Touki Denshou Angel Eyes PS1 Review

Touki Denshou Angel Eyes is a 2d style fighting game that originally saw a release in the arcades in Japan in 1996 published by Tecmo and was later ported to the PlayStation console late in 1997 that features an all female cast of fighters with 8 playable characters to choose from with a wide array of character designs and aesthetics anything from the likes of a biker girl to a volleyball player and even a girl that wears Japanese uniform to a girl that is a ninja. 

So there's so many different visual cues in the game that cater to each of the characters unique traits and abilities. 

The gameplay style and combat mechanics take a lot of inspiration from many arcade fighters and popular fighting games at that time with the likes of the Street Fighter series and even games like the king of fighters series and many other popular fighting games within the fighting genre. 

One of this game's unique features is with its combat system in most cases once you put together a combo you do a unique and certain level of damage but this game allows for inexperienced players to gain an upper hand by using what's called a reverse combo correction that allows combo attacks to be chained together and the damage will dramatically increase which also allows for inexperienced players to do a high level of damage to give them a better chance at winning rounds within each fight which can result in characters carrying out combos that can almost instantly kill an opponent in a matter of only a few seconds if done correctly. 

Development for the game originally began in 1994 with the game having some unique quirks as many of the game's characters are all created by an anime kind of like 2D pixel style art visual aesthetic while other characters were created using 3D pre-rendered models and the game combines the two characters into the one game. 

So if you're playing this it's a very unusual concept to get used to because on one end you have ultra realistic looking characters but then on the other end you also have more cartoony style characters all competing against each other which is definitely something that's very different that really stands out compared to any type of fighting game that even I have personally seen before because usually most fighting games they're either 3D rendered characters or just 2D hand-drawn characters but this game combines both into the one package. 

The game itself once it was released in Japan did receive somewhat mixed reviews and a lot of it was down to those mix of the polygonal style characters and pixel style characters that you could play through and noted that although it wasn't a major issue but it didn't really differentiate or add anything new to the fighting genre at that time as there were so many other competing IPS and fighting games that were all utilizing very similar styles as that was the era that fighting games that had really come into its own within not just the PlayStation but in the entirety of the transition between the 16 bit and 32-bit eras of gaming on major consoles and arcade systems. 

Even regardless of its quirks and unique nature what's it like to play overall from having experienced it? 

Well for myself personally having spent time playing the game although now up until doing this video I knew nothing about it I didn't even know that this game existed. I happened to just stumble across it through various websites and forums and I like the look of the visual art style because it reminded me of games very like Street Fighter. 

As it uses a lot of very similar visual aesthetics and gameplay mechanics but overall it's a decent fighting game but I will admit it doesn't really add anything new apart from the likes of the visual styles of the characters with the likes of the 3D pre-rendered characters versus the 2D ones for someone new coming into it even I found myself it did look a bit unusual if in some cases for some people that might seem weird but generally it didn't take away from the actual look and feel of the game because once you played it and sat down and gave it a bit of time it was actually a fun game to play. 

There's some great move sets and combo systems that you can use and each character that you can play as has their own unique capabilities and abilities that you can use and if you execute them correctly you can do serious damage to your opponents. 

Now in saying that once you're going through the likes of their various modes and even the arcade modes, the difficulty will increase with each opponent that you face throughout your progress once you go through the main campaigns. 

So you find that you do have to as with any fighting game that you'll have to adapt your player's style and utilize your various move sets and abilities that you have learned up to that point to know when to strike and when to defend or to avoid attacks if you can at all possible. 

But all in all it's a decent 2D fighter that while may not offer anything exactly new does have a lot of unique quirks that definitely deserves or warrants it having a look at and I highly recommend that you do play it, if you're into 2D Fighters just to experience something that is a little bit different and the fact that it was released only in Japan and the fact is that it is rare would even add to that exclusive rarity and make it even more appealing to fans of the genre in general. 

So I do recommend that you go and try it out and for those of you that have experienced it or that do know anything about the game if you have seen it in action before or even played it I would love to know your thoughts on the game and what stories you have to share if you have any at all from playing the game over the years. 

So be sure to share it down in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to Touki Denshou Angel Eyes, you can check out the blog where we will be diving into the iconic elements of these classic video games and as always keep those gaming memories alive...