Yū Yū Hakusho [幽☆遊☆白書] Game Sample - 3DO
40It stands to reason that one of the greatest power-couples in Japanese media would have their respective franchises vying for shelf space in every arena imaginable, but it's funny how compatible they were even before getting married in 1999. While Naoko Takeuchi (of Sailor Moon fame) released a serviceable SM fighter for the 3DO in 1995, her future hubby, Yoshihiro Togashi (of "Yū Yū Hakusho" and "Hunter × Hunter" fame), beat her to the punch by a few months, releasing a YYH fighting game during the 1994 holiday season. Published and developed by Tomy with assistance from TOSE, it doesn't look like much by today's standards but it's one of the best YYH games along with some of the late SFC titles (Tokubetsu Hen and Final) and Treasure's "Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen" for the Mega Drive, all fantastic games. Sure... this one isn't AS great as those, but considering the litany of half-baked and rushed games to the system, this game stands out as one of the better titles.
Yes, this YYH game is a versus fighter and yes, it is another experimental game that uses cel-graphics (ala Sailor Moon, Ultimate Battle, Pretty Fighter X) which have not aged well, but it's perfectly playable outside of that. With clips straight from the anime, a revised soundtrack (as they likely didn't have rights to the original soundtrack and opening theme when this game was released), a relatively large roster for a fighter of the time with fifteen characters (who have different move sets and execute attacks differently), a story mode, versus mode and team battle mode, and even a training mode, juke box, and art gallery (contained in "World Mode"), there's a little more on offer here than your standard versus fighter of the day. The main game deals with a highly condensed version of the Dark Tournament and Chapter Black arcs with players controlling Yuusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei and Kurama.
Players can swap between characters between battles and characters not in use will recover 25% of their health each battle, so the idea is to familiarize yourself with their abilities and switch periodically to keep them in play. During the tournament, characters can also be "downed" by powerful attacks resulting in a countdown, where players will be removed from play if they fail to stand. Defeated or downed characters can no longer be used until you move on to the next match, where they will return with 25% of their health. Every character also has several special attacks, multiple throws, a super move, and a spirit gauge. Different attacks consume different amounts of spirit energy with super moves consuming the most, and players need to be a little conservative or risk being unable to execute specials when they really need it. Similarly to the anime/manga, different characters utilize spirit energy differently (for example, Hiei is very powerful but his moves consume a lot of energy, whereas 100% toguro can fire off most attacks with little consequence) and players can charge their energy by holding down an attack button (it charges faster if you're not blocking).
The game won't win any awards in the audio/video category and the game has a distinct lack of fighting arenas (having only six relatively plain stages) and a very simple two-button attack scheme, but it should prove to be a pretty good time for fans of YYH games. This is a video showing various gameplay elements as well as some of the art, etc. Enjoy.
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