Maximum Letdown: Battle Arena Toshinden 3 (PS1)
In the early days of the Playstation, Battle Arena Toshinden was all the rage. It provided some excellent 3D fighting action, showcased what the system was capable of, and it provided some eye candy in the form of the lovely Sofia. However, that was then. By 1998, the franchise had fast become a relic of days gone by (and this despite its sequel being published in the arcades by Capcom no less). As franchises such as Virtua Fighter and Tekken were evolving the genre into something greater, Toshinden was consistently failing to offer fighting game fans anything different, and as Tekken was soaring to new heights, Toshinden would slowly fade off into the darkness by the new millennium, and its developers decided to kill it off gracefully with this supposedly last entry (of course there was a Battle Arena Toshinden 4, but it was never released in America, and at that point, no one would care about it anyway).
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Remember Where’s Waldo? That was a series of books that were centered around finding some goober hiding in a crowd of people. Eventually Where’s Waldo faded into one of those “dear god we were lame back then” gimmicks, but not before there ended up being a TV series (which thankfully didn’t last long). Of course since publishers are all too often willing to spend money for the rights to any intellectual property they can afford regardless of how well it would translate into a good video game (particularly back then), there was also a NES game based on the franchise. Like the books of the same name, Where’s Waldo had you looking at still pictures to find out where he is hiding. There are only 5 levels (and by that I mean still images) and 4 levels of difficulty including practice. On medium and hard you have to scroll to the side to see the rest of the screen, but that’s pretty much as complex as it gets. The graphics are horrible (as the NES really wasn’t big on the type of detail required for this game) making it hard to see Waldo, and the only plus is that Waldo is in a different location each time you play. Shockingly this game was developed by Bethsheda Softworks. Yes, the same Bethsheda Softworks that would go on to create two of the biggest modern single player RPGS ever: Oblivion and Fallout 3. Of course obviously you couldn’t possibly be able to tell that from playing this game. Oh yeah, there was a slightly improved version for the SNES and Genesis, but all that did was upgrade the graphics a bit.

After Midway struck gold with Mortal Kombat, they tried again, again, and again to repeat its success in the fighting game arena, but failed miserably. While Capcom was able to follow up the wildly successful Street Fighter 2 with Darkstalkers and the Marvel fighting games, SNK successfully presented Art of Fighting (along with King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, and so many others) as Fatal Fury’s successor, and Namco followed up Tekken with Soul Blade, Midway churned out failures such as Bio Freaks and Mace: The Dark Age. They had some potential though, as Bio Freaks had an dismemberment game mechanic and Mace could have been Soul Edge’s evil twin. However, Midway’s most notable attempt (and by this I mean biggest failure) was War Gods. Although it had some promise, it was dragged down by horrid controls, lousy character design, and a frustratingly cheap artificial intelligence.
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This past week saw the legendary mutant superhero Wolverine return to movie theaters by way of the film X-men origins: Wolverine. Of course, the logical tie-in game hit store shelves as well. Word on the street is that this new game isn’t half bad. That’s a good thing too, as Wolverine’s solo history in video gaming has been less than encouraging. This special maximum letdown takes a look at one of his previous solo endeavors. As an added bonus, this week’s lost classic , included in this article, takes a look at one of his many team up adventures.
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*sigh*

Think about it, Asian women in bikinis killing scores of zombies.

This should have been an early contender for game of the year.

(Okay maybe not exactly, but it should at least have been a fun way to pass the time until Resident Evil 5 had been released)

So what happened?

I don’t know, but click after the jump and I’ll do my best to help find an answer.

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Welcome back to Maximum Letdown, Powet’s go-to guide on games that either had that one fatal flaw, didn’t quite live up to the hype, or just plain suck. Because today is St. Patty’s day, I’m gonna give you something extra: a math lesson. If you’re an RPG fan you’ll want to pay attention to this, as I’ll tell you the formula to making a good game (hint: the exact opposite of this). There is even some homework, so break out your pencils and notepads, because there will be a pop quiz on all of this.

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This past week was my birthday. To celebrate, I have a double dose of my usual columns this week. This first part is an appendix to last week’s Street Fighter special, featuring 3 Capcom fighting games while the second part, due later this week, will deal with some RPGs. Once again, it’s my [belated] birthday, yet you get the gift. Click onward!
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This week sees the release of the highly anticipated Street Fighter 4. To celebrate, Powet presents a special 2-part $20 Game of the Week/Lost Classics/Maximum Letdown Special on some of the highs and the lows of the franchise. This is part one, in which we will feature the original Street Fighter (as an example of why you can’t go home again) and the two games based on a certain movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme which just so happens to have a name and cast of characters similar to Street Fighter. This weekend we’ll take a look at Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix along with one of the more under appreciated bright spots of the franchise.
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