0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Asuka 120% Special Burning Fest

       

Asuka 120% Special Burning Fest is the fourth entry in the Asuka 120% Burning Fest action fighting series of games and the first entry in the series to appear on the Playstation, the series was designed by Masatoshi Imaizumi and Aoi Nanase while the music for the series was composed by Keishi Yonao.

Developed by Fill in Café and published by Family Soft The game would release on the 29^th of March 1996 exclusively in Japan, the game would later receive PSP, Vita and Playstation 3 releases again however these were in Japan only.

This is a 2D fighting game that was ported from the PC engine the game has eleven playable characters plus one additional hidden boss character, the main characters are Asuka, Karina, Kumi, Nana, Megumi, Ryuuko, Cathy Wild, Ryoko, Tamaki, Torami and the boss Shinobu.

When fighting the game is only a two button game with X being the characters weak attack while O is the characters strong attack. Square acts as pressing both the X and O button together, this is also used for the special attack and counter.

Players can also dash pressing forward twice on the control will allow your character to dash forward, likewise pressing back twice will dash your character backwards, dodging is done by using the R2 shoulder button. In addition to the standard strong attack the character can perform a lunging attack this is done by holding forward and pressing the O button.

When in combat if both players simultaneously attack each other for example if both players launch a projectile they will cancel each other out, projectiles can also be blocked by using a weak attack on the projectile.

During the course of the fight as each player is attacking and blocking a power meter for each character will continue to rise up to 100% the player will be able to unleash one of their special attacks, if the player ignores this and continues to fight the gauge will continue to rise up to 120%, when this happens a burning fist will appear on the screen above the power bar, this allows the character to unleash multiple special attacks until the burning fist disappears.

Lets take a close look at a characters move set, Asuka who is form the Chemistry club, Asuka like all characters has six main moves, the first is a shadow fist which can be used by tapping X or O, Slow Fireball is initiated by using down forward and X the weak attack button, while the fast fireball replaces X with O the strong attack button.

Asuka is able to lob exploding beakers either aiming them near or far this is done by pressing down back and X for a near lob or O for a far lob, these can both be done while in the air. The final standard attack for Asuka is the Uppercut, pressing down twice and either X or O, this attack will knock her opponent into the air before slamming them into the ground.

Asuka has two 120% special attacks both are variations on her standard attacks these are the Super Fireball which can be activated using down forward and square, the second is a super exploding beaker which is activated using down back and square.

Ryōran Private Girl's Academy is a famous all girls school in Japan, since the schools founding over thirty years ago the school has turned out many great and prominent figures in the artistic, literary and political worlds.

The schools founder Genichirō Shindō created the school to teach both literary and military arts, so each autumn a martial arts tournament. The school has various clubs that participate in this tournament, the tournament called the Club Rivalry Budget Contest Mega Fight.

Each of the clubs compete to be the best, with each club bringing their own unique fighting style and technique to the tournament, the clubs that have entered this years tournament are Chemistry, Biology, Rhythmic Gymnastics , Naginatado, Cheerleading, Volleyball, Wrestling, Softball, Tennis, Karate,

Only one critic review available for this game which comes from Honest Gamers saying the game aspired to be ranked alongside the likes of Street Fighter 2 which the reviews say that they have with Asuka 120% Special Burning Fest the review praising the games charming characters, smooth animation, classic music, and awesome gameplay.

The reviewer Zigfried concluded with So basically Asuka 120% Special Burning Fest rules... but its sequels rule even more! Asuka 120% Excellent adds an awesome quest mode, Asuka 120% Limited is on Saturn (everything is cooler on Saturn), and Asuka 120% Final kicks every other PlayStation fighting game's butt. If its superior sequels weren't so easy to find, I'd recommend Asuka 120% Special without a second thought.

But they are easy to find, so you may want to think twice before putting your money down. Mark my words: People who ignore my advice and buy this inexpensive, easy-to-grasp import are doomed to spend hours in ecstacy! Overall Zigfried rated Asuka 120% Special Burning Fest at a solid 8/10.

Moving on to the GameFAQs user data the game is currently sitting at a user rating of 3.55/5 from a total of 10 user ratings, with a majority of 5 users rating the game at a 4/5 another 3 users rated the game at a 3.5/5 while the remaining 2 users rated the game either a 3/5 or a 2/5.

The games difficulty up next with a total of 8 users rating this category, with a unanimous rating of the game having a just right difficulty level. On to the games lifespan where we find a total of 4 users rating this category, one user spent just 1 hours with the game while two more only spend around 4 hours with the game, the final user however clearly enjoy the game spending around 60 hours with it, averaging out this comes to a lifespan of around 17.3 hours.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who unsurprisingly don’t stock this Japanese only release, same games for Retrogames.co.uk. eStarland.com do have the game listed however at this time the game is currently out of stock, with a used copy priced usually between $15.98 and $31.95 which is between £11.96 and £23.90 in pounds. eStarland.com also offer a trade in for the game and are willing to pay up to $13 for a copy of the game.

Finally on to Amazon.com where we find a limited supply of the game, overall though with the exception of one acceptable condition copy the remainder are in good or better condition and as far as I can tell all are complete copies, with a very good condition copy available for $11.39 which is £8.52 in the UK or 9.67 euros. At the time of writing no like new or new copies of the game are on the market.

Written by

  

P J Gibbon