• The ONLY true 3-dimensional, 360-degree tournament-style fighter. Avoid and annihilate your opponent before he - or she - does you!
• Four different views AT WILL. From in-your-face close to the sky-high gaze of the powers-that-be.
• UNBELIEVABLE: Sweep kicks, rapid-fire hits, sky-high jumps, #@%$! slaps, killer combos, and tons of weaponry and special moves.
• Glory! Love! Revenge! Death!? Pulverize 8 deadly challengers...and whoever or whatever comes next! Are you up to it?!
   

Discussion
I still remember the day I got to witness Toshinden for the first time. Way, way back when I used to go to Japanese Anime meetings, a fellow who was rather overly-addicted to buying anything imported, plunked down the cash for an import PlayStation and 4 of the launch games. It wasn't until he had put in this disc that I realized my soul would soon be owned by the Sony corporation. Not because of the graphics or game play, but at the potential it showed for the future of gaming.

Anyway...

Battle Arena Toshinden is and always will be considered the flagship title of the PlayStation. Why? Because it basically trounced the visually inferior opponent, Sega Saturn's Virtua Fighter, and provided Sony with all the evidence they needed to sway the gaming public and usher in a new breed of mainstream gamers.

Here you have a game with 8 warriors brought together by invitation-only requests to meet and fight each other for the chance to tackle the ultimate warrior, Gaia. Each fighter has their own weapon, style of fighting, and personal goal for reaching and defeating Gaia.

Play mechanics are a bit odd; you have the controller motions out of Street Fighter, but a combo system pace that's far slower. Each player possess several Special Moves, and 1 Super Move; You're also able to roll out of the way, and knock opponents off the edge.

Graphically the game shows its age, especially in the character models. There are a lot of flicker issues in character joints, and most stages can be reduced to a few rectangles and a circle once the nostalgia wears off. I still love the perfectly shaped rectangular waterfall.

As much as I'd love to say this is got to be in everyone's library, it really doesn't. At it's finest hour, Toshinden today is just reminder of what used to be, and reminds us of the day 3D games took full control of the gaming world.

• Holy variant collection, see below!
   
• All 8 main characters, the final boss, and all but 1 stage are presented in the screenshots above.
   
• The game has it's own version of Akuma, Sho. In order to reach him, you must beat the game on normal or harder difficulty without using a continue. Once Sho shows himself, you may continue all you want. If you beat Sho, you will get your character's "True" ending. Sho uses Eiji's, Kayin's, and extra moves in his arsenal.
   
• The characters have obviously been dubbed in English from their original Japanese release, but there are some rather noteworthy adjustments. Sofia was made less...erotic...while Ellis was made to sound older. Her only issue is that instead of the adorably young chibi-like voice, we got this...demon puberty tone ("I Neevah geeeve up!") >_<;;
   
• While it wouldn't show by today's standards, Toshinden was actually a huge deal for Sony on launch day, for several important factors. For starters, the PSX was $100 cheaper than the Saturn, and here was Sony's first fighting game showing off better textures, better 3D environments, and special effects nowhere to be found in Sega's Virtual Fighter. Ellis' fabric was a huge deal as it was the first time clothing had true transparency to it.
  
  Secondly, it showed Sony of America was willing to bring over titles themselves where needed to fill in the voids 3rd parties couldn't fill at launch. Along with this, they had Kileak (1st Person shooter), arcade conversions in Raiden Project, and of course Namco's Ridge Racer.
   
• Epileptic gamers who have never played this may want to take heed with the final boss stage. Gaia's level is a huge transparent checkerboard like pattern whose individual squares light up in random patterns, all in front of a giant spinning black hole. It can be quite the eyeful.
   
• Bernie Stolar, a man most Sega fans would bitch-slap given half the chance, originally worked for Sony. He is thanked in the manual.
   
• Speaking of bitch-slapping, this may be the first game to ever utter the word on it's back copy, though admittedly self censored.
   
• EGM admitted that this was their most overrated game of all time.
   
• Every character has a special Ultra Move you can perform when your meter is red. When you beat the game, the game will display your character's Ultra Move, and then show them unleashing it on the end boss.
   
• I hated the American cover artwork so bad that I refused to use it for the title banner. I had to scan in the back of the manual's screenshot at an insane resolution to make it look right in the above title bar. I mean for god's sake, they turned Eiji into an ogre and Mondo into an old geezer...who almost looks oddly female!

The first variant to be released was the Pack-In version of the game to your right. Redone to fit in a standard jewel case, the words "NOT FOR RESALE" were added to the bottom right of the manual and to the CD just below the hub. This version had it's own SCUS / PSRM / SKU, as to avoid confusion.

Next up is, I kid you not, a variant of THAT variant. Apparently Sony must have had made too many copies of the above version, so they applied stickers over the Manual and Disc's NFS text to make it a retail version. It is literally the EXACT SAME product except for those two stickers. This is how insane variant collecting has gotten - we're down to stickers and retail SKUs (insert face palm here).

This variant is relatively rare, but I was able to track a $13 copy of it within 2 weeks of trying. Avoid the expensive sealed ones.

The "Clean" Variant is a regular jewel case release, and just as rare as the Sticker version above. The disc is equivalent to the long box release, with SLUS / PSRM the same as the Greatest Hits release. Thanks Will. ;)

Last but not least, the Greatest Hits version. Early releases in the GH line-up removed the SCUS / SLUS number from the manual's bottom left area.

The Greatest Hit uses the original long box's information.

Special thanks to the folks over at playstationcollecting.com for the heads up in the sticker variant!
 

Battle Arena Toshinden - "Not for Resale" Variant: SCUS-94003 / PSRM-004180 / 7 11719 40030 1

Battle Arena Toshinden - "1 or 2 Players" Variant: SCUS-94003 / PSRM-004180 / 7 11719 40030 1


Battle Arena Toshinden - "Clean" Variant: SCUS-94200 / PSRM-001000 / 7 11719 42002 6

Battle Arena Toshinden - "Greatest Hits" Variant: SCUS-94200 / PSRM-001000 / 7 11719 42002 6