After the arcade game, Soul Edge in 1996, and the PlayStation conversion of that game in 1998 (called “Soul Blade” in the West), came Soulcalibur in 1999. It was made available in arcades first, as a two-player cabinet, and did reasonably good business.
The basic storyline is about a group of fighters battling it out for possession of a mystical sword called “The Soul Edge“.
Released in December 1996 in Japan, and in 1997 in North America and Europe, Soul Blade is the PlayStation port of Namco‘s Soul Edge arcade fighting game – the predecessor to the Soulcalibur series.
Soul Edge was a pioneering early attempt at using Motion Capture in a fighting game – for the realistic animation of the combatants – and it had quite an impact on fighting game fans when it was first released.
Developed by “Project Soul” and released into arcades by Namco in April 1996, Soul Edge is a weapons-based, one-on-one fighting game that serves as the predecessor to the Soulcalibur series.
Released exclusively for the Sega Master System in 1990, The Cyber Shinobi is a sequel to the first Shinobi, but it’s not really a sequel many will remember. Mostly because it isn’t very good…
Evil Dead: Hail to the King was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ in 2000. It is a survival horror game based on Sam Raimi‘s classic cabin-in-the-woods horror film, and – to be honest – it’s pretty bad. Which is a pity because I’m a big horror film fan (have been since I was a teenager), and this game should be right down my street.
The ZX Spectrum version of Sega‘s classic Shinobi was developed by Binary Design for The Sales Curve and published by Virgin Games in 1989. It is a relatively loose approximation of the arcade game, but is nonetheless playable and enjoyable.
The 1989 NES version of Sega‘s Shinobi was converted and published by Tengen, in North America only. Why the game wasn’t released in Japan, I don’t know. Maybe because Sega didn’t think it was good enough?
Released in Japan only for the Nintendo Famicom in 1992, Moon Crystal is a scrolling platform game in the style of Zelda II. The game was developed by Hector (aka “Hect“), and fan translations into English, Spanish, Polish and Indonesian exist, making the game understandable to players who don’t speak or read Japanese.
The Commodore 64 version of Sega‘s classic Shinobi was developed by The Sales Curve and first published by Virgin Games in 1989. And – while it is a decent conversion in terms of presentation and playability – it is arguably even harder than the arcade original, which can make it extremely frustrating to play at times.
The PC Engine version of Sega‘s Shinobi was developed and published by Asmik Corporation in 1989, and it features some interesting changes to the arcade version.
The King of Grabs 