D-Xhird (pronounced Dee Third) is the latest Japanese fighting game from Takara, the company that brought us the Battle Arena Toshinden series. Now it was painfully obvious that the Saturn version of Toshinden 2 (titled Toshinden URA) was an ugly game at best. So why would Takara bring out another horrible 3-D fighter on the Saturn? No one really knows. But I do know this: Don't even think about buying this game. It is, by far, the worst fighter I have ever played.

What makes D-Xhird so bad? Well, let's see...the graphics are bad. The sound is bad. The gameplay is really bad. There are 14 characters represented, but they are all amazingly forgettable. Even the characters' names (Boy, Karen) are laughably bad. Special moves? Sure, D-Xhird's got them, but I wouldn't exactly call them special. The projectiles are really pixelated, to the point where some of them look like big, red Christmas trees. But that's not all. The animation is really jerky, making the game unplayable. The backgrounds are totally flat, putting them in the same, dull boat as the characters.

The characters in D-Xhird move like they're really tired. They all carry some silly, oversized weapon, like a sword or scythe. The only time the characters move with any sense of purpose is during a combo. The combo system - big surprise here - is horrendously bad. Combos can be unleashed simply by tapping the weak slash button a few times, toss in a hard slash or two, then go back to the weak slash. Riveting.

The sound in D-Xhird must have been made by Mrs. Johnson's third grade class or something, because the effects are completely worthless. When someone gets hit, it sounds like a water bottle being dropped on the ground. Plus, nearly every second of play is plagued by the annoying sound of weapons clashing. It pains me just to think about it.

I really love fighting games, and it hurts me to see a game this bad make it to store shelves, even if it's just in Japan. How could a company release a game like D-Xhird with a clear conscience? They had to know that the game they were working on was devoid of value. Saturn owners waiting for another good 3-D fighting game can just keep on waiting. This one isn't worth the CD it's burned on.