Soul Edge

SOUL EDGE
Sony Playstation
2 Player / 3D Fighter
Namco
SLPS 00555
¥5800

Copyright © 1995, 1996 Namco Ltd.

— by Geir Friestad

CLANG! The two opponents lock weapons — time to hammer the buttons!

The player characters are modelled realistically, as seen in this image of Taki, the Ninja.

"Transcending history and the world, a tale of soul and swords, eternally retold."

Namco quickly gathered a solid fanbase among fighting game enthusiasts with their classic TEKKEN games — games that offered impressive visuals and great depth. Namco is back, and this time they're attempting to win over even more fans with a bit of swordplay. Enter SOUL EDGE.

The concept is as simple as it is traditional: pick one of ten different characters and beat the living daylights out of the rest of them. The difference from regular fighting games is that this time you've got the aid of a rather sharp piece of hardware in deciding who's the meanest guy on the street.

The game's presentation continues the fine Namco tradition. The first impression is always important, and the Namco guys have obviously taken this lesson to heart. The FMV intro that opens the game is certainly the most stunning I've seen on the Playstation.

Fortunately, the game's high resolution graphics aren't a pale experience in comparison. We're familiar with silky smooth animation and good polygon handling from the TEKKEN series. SOUL EDGE offers that and more, with fully animated 3D backgrounds and lighting effects of such a magnitude that sunglasses are almost required. Huge streaks of light outline the more impressive moments of swordplay, sparks fly, and day fades into night. Eye candy it may be, but it sure "tastes" good!

Given the amount of work obviously spent on the presentation side of the game, one might perhaps worry a bit about the quality of the actual game. And to be fair, SOUL EDGE doesn't have the depth of the TEKKEN games. It has little to offer gamers who swear by long, complicated combos and wrist-breaking special moves. However, in my opinion, this is a good thing since it makes for a more fun and easily accessible game. To improve things even further, the game also offers a very nice training mode, giving you a chance to perfect that one "damn that's hard to do!" move.

The game is also an improvement over the original arcade version, with the inclusion of the Edge Master Mode; Namco's take on the "story mode" fighting game. Basically this has you run around on a world map and beat up the other characters, just like in the arcade mode. The difference is that each character has to be defeated in a special way, and you gain new weapons when you win. Each weapon has its own set of weaknesses and strengths, and picking the wrong weapon before a fight may prove to be fatal. This is an excellent idea that makes the solo part of fighting games somewhat more interesting. But the real fun still lies in getting together with a few friends and beating each other to virtual pulp, and SOUL EDGE is a sure winner here. SOUL EDGE in two-player mode is fun.

One final note: SOUL EDGE has been released in the USA as SOUL BLADE, with a few alterations; Sophitia's bathing scene in the FMV intro is censored (the brief nudity is covered by a white dress). Fortunately, few of the voices will be re-dubbed in English — subtitles will be provided instead.

Rating: ***1/2