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 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 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 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 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.