When the Playstation came out, it was famous for being much more lax than Nintendo with its licensing. The real challenge came if you wanted to make a game using 2D sprites or hand drawn graphics. Sony wanted the 3D.
Virtua Fighter never came to the Playstation 1, but it kicked off the 3D fighter craze. Namco was a huge Sony supporter in the early days and brought their less technical 3D fighter, Tekken. Just like any new genre, the 3D fighting Golden Age is full of experimental concepts, thrown together hogwash, and rare gems that no one played because the high budget stuff took the spotlight.
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| From Game Collecting with Rick |
Rival Schools pictured above.
So if you're looking for fun 3D fighters I would suggest looking at the Tekken series. People argue over if Tekken 2 or 3 was better, you can't go wrong with either. Also great was Soul Blade, aka Soul Edge, aka the first in the Soul Caliber series. Capcom's best came in the form of Rival Schools, a game about Highschool students and teachers teaming up to beat the crap out of each other. Tons of characters and variety, a very fun game. Then we also have the Bloody Roar series, part 2 being my favorite. Your characters basically have 2 move sets. You start out as human, but you can work up a gauge that allows you to turn into a animal human hybrid(or Furry) during the match.
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| From Game Collecting with Rick |
Let's get to some rares though.
Tobal No 1 was Squaresoft's first foray into the fighting genre. It featured the ability to move all over the place while fighting. I liken it to more of a 1 vs 1 beat'em up, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, its Squaresoft, so its collectable. Historically speaking, its "adventure" mode later inspired Tekken to include them, as well as several others. Other notables, this was Square's first PS1 game. It came with the Final Fantasy 7 demo. It's character designs are by the Dragon Ball Z artist.
Star Gladiator received a limited run here in the states. It was Capcom dipping their fingers into 3D fighting. As part 2 of this guide will tell you, they had some problems with the PS1, and Star Gladiator was meant to try and save them in the home market. It is a fun 3D weapon fighter, but its presentation pales in comparison to Soul Blade, especially with Soul Blades vast array of game modes.
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| From Game Collecting with Rick |
Bushido Blade... ok, anything released by Square is collectible right now, that's just how it is. Bushido Blade was a unique, semi-historical fighter where one move could end the game. Two master of the game would fight for 10 minutes, parrying, blocking, and never scoring a hit... then in an inspired move, kill the opponent. Not made for people with ADD, this fighter is a cult classic... part 2 is collectible too, but not as fondly remembered... it was much more main stream.
Battle Arena Toshinden was one of those early games that was released in the larger rectangle PS1 cases. If you collected Magazines in the mid-90's, then you know there were about a billion covers with this game. Largely forgotten in time to better games, it was quite impressive looking when it was released. Full 3D backgrounds, impressive looking weapons and special moves. Voted Best Fighting Game of 1995 in Electronic Gaming Monthly, it was also voted their most overrated game they ever awarded.
There were several licensed fighting games that use pre-existing properties as their base. Star Wars: Masters of the Teras Kasi. Dungeons and Dragons: Iron and Blood. X-men Mutant Academy. Despite their gameplay, they are collectible because of their license.
There are several other 3D games you can find that are more rare. These just have not gotten on the collector's radar yet, or are so bad that no one wants to remember them.
The real collector's market is in the Playstation's 2D fighting games. Coming up in part 2, the Playstations lack of ram and generally bad 2D performance results in some of the rarest fighting games on the planet.
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