Lightning Legend is an Underrated PS1 3D Fighting Game

[@robbyrobot3303]

I love the combination of 2D and 3D graphics in the presentation

[@importgamingftw]

It's really a nice looking--and sounding--game.

[@Sarato]

Konami is the most beloved? Oh, right, this video was made in 2013. Never mind.

[@importgamingftw]

+Sarato Ha, it was night and day compared to now. For myself personally, though, I'll always love Konami for the great games they've put out over the decades.

[@RarefoilB]

Jimmy Hapa (Import Gaming FTW!) | You love the Konami that made MGS3 and the Castlevania GBA games, not pachinko Konami that has bad working conditions and hates money from its US fanbase.

[@DumDoDoor]

I loved Konami when they're better. I mean you can still love their earlier works, just don't support the current name because they're not the same. What really drives the games we loved then are the people involved.

[@dastanbastan9621]

The game looks good because, similarly to Mega Man Legends series, it completely dissed dynamic lighting in the scene and therefore bypassed shading and smoothing stages of the rendering process, which gave devs an opportunity to save limited PS1 resources on something else. Like more polygons in characters models and way more detailed than usual textures. It also uses flat backgrounds, meaning that most of artist's attention got characters which also was a quite effective way to increase the framerate in a 32-bit fighting game. It would looked way less clean if devs simply had enabled dynamic lighting, believe me...

[@pferreira1983]

They really put a lot of effort into the packaging didn't they? Amazing.

[@AvalancheReviews]

Another great review! I'm looking into getting a copy right now.

[@importgamingftw]

Thanks, again! If you get the game, I hope you like it. I'm not a big fighting game fan, but I really got into Lightning Legend. You may want to just pick up this game on your next visit to Japan, since I often saw it for 500 yen. You may even get lucky and find it for a buck, since PSOne games seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper.

[@AvalancheReviews]

I play an ass load of fighting games, but I've only recently gotten into 3d fighters. King of Fighters Maximum Impact for the PS2 brought me over. This one looks great, waiting for a complete copy to go up for less than 20$

[@importgamingftw]

Avalanche Reviews Cool, then you would probably like this one as well! I played Maximum Impact years ago and remember being frustrated at the final boss. Anyway, if you haven't checked them out yet, I would recommend Project Justice for the Dreamcast. Great 3D fighter with nice graphics, interesting characters, and lots of humor and personality. And Soul Calibur for Dreamcast (or Xbox Live Arcade) as well, since that was the game that got me back into 3D fighters after being jaded from the poor offerings of the N64 and frustration with the Tekken games on PSOne. Also, they're not quite standard fighting games, but Power Stone and Ehrgeiz are also worth noting as well.

[@AvalancheReviews]

Dude, I love project justice, damn hard to get a copy though. I have the Japanese versions of the earlier games in the series, rival schools united by fate.

[@importgamingftw]

Avalanche Reviews Yeah, it's funny that when Project Justice and many of Capcom's other DC fighting games debuted in the States, they were 20 dollar budget games, but many went on to become pretty rare/expensive. I used to own Project Justice, but like many of my better games, I was "encouraged" to part ways with it. ;) I would love to pick up the 2nd Rival Schools game, especially since it's not too expensive. Another game that you might want to pick up for cheap in Japan (like 105 yen cheap) is Tobal 2 for the PSOne. I might do a video on it sometime.

[@adityalokapratama8495]

This game was one of the best fighting games the PS1 has to offer. My childhood memories came flooding back watching this.

[@Bloodreign1]

Just picked this game up off Ebay. Looks like it requires a lot of work to get everything. And yes, this video was an influence to purchasing it.

[@importgamingftw]

Glad to hear it--and yeah, it took a little bit of time and effort to unlock all of the characters, but I think you can set rounds to 1 to make things go faster.

[@Prime-R9]

Recently discovered this game 🙂 got it instantly, fun game 🔥

[@importgamingftw]

It's quite good and overlooked--glad you liked it!

[@budgiecat9039]

Konami made one of the first fighters: Yie Ar King Fu for NES. Then they made Martial Champion (a Street Fighter clone for arcade) Fighting Bujutsu (a Virtua Fighter clone for arcade only), Kensei Sacred Fist (a 3D Tekken looking game for PS1) Poy Poy a 4 player party based fighter for PS1 Lightning Legend for PS1 Rakakuga Kids (a cartoonish 2.5D fighter for N64) Gasp! Fighters Nextdream (Deadly Arts for N64) Rave Master (a 4 player fighter based off the anime for Nintendo Gamecube) Sunday vs Magazine (an anime crossover fighter for PSP) Castlevania Judgment for Wii Rumble Roses and Rumble Roses XX for PS2/Xbox 360 and Nurarihyon no Mago - Rise of the Yokai Clan (a Smash Bros like fighting game for PS3 & 360 based on the anime) They also bought Hudson so they own the Bloody Roar series, the GBA Bobobo Bo Bobobo Smash bros like fighting game and the Smash Bros like Dreammix World TV Fighters thats on PS2/GC.

[@fazares]

U just forgot Battle Tryst for the 3DO M2 hardware though xD

[@budgiecat9039]

@@fazares I did I did

[@Bloodreign1]

Yie Ar Kung Fu was an arcade game first, the FC/NES got a watered down port.

[@XeCuTioNR]

I remember seeing this for sale from Tommo in one of my issues of Die Hard Gamefan. Along with a Ranma 1/2 fighter for the PSX and a few other random imports at the time. Good Review!

[@importgamingftw]

Was that the issue with Turok on the cover? I had that same issue, and that was where I first found out about this game as well, as there was a feature on this game as well as the PS1 Ranma game. I remember my mom seeing the article on Lightning Legend and remarking that it was something akin to "shameless smut," due to the well-endowed Misa character. XD Anyway, thanks for watching!

[@XeCuTioNR]

There was a few issues that had the Tommo ad so your issue might had it. GameFan help me find a good amount of games I would have not known about. One of those games was Motor Toon Grand Prix..particularly the 2nd game.

[@importgamingftw]

XeCuTioNR Oh yeah--the one I was talking about had actual articles from the GameFan staff about those games, so it was probably a different issue. Man, I miss that magazine, and it introduced me to a lot of games as well. Motor Toon Grand Prix is an awesome series for sure!

[@TheDaliPopka]

yay! another konami game we never got that looks great! :(

[@importgamingftw]

Hooray! And we're only scratching the surface with this game. :)

[@joesefjoestar7741]

Kinnikuman spotted

[@Dongled]

Wow, really impressed by the graphics on this one! Wish the story was in english but I may have to try to import this one someday. Oh, and, let's face it Jimmy, you like Misa for other reasons ;)

[@importgamingftw]

I snagged a duplicate recently, so if you're interested, I can send it your way on the cheap. It's a great game, and looking back on it didn't quite praise its art direction and graphics enough. I only like Misa for the same reasons you do, Mike. I'm a fan of women who are strong and have huge, bouncing...personalities.

[@Dongled]

Definitely interested! I guess we keep missing each other via Skype but shoot me a PM there and we'll discuss. I also wouldn't know the first thing regarding an easy way to play PS1 imports on my Thin PS2.

[@lukaskidd4621]

Jimmy, I'll buy that copy if Dongled didn't end up doing so, just drop me a line/lmk. Thanks.

[@Dongled]

+Lukas Kidd still working on it with Jimmy sorry...

[@andersdenkend]

Never heard about this one actually. Looks very good actually. Wasn't Bugi (aka Kensei - Sacred Fist) also from Konami? I enjoyed this one very much on my PSone.

[@importgamingftw]

Yeah, Lightning Legend is great, even better than I gave credit here, as I look back on it. I kind of want to redo this video... Yeah, Bugi is another Konami fighter, and I know it was perceived as a generally decent game. A really good Konami fighter from the era is Rakugakids for the N64--not sure if you've played it before, but I recommend it if you can find it for a good price.

[@FhargaZ]

No wonder i was not finding it, it is "Lightning" Legends 🙃

[@alfinemarda7017]

How to do special attack on this game ?

[@hfbirdie9970]

Cute little fighter, would you import Abalaburn in the future? It's another very little known fighter and it's very good

[@importgamingftw]

Ariel Claws Thanks for the suggestion. I've seen Abalaburn a few times here and there, but never bothered to really look into what kind of game it is. I think it's pretty cheap, so I'll try to pick it up. I'd love to do a "Japan-only Fighting Games" episode sometime. ;)

[@hfbirdie9970]

Jimmy Hapa (Import Gaming FTW!) Technically it was more like a beat em up for most of the game(the side fighting section are only for bosses) if you heard of Tobal no.1 it's pretty similar with tank controls but if you do have it let me know

[@lukaskidd4621]

Could you do Super Hero Operations? I know it's an RPG, but it looks fun and is very easy to find.

[@DubiousGamingOnline]

That giant bunny looks so crazy, its awesome how many different sizes there are to the fighters. Konami also published the teenage mutant ninja turtles tournament fighter games but i'm not sure if they developed them, they were all bad.

[@fazares]

except the snes one

[@fazares]

Ill buy it next month ^^

[@clue47]

reminds me of flying dragon 64

[@importgamingftw]

I can see that, in art direction and graphical style. Having played both, though, I would say Lightning Legend is the better game overall.

[@SisselSasha]

GASP!!! Man, boobs have their own physics in video games...

[@importgamingftw]

I blame Mai Shiranui. Oh, and all men who ever existed.

[@AreBeAre]

Not a bad game but I was very impressed with Zero Divide 2 the secret wish, give it a try.

[@importgamingftw]

+AreBeAre You know, I've always passed on that game...but I won't next time I see it. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@NeonSonOfXenon]

Jappone sounds like the Italian name for Japan, Giappone

[@samuraiyue]

Very well done graphics for the time O.O not even Battle Arena Toshinden had this graphics

[@importgamingftw]

+samuraiyue I was looking at this game again the other day, and yeah, I'm still thoroughly impressed by the graphics. I wish I had gushed over them a bit more in this video. XP

[@samuraiyue]

You sold it? maybe you can atalk aboutit as a cameo with other fighting game ovo