Toshinden (Wii)

This game's existence is a bit of a mystery: the Toshinden series isn't exactly fondly remembered, and the only reason it was every really popular at all is because it was one of the first 3D fighting games to come along. So why then, a whole decade after the last Toshinden, did Tomy decide to not only release a game using that name, but release a game with no other connection to the series. It doesn't play like the others, it has none of the characters, and it's not set in the same world. It doesn't even have the same developers as the original series! (Those were developed by Lunatic Obscurity stalwarts Tamsoft, this is by Dream Factory, of Tobal and Ehrgeiz fame, and could very well be their worst game!)

So, if it doesn't play like the other Toshinden games, how does it play? Well, it's an odd one. You can use the analogue stick to run around the arena in all directions, and you only have two normal attack buttons: weak and strong. Rather than special move motions, you have a special and a super, each mapped to a button of their own. I'm not normally a fan of these kinds of super-simplified fighting game controls, though can sometimes work, as in the Senko no Ronde games, or to a lesser extent, the Playstation 90s anime homage festival that is Evil Zone/Eretzvaju. In this case, though, the best thing you can say about the controls is that they're not the worst thing about the game.

The actual worst thing about the game is a decision so stupid and antithetical to the nature of fighting games that I can barely believe they did it: all of the playable characters start out with weak, puny movesets, and you're expected to grind in single player to earn points to buy their moves and combos. To make matters worse,  despite this being a game that never had online play, there are only two single player modes: story mode, where you can't pick your character, and surival mode, where you endlessly fight randomly-selected opponents on randomly-selected stages until you lose. It's barely a step above Bomberman Act Zero on X Box 360!

Now, this game isn't completely worthless: I will admit that it looks great, with the character models and textures being particularly appealling. But obviously, that's not enough to make up for how much of an absolute chore it is to play, so obviously, I'm not going to recommend that you bother with it. It's a shame, too, I was really hoping this would be a nice little unsung hero of the Wii's library.

Simple Wii Series Vol. 4 - The Shooting Action

I know I'm over a decade late on this, but until a few weeks ago, I'd never played on a Nintendo Wii, nor had I played any other game that used motion controls (unless you count lightgun games). But now you can get a Wii for almost no money, so I decided to open up a new avenue of potentially interesting games for myself. So, a Wii game named "The Shooting Action" sounds like it would be a lightgun game, right? Or maybe a low-budget first person shooter? Well, it's neither of those! What it actually is is a kind of fighting game, specifically a very simple (a-ha!) Senko no Ronde-alike.

There's only four ships to choose from, each with a normal weapon and a limited-use bomb. There's a laser that ignores on-screen obstacles, a mid-range gun with exploding shots, homing missiles that do a ton of damage, and a fast spread weapon that's devastating a point blank range, and the corresponding bomb attacks are pretty much just bigger versions of the normal weapons. The controls are in something of a Robotron style, with your movement being controlled by the analogue stick, and your weapons aimed by using the remote to move an onscreen cursor round your ship. Hold A to fire, and press B to use your bombs.

Like I said, I'm new to motion controls, and this is the first motion-controlled game that I've played for an extended amount of time. It mostly works okay, with the only real problem being that it takes a minute or two to regain your bearings each time you load up the game, and having one arm outstretched the whole time you're playing is pretty uncomfortable. But I guess everyone else already knows all that, right?

Anyway, the game has all the typical fighting game single player modes: An arcade-style mode where you fight opponents of gradually increasing difficulty, a survival mode where you have a single health bar to fight off as many opponents as possible, and a time attack mode, which gives you infinite lives and finite time to defeat as many opponents as possible. I haven't been able to play the game multiplayer, but it appears to support up to four players (though the single player modes are never more than one-on-one).

There's also customisable avatars! Because, you see, each ship is ring-shaped, and your avatar sits in the middle, like they're in a swimming pool using an inflatable ring. Unfortunately, there's not many parts to use in dressing up your avatars, but on the plus side, they do look a lot better than Miis, so thanks to the devs for that, at least. A word of warning, too: I don't know if this is something that happens for everyone, or if I have a bad copy or something, but in the avatar menu, if you try to highlight an item you've not yet unlocked, the game will crash. So don't do that.

The Shooting Action is a fun little game. It's nothing special, and it's not a patch on Senko no Ronde, but it is a nice enough cheap-and-cheerful substitute (though it's not like SnR fetches a particularly high price either these days, assuming you still have an X Box 360 with a working DVD drive).