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"Take that" , "no you take that" . This can only be the sounds of Namco and Sega's constant arcade feud. Each trying to out do the other, this struggle has resulted in some of the best arcade and console games in recent memory. For a while Namco in my opinion had an edge up with the incredible Soul Edge on Playstation. A 3D weapon fighter with unfortunately for Saturn owners was way better than Fighters MegaMix, especially in one player mode. Well Sega isn't one to stay down for long, so along came Last Bronx. Well, is it better than Soul Edge ? Let's find out.

In terms of graphics of course the Saturn has trouble competing with the Playstation, but Last Bronx succeeds in another respect. While Soul Edge had awesome lighting effects, Last Bronx has the more frightening weapon blurs. Also the character in Soul Edge although possessing more polygons per character where exceptionally grainy in comparison to the super smooth characters in Last Bronx. In terms of backgrounds each game has its strength Last Bronx has ceilings and awesome parallax, while Soul Edge has 3D scenery. The problem is in both games the scenery is ultra dull with absolutely nothing interesting going on, unlike 2D fighters like K.O.F. 96 or SFA2. Another point is the intros Soul Edge has the king of rendered intros along with a song. So in retaliation Last Bronx has the king of anime intros with an even better song. This may seem insignificant but an intro if it is good (ala Road Rash) can get you really psyched about playing the game.

As far as music goes unfortunately Soul Edge wins hands down with its inspiring classical overtures. While Last Bronx is loaded with the usual Japanese rock/pop tunes. This brings up a good point about music in games. A great example of this I Way of the Warrior for 3DO, a lame game taken to awesome levels by its White Zombie sound track. So for last Bronx I hit the mute button and turn on the Metallica, White Zombie, or AC-DC and suddenly every bone breaking hit is all the more pleasurable. So with the right musical CDs on hand Last Bronx's can actually have a great soundtrack.

Now the all important gameplay section. Despite having a heavy Virtua Fighter influence the game is very different. Although the motions and button sequences are the same this game unlike Fighting Vipers is not only original but on par with Virtua Fighter. Instead of the strategy and timing (and very cool because of this) based VF this game focuses on egression, juggles and mercilessness. This is not a bad thing as many players are more quickly pick up this game and enjoy it. Also the brutal fights can get incredibly intense. The only annoying thing is the ability to block after the first hit of a combo, or stop a combo in the middle. This results in large scale throw wars the can easily frustrate some players. Now in comparison to Soul Edge the game is much better. With quick, intense, fair and surprisingly some what strategic fights Last Bronx is much more interesting than the ultra (uuuuultra uuuuultra) combos and special move wars contained in Soul Edge. The only place that Soul Edge whups up on Last Bronx is in the one player mode. Soul Edge's rpg mode in which you faces different challenges to win new weapon made the game last for a long time while Last Bronx only has the token survival and time attack mode (yawn...) .

In my opinion Soul Edge would receive a 93% and Last Bronx would get a 95%. Why you may ask, because in a nutshell Last Bronx though devoid of incredible longevity is much more fun to play especially in the two player mode, and is so much more of an accomplishment for the Saturn in producing a game that in my opinion can graphicly spar with the Playstation. Also on a personal note the anime sceens and whole gang motif ended up being much cooler than the whole 3D medieval thing. Perhaps the best way to end this review is with this : "In Soul Edge you get to combat medievally , but Last Bronx will let you get medieval on somebody in combat. "

P.S. The second disk is totally useless because all it is a training mode that requires a high level comprehension of Japanese, but if you had that you could just read the manual. The only real use is if you really like the music it is like getting a free copy of the soundtrack because it has all the tracks from the first disk and has no real game value.