0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Asuka 120% Excellent: Burning Festival

Asuka 120% Excellent: Burning Festival is the fifth entry in Asuka 120% Burning Fest series of 2D fighting games from Fill In Café the game was published by usual publisher FamilySoft. Not to be confused with the 1994 release of the same named, which was released on the Fujitsu FM Towns, the game is in fact a revision of the 1996 released Asuka 120% Special Burning Fest.

The game released exclusively in Japan on the 9th of May 1999 for the Playstation, the game would receive later re releases on the PSP and Playstation 3 with the game releasing on both systems on the 9th of February 2011, again these releases like the original was in Japan only.

The core mechanics of the fighting remains unchanged from the 1996 release, but overall it is a much more meatier game the major inclusion in the game is a type of Adventure mode in the main story. The game now allows the player to explore the school campus between fights, with the player character able to talk to other students as well as getting into fights.

The usual versus mode returns for either 1p v 2p with each player choosing between the eleven available fighters, the stage selection for the fight is determined by which character has been chosen first. You can play against the computer in the mode again the stage is chose by which character was chosen first.

Vs Mode also has a Watch Mode with the player able to choose two out of the available characters with both being controlled by the computer, again like the previous two sub modes the stage is chosen by which character was selected first.

The final option in this mode is Results this stores the match statistics for each character, showing their number of wins and losses, the total number of fights they have had, their largest rush combo and the highest ranking mode score, the list only shows scores In 1p v 2p mode with characters having to fight a minimum of 5 times before wins/losses are stored

Ranked Mode like other fighting games has your chosen character pit themselves against usually a selection of fighters with the aim to defeat them all. In the games of Asuka 120% Excellent Burning Fest, you will fight your way through the entire roster finishing in a fight against your chosen character.

During the course of Ranked mode the game will record your score based on the amount of damage you inflict through the course of the eleven fights, combo attacks will be rewarded with additional points, after your player character has won a fight 1/3 of your health is restored upon defeat the ranked mode automatically ends with your score recorded by the game.

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.

The main story of the game is pretty much identical as the 1996 release with 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, and Karate, with all 10 competitors from the previous game returning as well as the previously secret character Shinobu.

Only one critic review which comes from GameSpot who rated the game 7.1/10, with their conclusion saying. The game will be an interesting diversion for American hardcore fighting game fans, both those with just a passing interest in the genre won’t understand why anyone would play a game this pathetic looking (a bit harsh), concluding with Asuka 120% Excellent will hold your attention for a few days but will get old quickly.

On to site user ratings next with IGN up first with three users rating this game at an average 7.5/10, moving over to GameFAQs we find a total of eleven users have rated this game with an average rating of 3.59/5 and rates fractionally higher than its predecessor.

Breaking down that average rating we have a wide spread of ratings from those eleven users with two of them giving the game the maximum 5/5 another user gave the game a very good 4.5/5 while two more awarded the game a good 4/5, while two more gave the game a solid 3.5/5.

The remaining four user rating are split between a single user rating of 3/5 two users considered the game to be just average with their 2/5/5 while the remaining user found the game to be below average with a 2/5 score. Moving on next to the games diffuculty.

Where we find eight users rating this category with a clear majority of 87.5% of them finding the game to have just the right difficulty level, while the remaining 12.5% found the game on the easy side overall the game rates as having just the right difficulty level.

Finally on to the games lifespan where we find just three users rating this category with an even spit between the three, with the first spending less than an hour with the game. The second user spent around an hour with the game, while the final user clearly enjoyed their time with the game clocking in around 80 hours with the game.

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 and eStarland.com, while the latter does list entries in this series it currently does not have this game listed.

Moving on to Amazon.com where we find a small selection of copies available, the first few copies are in acceptable condition and priced around the $12 mark no mention of completeness of these copies, a good quality copy can be picked up for $13.64 which is £10.21 in the UK this copy also comes with free shipping, as does a very good quality copy priced at $13.81.

Prices for a good or very good condition copy of this game are currently peaking around the $20 mark at the time of writing this there are no like new or new copies of the game on the market.

Written by

P J Gibbon