Soul Edge

Soul Edge (ソウルエッジ, Sōru Ejji) is a fighting game developed by the team Project Soul and published by Namco. Originally released as an arcade game in 1995, an upgraded and expanded version of the game was ported to the PlayStation in 1996. The PlayStation version was renamed Soul Blade in Europe, North America and Australia to avoid potential complications due to EDGE Games' earlier "EDGE" trademark.

The game was a commercial and critical success and acts as the first installment in the Soul series, and was followed up with Soulcalibur in 1998.

Gameplay

Soul Edge was created prior to the introduction of the so-called 8-Way Run, which allows the player to move their character in a complete range on the Y-axis. The characters can sidestep on either side by double-tapping down to move to the foreground or 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 the block button, and a combat system based on the three attack buttons: horizontal attack, vertical attack, and kick.