DESCRIPTION

Ehrgeiz, the unofficial Tobal 3 has finally hit the Playstation in Japan after a critically dismal release in the arcades. The joint Namco, Dream Factory and Squaresoft production borrowed the movement of Tobal 2 and some of the characters from Final Fantasy VII but the dated visuals and limited gameplay not to mention lack of suitability for the now "ghosted" arcades caused disastrous effects.

Now as already mentioned it is time for the Playstation to receive it dues and in typical Namco fashion, the home version has a number of new goodies. No less than eleven fighters are available from the outset with an additional six to be earned from specific tasks. Fighters include such as Final Fantasy VII characters as Sephiroth, Cloud Strife, Tifa, Vincent Valentine, Zax and Yuffie alongside student Clair, wrestler Dasher, Red XIII look-a-like Django and mercenary Godhand just to name a few. Players can also earn various alternative uniforms for example Cloud's Shinra uniform but only a select few fighters have three uniforms.

Ehrgeiz is split into three distinctive games or modes if you would like: Ergheiz: God Bless the Ring (general arcade fighting), mini-games (four unique twists on arcade fighting) and finally Quest (RPG like mode). Ergheiz: God Bless the Ring is where the bulk of your effort will be spent in a story based one on one arcade-fighting situation. A total of ten stages must be completed to achieve victory (plus bonus stages such as fighting Cloud in an elevator) and includes a boxing ring, coliseum, secret lab, airship, suburban setting in Hong Kong plus plenty of others. Modes in this "game" include the standard arcade, Vs and practice modes on top of various options including display, sound balances, vibration, hit points, CPU level, time, video collection, box, set count etc.

Mini-Games include Infinity battle (a more unique way of saying survival mode), Battle runner (a race around three courses where beating up your opponent comes into play), Beach battle (various events set in a beach setting) and Panel battle that challenges players to change all panels on the grid to their own color by running over them. The quest mode is a simple RPG where you follow the adventures of Koji Masuda by collecting cold hard cash, equipment, magic while engaging in battles.

The combat style is more similar to Tekken 3 than Tobal 2 with combo saturated move lists though movement remains similar to past Squaresoft efforts with less clumsy execution. Special moves, just frames, sword techniques, throws, and taunts are also regular moves among most of the fighters but generally most fighters have that button mashing feel to them due to the simplicity to pull off combos. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide