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94-489: Soul Edge is a 3D fighting game and was the second such game to be based on weapons, following Battle Arena Toshinden (itself preceded by the 2D Samurai Showdown series). The plot centers upon the eponymous sword, rumored to offer unlimited power to anyone who can find and wield it, leading to nine warriors attempting to pursue the tenth who is rumored to have the sword. The game was a commercial and critical success, with praise given to graphics, gameplay and characters. It

188-403: A 3D environment, and features a sidestep maneuver which is credited for taking the genre into "true 3D." Toy giant Takara produced the game during a six month period in 1994 as their first original video game, together with new developer Tamsoft, both of whom had worked on porting Samurai Showdown and other SNK fighters to consoles. Initially made to be a PlayStation exclusive, the game

282-425: A North American Neo Geo would display white sweat, but the same cartridge, when plugged into a Japanese Neo Geo, would run the uncensored game with blood. Neo Geo console modifications would enable users to set the system's region to Japan, or play in arcade mode, either of which would cause the game to be played with all of the blood and death animations intact, even on a North American/PAL console. In addition to

376-502: A Sega Saturn specific version, subtitled U.R.A . It builds on the original and is often considered to be the series's best. This was later followed by Battle Arena Toshinden 3 in 1996, and Toshinden 4 (Subaru) in 1999 which never had an American release. release An intended prequel named Toshinden Next was given anticipatory promotion in a 1997 issue of the Japanese video game magazine Dengeki PlayStation . This game however

470-512: A combination of veteran SNK programmers and former Capcom employees. The idea to spell the English title "Shodown" rather than "Showdown" came from SNK's U.S. distributor: They felt the Japanese title "Samurai Spirits" did not adequately explain the game, and felt the spelling could be a play on the word shogun, based on the lingering popularity of the Shogun miniseries. The Neo Geo AES version of

564-517: A desperation attack that can only be used when the player has low energy (around 10% or less). The player can move around the arenas using the L/R shoulder buttons, which can be used to dodge projectile attacks or get away from a dangerous spot. Players move using the directional pad. Holding the backward directional button allows the player to block basic attacks and reduces most of the damage from opponents' special moves. Players can also run by quickly tapping

658-557: A fixed version, labeled Soul Edge Ver. II. Hwang (initially a palette swap of Mitsurugi for the Korean version of the game) was introduced to Japanese players with a new move list, Cervantes became playable, Guard Impacts and Air Combos were implemented, all the characters received upgraded move lists, and new stages were added. The overseas PlayStation version was renamed Soul Blade to avoid potential complications due to EDGE Games ' earlier "EDGE" trademark. On December 20, 1996, Soul Edge

752-420: A global audience, series-creator and director Yasushi Adachi decided that a fighting game with distinctly Japanese characters, such as samurai and ninjas, would do better. The only hold-over from the original concept was Genan Shiranui, the hunchbacked claw-handed creature who was inspired by Adachi's fascination with Tim Burton 's Edward Scissorhands . The programming team for Samurai Shodown consisted of

846-474: A monthly series by Takeshi Takibayashi on Monthly Shōnen Ace (with elements from Toshinden 2 ), another comic published by Softbank Creative, and one by Kozumi Shiita published by Enix . Drama CDs serving as sequels to the game were released named Before Stage , the first volume of which was released in March 1996, using the original Japanese voice cast. This would be followed by an anime OVA adaptation of

940-436: A much more powerful experience to play than a typical 2D fighter. However, they concluded that the game loses "by a hair" when compared to its rival, Virtua Fighter . On the other hand, Hyper magazine rated Toshinden higher than Virtua Fighter . The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a positive review, chiefly praising the character design, graphics, and special moves. Battle Arena Toshinden

1034-520: A mysterious organization known only as the Secret Society, believed to be related to a world leading multinational megaconglomerate, the Gerard Foundation, the Secret Society has picked eight worthy challengers from around the world to pit against each other for the chance at a prize for fortune, fame, and glory. Initial playable characters are: Unlockable characters: Battle Arena Toshinden

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1128-498: A ring out by themselves upon performing a certain special attack, as long as they are near the edge of the arena. Soul Edge ' s events take place in the year 1583. The game tells the tale of warriors searching for the ultimate sword, "Soul Edge". It has been given many names throughout history, such as "The Sword of Salvation", "The Sword of Heroes", and "The Ultimate Sword", among others. Many strong warriors searched for years, but very few actually found it. The sword, currently in

1222-592: A segment from Toccata and Fugue in D minor . The original game's music was also re-arranged for the game's global PlayStation release in September 1995. In Japan, Battle Arena Toshinden sold 696,851 units for the PlayStation. Upon the PlayStation's launch in the United States, Toshinden sold out in its first week on sale. The game, as well as Ridge Racer , sold at a nearly one-to-one ratio per hardware system in

1316-458: A tie between Ukyo Tachibana , Galford , and Poppy at No. 11, Charlotte at No. 16 (tied with Duck King from Fatal Fury Special ), Kuroko at No. 18, Tam Tam and Hanzo Hattori tied for No. 22, Gen-an Shiranui at No. 29, and Wan-Fu tied at No. 45 with five other characters. Samurai Shodown won multiple awards from Electronic Gaming Monthly in their 1993 video game awards, including Best Neo-Geo Game, Best Fighting Game, and Game of

1410-402: Is "still decent enough, but ... lacks the speed and depth of its more illustrious successors". A reviewer for Next Generation said that the visuals of the Japanese release were not up to par with those of the PlayStation version, and advised Saturn owners to wait for the U.S. release in hopes that Sega of America would fix the graphical shortcomings. GamePro' s Tommy Glide commented that there

1504-504: Is a fighting game developed and published by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. Released in 1993, it is the first installment in the Samurai Shodown series. In contrast to other fighting games at the time, which were set in modern times and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown is set in feudal-era Japan (similar to Kaneko 's Shogun Warriors which

1598-403: Is a benevolent sword, crave its support. Others, knowing of its evil nature, seek its destruction. Nothing is known for certain about the sword, except for one thing: it brings misfortune to those seeking it. What many do not know is that the sword's power is evil, feeding upon the souls of not only its victims but its wielder as well. Soul Edge was developed as an experiment by Namco to explore

1692-471: Is expanded in future Soul series games. The game uses the ring out system, which is a forcible maneuver that ejects the opponent from the arena and gains an automatic victory for the round. To achieve a ring out, a character must be knocked outside the ring by an enemy (the player cannot accidentally or deliberately get a ring out by hopping out of the ring). The only exception to this rule is Cervantes and Inferno (known in this game as SoulEdge), who can get

1786-557: Is not enough additional content in the Saturn version and the graphics do not look as smooth as the PlayStation version's, assessing it as overall "a poor conversion". Maximum ' s Rich Leadbetter stated that it fails to recreate the graphical effects of the PlayStation original, which he opined were the only saving grace of an extremely dull game. He held the additional character and the PAL conversion's lack of borders to be its only advantages over

1880-420: Is noticeable, but acceptable." He gave it three out of five stars. GamePro praised the general gameplay but criticized the quality of the conversion, complaining that the scaling is not as smooth as the arcade version, the animations are slower, the load times are interminably long, and the gameplay is crippled by a poor control configuration, which the player is not given the option to change. GamePro named

1974-1027: Is still the slight control delay, but character movement is still fluid and seamless, and the trailing slashes of light in the wake of weapon movement is as gorgeous as ever." The PlayStation conversion, Soul Blade , was a bestseller in the UK. Due to its popularity, the game has been re-released as part of the PlayStation Greatest Hits , the PlayStation Platinum range, and the PlayStation The Best series. The PlayStation game received very positive reviews. It holds aggregated scores of 91% on GameRankings and 89/100 on Metacritic , including high ratings by IGN ("extremely fun, and has just enough new elements to make it worth playing multiple times"), and GameSpot ("a great fighting game with its share of flaws"). Next Generation praised it for "filling in all

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2068-682: The PlayStation Network was released as a downloadable PlayStation game on November 22, 2016 in Japan. The game was also re-released in 2018 on the PlayStation Classic . Specifically it is the PAL version which runs slower at 50hz. The game had different and distinct box art for every release and region. The original release in Japan came with an outer paper box depicting many of the characters in anime, illustrated by Tsukasa Kotobuki who also did

2162-646: The Takara -published Super NES , Sega Genesis , Game Boy and Game Gear versions in 1994. It has since been re-released for various modern platforms as part of the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (2008), Samurai Shodown Anthology (2008) and Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection (2020) compilations, the ACA Neo Geo series, and on the Wii Virtual Console . The game is set in the late 18th century, and all

2256-541: The Toshinden manga art. The base cover itself had the Toshinden logo against a blue background with text in English boasting its "90,000 polygons per second". On the other hand, the American cover featured Eiji and Mondo in battle, albeit looking significantly different than their actual looks. The PAL version box art was drawn by Paul Kidby and depicts a shield-like symbol with a sword and dragon; Kidby had stated that he

2350-427: The full motion video intro and the new story mode. They awarded it "Best Intro" in their 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide . A reviewer for GamePro stated: "Bow down to the new king of fighters, and the first gotta-play-it game of the year." In 1997, PSM named Soul Edge as the fourth top game on the PlayStation, and Electronic Gaming Monthly listed the PlayStation version as a runner-up for "Fighting Game of

2444-402: The texture-mapped polygon graphics, original fighters, myriad moves, unique style of play, and the sidestep move, commenting that "the only problem with this slick defensive move is that from some viewing angles, the fighters obstruct the front of the screen, making it impossible to see where a move is coming from". Their review of the later U.S. release was also generally positive; they praised

2538-566: The Japanese release; a sword and burning fire in the North American release; and Eiri, Duke, Rungo and Fo on the PAL cover. Background music was composed by Yasuhiro Nakano and Makoto Mukai. A soundtrack CD featuring arranged versions by the original composers, Toh Shin Den Retake & Remix , was released by Sony Records in April 1995. Bach is credited on Sho's theme track as it contains

2632-632: The Neo Geo system, the AES, Samurai Shodown was ported to multiple other platforms, including the Super NES , Game Boy , Mega Drive/Genesis , Game Gear , Sega CD , Sega Saturn , 3DO , FM Towns , PlayStation and PlayStation 2 . All of the cartridge versions were handled by Takara , while Crystal Dynamics ported the 3DO version, and Funcom handled the Sega CD port. The Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega CD versions omit

2726-440: The PlayStation version. During the 200th issue leadup of Electronic Gaming Monthly in 2005, they ranked Battle Arena Toshinden as their single most overrated game. They explained that it "was 3D, it was flashy-- Battle Arena Toshinden was exciting and new. But later Namco showed us what really could be done with 3D fighting on the PlayStation ( Tekken , Soul Blade ). (...) But is it actually good? Oh God, no". Following

2820-529: The Saturn release had "disappointing sales" in Japan, which they attributed to the strong association of the game with the PlayStation (due to the use of the character Ellis in Japanese ads for the PlayStation) and its weak use of the Saturn hardware when compared to Virtua Fighter 2 . Battle Arena Toshinden Remix for the Saturn sold 84,231 units in Japan, bringing combined sales of the PlayStation and Saturn versions to at least 1,313,806 units sold in Japan and

2914-484: The Sega CD port the best Sega CD game at the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show . Their eventual review, however, was largely mixed. They criticized the slowdown, lack of scaling, frequent load times, and low-quality reproduction of the arcade version's sounds, and added that the fact that Samurai Shodown was by then a three-year-old game makes the Sega CD version's faults stand out more. Electronic Gaming Monthly scored it 30 out of 40 and declared it "the best conversion of

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3008-696: The Seventh Annual Gamest Grand Prize, as well as being the first to win in the category of Best Fighting Game ( Street Fighter II Dash , the previous Game of the Year, won as Best Action Game). Samurai Shodown also placed first in Best VGM, Best Album and Best Direction, and second place in Best Graphics. In the Best Characters list, Nakoruru placed No. 1, Haohmaru at No. 6, Jubei Yagyu at No. 8,

3102-587: The Super NES version a 37 out of 50, commenting that despite the lack of scaling, it is still a very good port. GamePro considered the Genesis version to be superior to the Super NES version, citing the Genesis version's better scale (zoomed-in versus the zoomed-out graphics of the Super NES version) and the awkward control configuration on the Super NES version. They held the Game Boy version to be surprisingly good given

3196-491: The United States by the end of 1995. The game went on to sell 532,724 units for the PlayStation in the United States, including 327,412 standalone copies and 205,312 bundled copies. Battle Arena Toshinden was included in the Greatest Hits range for having sold more than 150,000 units in the United States. The PlayStation version sold a total of 1,229,575 units in Japan and the United States. According to Next Generation ,

3290-412: The United States. Battle Arena Toshinden was critically acclaimed when released. Electric Playground gave the game a perfect score of 10 out of 10 in 1995. On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the PlayStation version of the game a 30 out of 40, and gave it first a 9 out of 10 and later a 10 out of 10 in their Reader Cross Review. In an early 1995 interview, when asked which PlayStation game he

3384-565: The Year" (behind Street Fighter Collection ) and "Best Music" (behind PaRappa the Rapper ). PSU listed this game as the sixth "PSone classic" most deserving to be remade for the PlayStation 3 in 2011. That same year, Complex ranked Soul Edge as the 19th best fighting game of all time. The PlayStation version's opening sequence won the SIGGRAPH '97 award for the best game video of 1996. It

3478-552: The Year. It was awarded "Game of the Year" at the April 1994 European Computer Trade Show (ECTS). In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly listed the Neo Geo AES version as number 99 on their "100 Best Games of All Time", citing the solid fighting engine, realistic use of blood, and easy to execute moves. Famicom Tsūshin gave the Super Famicom version an 8 out of 10 in their Reader Cross Review. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave

3572-422: The advantage. Soul Edge uses an optional offensive block maneuver called the "Guard Impact" that allows players to intercept incoming attacks and push them back, resulting in a momentary opportunity for a free counterattack. Opponents, however, are also able to return a Guard Impact after receiving a Guard Impact, allowing for stalemate clashes until one opponent missed the subsequent timing. This gameplay feature

3666-422: The arcade intro sequence, although the voice accompanying the text is missing, the character artwork shown after beating an opponent is present, as are the arcade endings. The announcer, like the Sega CD version, says the names of the characters before a fight and after winning a fight. The SNES version has no blood, being replaced by sweat. An exclusive mode, count down, is included in this port. Players can also use

3760-480: The arcade introduction, instead of displaying the arcade version's text with no background graphics or speech. Also, the character artwork shown after beating an opponent is missing, and portions of some characters' endings are missing. The announcer no longer says the names of the characters before a fight or after winning a fight. The Sega CD version retains the arcade introduction and is only missing portions of some characters' endings. The Sega CD version also includes

3854-558: The attacks that were removed or altered in the Mega Drive/Genesis version, and the music is the same as the arcade version. The SNES version has the character line-up intact but has the game zoomed out, which makes the character sprites smaller compared to the other ports. This version has all of the stages from the arcade version, and they are less restricted compared to the Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega CD ports. This version also supports Dolby Surround sound. The SNES version includes

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3948-427: The blanks with great gameplay, superb characters, unique graphics, and combines them into one solid package." They later commended the PlayStation port for retaining all the characters, levels, graphics, and gameplay from the arcade version. GameFan called it "without a doubt the most stunning graphical fighting feast ever to grace any console." The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly particularly applauded

4042-423: The block button, and a combat system based on the three attack buttons: horizontal attack, vertical attack, and kick. Character moves retain a feel of Namco's Tekken series. Each character has one or two slow but unblockable attacks. Each character is also capable of performing one or two "Critical Edge" attacks, consisting of a long series of linked hits, usually ending in a strong high attack. These moves require

4136-572: The boss, while the other mode is for a single battle against an opponent chosen by the player. However the enhanced Remix version on Sega Saturn does have a story mode. Throughout the criminal underworld, announcements of a famed underworld tournament reemerging after a long hiatus has made word throughout the globe. Known as the Battle Arena Toshinden, this underworld tournament is a weapons fighting tournament broadcast as bloodsport entertainment for an elite and interested audience. Hosted by

4230-420: The character Earthquake and his stage. Both versions lack the camera zoom, and the camera is locked in a close zoom. This gives better detail to the characters, but the fighting area is smaller. In addition, some attacks were altered or removed entirely from the Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game. The final boss is playable in the two-player mode without the use of a code. The Mega Drive/Genesis version lacks

4324-538: The character Sofia sounding less suggestive and Ellis sounding older than in the original Japanese version. At E3 1995 before the American PlayStation release, Battle Arena Toshinden was promoted as a "Saturn killer" to be a rival to the Sega Saturn . After Polygon Man was dropped, Sony Computer Entertainment America used the Toshinden character Sofia as a mascot. Despite this, Takara later announced that

4418-506: The characters wield weapons. The game uses music from the time period, with sounds of traditional Japanese instruments, such as the shakuhachi and shamisen . A refined version of the camera zoom first found in Art of Fighting is used in Samurai Shodown . The game includes the portrayal of blood. The game became renowned for its fast pace. Focusing more on quick, powerful strikes than combos,

4512-477: The end of May 1994 and there were 25 people working on it by the end of development. According to Takara executives, about 1,000 polygons were used for each character. The inspiration of some of the characters came from the Japanese tradition of bushido ; Takara had already published SNK titles including Samurai Showdown based on similar themes. Toshinden 's 3D environment naturally drew comparisons with Virtua Fighter . In an interview, Takara boasted that

4606-453: The fact that the graphics were not improved from the PlayStation version, and felt that the game was overshadowed by the recent release of Battle Arena Toshinden 2 . While Rob Allsetter of Sega Saturn Magazine greatly praised the visuals of the game and judged the button configuration to be superior to that of the PlayStation version, he criticized the "slow" gameplay and the limited variety of moves, concluding that Battle Arena Toshinden

4700-465: The fatal attacks were removed. The 3DO version was first released in 1994 in North America, then in Japan and Europe the following year, with all blood and fatality graphics intact. As a result, some retailers didn't carry this edition of the game. The censoring of the Neo Geo console version was unusual in that it was tied to the specific system. For instance, a North American cartridge running on

4794-413: The final boss in two-player mode with a secret code. The Game Boy version includes all the characters, stages, and most of the special moves, but has no combos, fatalities, or voices. All the music tracks are included, albeit in scaled-down form. The Game Gear port offered only 9 fighting characters to choose from (Gen-An, Galford, Haohmaru, Ukyo, Charlotte, Nakoruru, Jubei, Hanzo, and Kyoshiro), whilst

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4888-493: The final boss of the game. Other PlayStation-specific features include: Versions labeled Soul Blade came out in 1997. In the North American version, clothes were added to Sophitia in the opening cutscene where she would have been nude. In the European version, Li Long's pair of nunchaku were changed to a three-section staff, since BBFC guidelines at the time banned the depiction of nunchaku. Two soundtrack CDs were released for

4982-438: The form of a twin pair of long swords, appeared mysteriously in an auction. It was taken by the dreaded pirate Cervantes de Leon and nothing is known of his fate thereafter. Presently, nine warriors from around the world ( Hwang , Li Long , Mitsurugi , Rock , Seong Mi-na , Siegfried , Sophitia , Taki , and Voldo ) search for the sword for different reasons. Some desire its power, others want revenge. Some, believing that it

5076-519: The forward directional button. As with other games of the genre, the player wins by depleting the opposing players health, having more health than their opponent if the time runs out, or knocking their opponent out of the non-walled arena. Unlike many fighting games of the time, it was possible for a player character to accidentally fall off the arena with a miss-timed run or special move, resulting in some unique tactics. The main single-player mode only consists of battles against all characters followed by

5170-403: The full game to enable the use of them. Following the success of Battle Arena Toshinden , Takara produced a number of follow-ups (and spin-offs, such as the chibi fighter Nitoshinden ) although with limited success. Later in 1995, Battle Arena Toshinden 2 was released. Unlike the original, this sequel was originally released on arcades, by Capcom , before consoles, and again had

5264-412: The game as good overall, they advised gamers to instead hold out for the PlayStation port of Tekken , which they felt to be far superior in every respect. Dragon gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. Later reviews from 1996 onwards, for later ports as well as retrospective reviews of the PlayStation version, have been generally mixed. In 1996, IGN gave the game a score of 7 out of 10, by which time it

5358-460: The game had more realistic three-dimensionality: Virtua Fighter uses 3D characters, but the fights and attacks take place on one plane, in the same direct line. In contrast, Toh Shin Den uses all the dimensions of the screen (X, Y, and Z), and attacks can be made to the side or behind the enemy. It is also possible to circle the opponent. The November 1994 issue of Japanese magazine Game Blast noted that

5452-541: The game is to be ported by Nextech / Sega to the Sega Saturn as Toh Shin Den S in Japan and as Battle Arena Toshinden Remix internationally. A few new features were added, including an exclusive new character named Cupido and a story mode with dialog and voice acting (also dubbed in English), which enables the player to learn a few details about the characters' story backgrounds and the reasons of why they had entered into

5546-482: The game that made the Neo Geo the system of choice for fighting games." They particularly praised the accurate graphics, short load times, and ease of pulling off special moves. In 2018, Complex rated Samurai Shodown 40th on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time." They praised the graphics, game controls and saying everything is on point in the game. In 1995, Flux magazine listed Samurai Shodown 80th in their "Top 100 Video Games." In 1996, Super Play named

5640-420: The game was 30% completed, although the game was completed shortly before the console's domestic debut on December 3, 1994 with a release on January 1, 1995. Magazines just before the time of its release also named it Hyper Solid Toshinden . In September 1995 the game was released in North American and PAL regions as a launch title . This version has slightly altered music and re-done the English voices, with

5734-570: The game was released for the Wii Virtual Console on October 16, 2007, in Japan; May 30, 2008, in Europe; and June 16, 2008, in North America. However, before the Virtual Console version was released in North America, the game was released as part of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 . Mostly due to the negative publicity surrounding the use of violence in video games, the game was edited when it

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5828-445: The game's release on PlayStation Classic in 2018, Jamie O'Neill was critical of "slow, unresponsive controls for moves like Special Attacks" and the lack of any story mode, but praised the "energetic" soundtrack and the innovative ability of circling opponents. From the beginning there was a manga tie-in with characters drawn by Tsukasa Kotobuki , alongside a number of other anthology comics in Japan, including from Hobby Japan ,

5922-435: The game: Soul Edge Original Soundtrack - Khan Super Session and Super Battle Sound Attack Soul Edge . In Japan, Game Machine listed Soul Edge on their March 15, 1996 issue as being the second most-successful arcade game of the month. On the annual 1996 Gamest chart, Soul Edge was the 20th highest-grossing arcade game in Japan that year. The arcade game was more successful in the United States, where it became one of

6016-433: The graphics, stage design, playability, and dynamic camera, but criticized the game for being simplistic and easy, remarking that "this game relies more on flash than fighting". They summarized the game as "an enjoyable fight". Next Generation also reviewed the game prior to the PlayStation's U.S. launch. They commented that while the gameplay lacks originality and good reaction speed, the 3D aesthetics and graphics make it

6110-406: The hardware, but ultimately unsatisfying, and concluded that hardcore fans should pass on even the Genesis version in favor of the upcoming 3DO and Sega CD versions. Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "fans of the arcade game won't be disappointed with this solid translation, complete with blood and all the varied endings of

6204-455: The input of a special combination of two parts: they are activated by pressing all three attack buttons together, and if it connects, the player has the chance of extending the combo with a character-specific sequence, which must be input during the attack. This attack depletes one-third of the Weapon Gauge when used. The Weapon Gauge is a life bar for the character's equipped weapon. Each time

6298-566: The most-popular arcade software kit for four months in 1993, from August to October and then again in December. Play Meter listed it as America's third most-popular arcade game in October 1993. It went on to be one of America's top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1994 . In the February 1994 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan, Samurai Shodown was awarded Best Game of 1993 in

6392-473: The original (SNK arcades) version offered 12. Unlike most early home versions of the game, the 3DO version includes the camera zoom, as well as all the characters, special moves, and fatalities. In Japan, Game Machine listed Samurai Spirits on their August 15, 1993, issue as being the most-popular table arcade game at the time. It went on to be Japan's sixth highest-grossing arcade game of 1993 . In North America, RePlay reported Samurai Shodown to be

6486-433: The original." Famicom Tsūshin scored the 3DO version of the game a 25 out of 40. Electronic Gaming Monthly scored the 3DO version 38 out of 50, calling it "A very faithful home version of the arcade fighter". A reviewer for Next Generation remarked that "The 3DO conversion is nearly identical to the arcade version, much more faithful than the previous SNES, Genesis, and Sega CD versions. The load time between rounds

6580-770: The outcome. Shiro Tokisada Amakusa , slain in Japan of 1638 by the forces of the Tokugawa Shogunate for his part in the Shimabara Rebellion , was resurrected in 1787 as an akuma from making a deal with the dark god Ambrosia by bringing the evil entity into the world by using the Palenke stone and its energy. Driven by hatred for the Shogunate and having a nihilistic streak towards the world, he unleashes his dark powers to bring chaos to all of existence in 1788. A variety of warriors—some historic, some fictional—converge upon

6674-410: The player blocks an attack, the bar depletes. If the bar is totally emptied, the weapon is lost and the character is forced to fight unarmed. The unarmed move-lists are the same for every character. Another feature that was removed from Soulcalibur ' s engine is a rock paper scissors situation when two character strike at the same time, locking their weapons; those who press the correct button have

6768-461: The possibilities of a weapon-based fighting game; Samurai Showdown was one of the first of this type, while Battle Arena Toshinden was the first in 3D. Soul Edge was the first motion capture based video game created by using passive optical system markers. Soul Edge was initially released in arcades in 1995. A Gamest Mook series guide book (GMC-30) was published by Shinseisha on April 30, 1996. A couple of months later, Namco released

6862-452: The same title , released in 1996 and also dubbed in English. Additionally, shortly after the game release came an official strategy guide published by Tokuma Shoten named Perfect Fighting Book . This included a bonus disc for PlayStation, Toshinden Otanoshimi-Ban (meaning Toshinden "fun edition"), to watch a round of CPU vs CPU combat and another mode featuring Eiji and Ellis with big heads or in black outfits. The disc can be swapped with

6956-416: The slow motion was added to intensify the damage dealt from hard hits. During a match, a referee holds flags representing each player (Player 1 is white; Player 2 is red). When a player lands a successful hit, the referee lifts the corresponding flag, indicating who dealt the blow. A delivery man occasionally appears in the background and throws items such as bombs or health-restoring chicken, which can change

7050-484: The source of the chaos, each driven by their own reasons. Non playable characters that appear are Kuroko; a man dressed in all black who judges each match during the game and Hikyaku; a delivery man working for Amakusa who disrupts fights. Samurai Shodown evolved from what was originally planned to be a traditional side-scrolling beat 'em up , featuring monsters as the dark heroes (similar to Data East 's Night Slashers ). However, after considering what would sell to

7144-418: The top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1996 . Despite this, it was not able to achieve the same level of arcade success as Namco's popular Tekken series. According to Next Generation magazine, Soul Edge "enjoyed less success than it deserved" in arcades. Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of Soul Edge Version II , rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "there

7238-472: The tournament. The character select screen depicts original anime art by Tsukasa Kotobuki instead of rendered models and these also appear in thr story mode. Work on the Saturn port reportedly began while the PlayStation original was still in development. California -based Digital Dialect reprogrammed the game for DOS , and this version was released in 1996 published by Playmates Interactive . This version plays and looks differently. Earthworm Jim , which

7332-514: Was a popular early title on the PlayStation and it spawned sequels starting with Battle Arena Toshinden 2 , as well as manga and anime adaptations. However, a lackluster reception to its sequels meant that it was overshadowed by the Tekken series, especially with Tekken 2 , and it fell in popularity. The weapons concept was then further popularized by Soul Edge . Each character has their own unique set of basic moves, special attacks, and

7426-434: Was also included on the list of the ten all-time best game cinematics by Cheat Code Central in 2012. Battle Arena Toshinden Battle Arena Toshinden , released as Toh Shin Den in Japan, is a 1995 fighting video game developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara for the PlayStation . It was one of the first fighting games, after Virtua Fighter on arcade and console, to boast polygonal characters in

7520-474: Was awarded Best Fighting Game of 1995 by Electronic Gaming Monthly . Maximum made note of the graphical and gameplay innovations such as gouraud shading , rotational backgrounds, dramatic camera angles, and the sidestep. They however remarked that the poor quality directional pad on the original PlayStation controller "just isn't built for taking diagonals and quarter circle rolls", making it irritatingly difficult to pull off special moves. Though they assessed

7614-632: Was developed and released for the Game Boy in 1996, published internationally by Nintendo , making it the only game to have been published by all of the largest console manufacturers of its time. A version for MS-DOS was also released. A weapons-based fighter, Toh Shin Den features eight anime-style characters — the work of Tsukasa Kotobuki — and has gameplay mechanics such as special and projectile attacks akin to 2D fighters like Street Fighter . Critically acclaimed for graphical innovations like gouraud shading and transparent effects, Toh Shin Den

7708-453: Was developed by DreamFactory for the Wii but has no connection to the previous games' storyline and discards the mainly weapons-based combat found in earlier Toshinden games, featuring hand-to-hand combat alongside weapons-based battles. The game was released in Japan on December 10, 2009. Samurai Shodown (1993 video game) Samurai Shodown , known in Japan as Samurai Spirits ,

7802-404: Was developed by Tamsoft , an in-house developer part of the Takara toy company and their first original game. Takara had been concepting Toshinden on a different platform before Sony's announcement in late 1993 of releasing a new hardware system, after which Takara decided to develop the game specifically on Sony's PlayStation platform. Development took under six months. Programming began at

7896-420: Was first released for the AES as it featured blood and graphic fatal attacks that kill opponents by slicing them in half. As a result, it was decided to censor the game for most platforms by changing the blood from red to white and disabling the fatal attack animations. The win quotes were also censored, and references to death or blood were altered. In the Super NES version, the blood was recolored orange and

7990-596: Was followed up with Soulcalibur in July 1998. Soul Edge was created prior to the introduction of the so-called 8-Way Run. The characters can sidestep to either side by double-tapping down to move to the foreground or tapping down then up to the background. The jump maneuver (which in Soulcalibur is more like a hop) moves the player higher into the air, even allowing it to pass above the opponent (much like in Tekken ). The game uses an active block system performed by pressing

8084-525: Was most impressed with so far, Ken Kutaragi answered Battle Arena Toshinden . There was also a positive reception to the game's characters and their weapons; in particular, the young character Ellis with her outfit and see-through parts. GamePro reviewed the Japanese version of the game in early 1995 (prior to the PlayStation's launch in the U.S.). They remarked that the game is very impressive, and superior to Virtua Fighter in some aspects, but also flawed in several respects. They particularly praised

8178-489: Was not provided with any screenshots of the actual game. Meanwhile the DOS release depicts Sofia and Duke with their weapons against a dusk city background, and the Game Boy release in all regions is a colorful depiction of all characters deformed and closer to their anime drawings. The Saturn releases ( Toshinden Remix and Toshinden S ) also had their own box arts: a large depiction of Eiji above anime figures of other characters in

8272-560: Was not released. In 1997, Takara released the weapons-based Sega Saturn fighter D-Xhird . Battle Arena Toshinden 's protagonist Eiji appears as a secret guest character in this game. In 1998, Takara released the Tamsoft-developed AbalaBurn which combined fighting with role-playing adventure. Later in 2008, a new Toshinden action game with eight new characters was unveiled by Takara Tomy in Weekly Famitsu . It

8366-628: Was ported to the Sony PlayStation for the Japanese market. A limited special edition came with the Namco Joystick controller. An official tribute book Soul Edge Official Fan Book (ソウルエッジ オフィシャルファンブック／年代記) was published in the Chronicle series by Famitsu on March 31, 1997. The port kept the Soul Edge Ver. II roster of ten characters and added five unlockable characters, including SoulEdge ,

8460-409: Was released in Japan a few weeks after the console's debut, and released internationally by Sony Computer Entertainment as a launch title. Its American division had promoted it as a " Saturn killer" (against Sega's Virtua Fighter ), but ironically a Saturn port published by Sega , titled Battle Arena Toshinden Remix and with additional features, was released less than a year later. A 2D version

8554-560: Was released the year prior) and was SNK's first arcade fighting game to focus primarily on weapon-based combat. Samurai Shodown was a commercial success, becoming Japan's sixth highest-grossing arcade game of 1993 and one of America's top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1994. It won several Game of the Year awards from Gamest , Electronic Gaming Monthly and the European Computer Trade Show . Samurai Showdown then appeared on other platforms, including

8648-448: Was seen as slow and "not as impressive" as the more recent Tekken 2 , though they praised Toshinden for important innovations to the fighting game genre, such as taking "the fighter into true 3-D" and "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever" with the introduction of sidestep movement. The Sega Saturn version was not as well-received as the PlayStation original. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly complained of

8742-402: Was the fourth of Takara's 'Nettou' ( Dead Heat Fighters ) series of games with deformed characters ported to the Game Boy, following World Heroes 2 Jet . The game is based mostly on the original PlayStation version, but it includes a slightly altered story mode and two appearances from Battle Arena Toshinden 2 : the characters Uranus and Gaia (without his armor). An emulated version for

8836-545: Was the property of Playmates, was added as an exclusive guest character, with his unique arena music, but he only uses the moves of Rungo Iron. It uses the Japanese PlayStation version's voices and music in all regions, albeit at lower sound quality. The DOS version also supports resolutions up to 640x480 and network multiplayer using IPX/SPX or NetBIOS . The game was ported to the Game Boy by Takara/ Nintendo in 1996, titled Nettou Toshinden (熱闘闘神伝) in Japan. It

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