAL NO. 1
Fighting
Squaresoft/Dream Factory
Sony Playstation
SLPS00400
Y5800
1 August 1996

by Dave Van Cleef


Games from Squaresoft have long been regulars in Nintendo's game stable, so Square's defection to the Playstation camp and then total abandonment of the Nintendo 64 platform earlier this year took many in the industry by surprise. It is surprising to note that TOBAL NO. 1, their first release for Playstation, is not an RPG or strategy game but a fighter, something already present in abundance on that platform.
Square's Dream Factory certainly seems to be a "Dream Team," whose key personnel include veterans of Namco's TEKKEN and Sega's VIRTUA FIGHTER developers. Another key person involved in the project was character designer Toriyama Akira (Chrono Trigger, Dr. Slump, Dragonball).
The game is currently a big seller and Squaresoft's name actually seems to be selling Playstation consoles to new owners as well. On the day of TOBAL 's release, I stood in a line of approximately 50 people outside Bic Camera in Shibuya. Of those fifty people, 20% of those also bought a Playstation console.
Character designs are typical--the tough cute girl, the brash wild-haired guy, and the quiet bishonen guy, among other Toriyama stereotypes. The transition to polygons yielded mixed results - some attractive, some looking like a bunch of polygons glued together. Polygon counts on all characters are a bit low compared to TEKKEN 2 and its brethren.
Controls may take a bit of getting used to. The right button cluster uses triangle, square and x for high, middle and low attacks, while mysteriously leaving the circle button unassigned. Jump and guard are moved from their typical fighting game positions up to the shoulder buttons. The directional pad is where the real difference starts. The left and right buttons are the typical forward and reverse, however the up and down buttons actually move your characters sideways. TOBAL NO. 1 offers true 360 degree free movement, probably the first game on Playstation to do so.



The blocky look of the fighters don't compare to Tekken 2, but the movement in Tobal is much more realistic.		 Animation of characters is probably the most striking thing in the game. The animation is silky-smooth and frame rate never seems to drop. These characters actually look like they're fighting. Another noticeable aspect of the game is the attention to detail in the 3-D physics. Characters will get knocked around correctly based on where and how they're hit.
Another important mechanic is the grapple system. Characters can grab onto each other in an attempt to throw, knock down or otherwise mangle them. These grapples can be reversed, broken and blocked by appropriate moves by the other player.
In addition to the usual one and two-player game modes, there is an additional 'quest mode', where your character has to traverse one of four multi-level dungeons filled with pits, traps, items and puzzles. Completing each of these dungeons will unlock a sub-boss for use by players; the final 30-level dungeon releasing Toriyama-Robo.
Fighting game newcomer Squaresoft has done themselves proud with this, their first release for Playstation. They have not only created a fantastic game, they have set the new standard for next-generation fighters in TOBAL NO. 1.

Highly recommended.