Kerchiing!
Like Tekken 2, Soul Blade boasts an epic introductory sequence which puts just about everything else on the PlayStation to shame. What follows if you can bear to leave the joypad alone for any length of time is a 3-4 minute Jackie Chan movie set to a fast paced Japanese rock music track. All the characters in the game are shown in their native habitats; kicking the crap out of unfortunate villains, meditating soulfully, or simply looking very cool indeed. In fact the graphics here are not as impressive as the similar movie that opens Tekken 2 as they are not in as high a resolution, but the reason for that is clear as seems to go on and on and on...

Data compression is obviously the culprit because Soul Blade features more mini-movies, reward screens and bonus clips than any other game. To fit it all onto one CD, Namco has obviously had to sacrifice the resolution which is a shame, but hardly a major problem. What really matters is that everything is motion captured, pushes the PSX's colour palette to the limit, and shows what talented programming can do. The moment you load up the CD, you know this is the Holy Grail of PlayStation games.

Hiiiiiiiiyaaaa!
Into the game then and anyone with a serious Tekken 2 habit will be right at home with the menu system. You get the standard options, such as round time, number of wins needed to progress, load/save and cosmetic alterations, and also five standard modes: Group Battle, Vs, Arcade, Practice, Survival, and two new ones ­ Edge Master and Weapons Room. Vs Mode pits you and a friend against each other and undoubtedly offers the most challenge. The Play team still play Tekken 2 in two player mode, and there's no reason to why Soul Edge will not offer the same unlimited challenge . It's always more fun slashing your friend to death instead of some dumb CPU controlled puppet.

Group Battle allows you to fight a team of your characters against some that the computer chooses, and this is good for seeing who fights well against who, and as a kind of endurance test, although the Survival mode, which has you battling a series of opponents using only one life is more of a test for true masters. The Practice mode, unsurprisingly, is where you can try different joypad combinations of your favourite character and perfect his/her combos without have the pressure of a tournament.

The Arcade game is the traditional bread and butter of beat-'em-ups, and you must choose one character and then fight all the others in turn and ultmately take on the 'big boss' who in this case is an insane grinning fiery skeleton called Soul Edge. Each of the initial ten characters boasts a completely different final movie to show what happens after Soul Edge is defeated, and as with Tekken 2, completing the game with various character combinations leads to new fighters suddenly appearing. You can of course save your progress to the memory card at any time.

Ragged Edge
The Edge Master mode is the most interesting new addition to the beat-'em-up genre. Tobal No.1 had an innovative quest mode, that Play applauded, but this is something very different; something better. Basically the idea is that you select a character and then go on a quest around Europe, with your adventure being chronicled in the pages of an ancient book. As this is a fighting game, lots of head-chopping, high-kicking and gut-wrenching goes on at each location, but what makes this so appealing is that you are faced with many different potentially fatal encounters. Instead of just beating your opponent to death with a blunt instrument and then moving on, you must fight them while poisoned, or only using throws for example. One test decrees that you must fight four or five guys in a row. If you don't ­ tough, back to the start.

The trials are different for every character and really add a sense of depth to the standard beat-'em-up fare. But there's a twist because upon defeating your foes, you sometimes pick up extra weapons and these can be saved to the memory card and then uses in the one or two player game ­ how cool is that? Imagine it, your friend is playing with regular old Seung Mina and you've got Taki armed with a razor sharp fan, or Mitsurigi with a huge flaming sword which does twice as much damage. This is a considerable improvement over the features available in Tekken 2 and it will take you absolutely ages to get all eight weapons for all ten characters. The Weapons Room is used for viewing all your new instruments of death and checking out their power, defence and magic ratings. Who said beat-'em-ups were shallow?

Soul Man
But you're gagging to know about the game itself ­ how does it compare to the coin-op? Is it as good as your mate Derek's older brother says? Is it better than Tekken 2 etc, etc. Well the good news is that Soul Blade gives you the best of both worlds. Whereas Tekken 2 was a bit daunting at first because of the complexity of the moves, Soul Blade is a doddle to just pick up and start slashing. Just use the standard Street Fighter fireball, dragon punch joypad swirls and you'll do fine. But martial arts masters needn't worry either, because where this game is definitely more user-friendly than most games of this ilk, each character still has on average about 40 moves to get the hang of, and that's not including power throws, critical edges (special move ideal for finishing with), and unblockable attacks. In fact I have the moves list in front of me as I write this review and it's as thick as a Bible. I kid ye not.

Like all Namco beat-'em-ups, the presentation throughout is faultless, and you can't say that about many PlayStation games. Right from ergonomic menu systems to the character select screen and into the bouts themselves, everything is spot-on, and perfectly converted from the arcade machine. Soul Blade is also a member of the "zero loading time club." Why can't other developers learn from this?

Soul Conversion
Graphically Soul Blade is pixel for pixel identical to the coin-crunching arcade machine, with ultra-vivid colours and the most detailed videogame characters so far seen. These guys have everything - hair, teeth, Action Man eagle eyes, perfect flesh tone, muscle bulges, intricately worked armour, clothes that crease during conflict, amazing weapons which move quicker than the eye can follow in all directions. Virtua Fighter 2 and 3 ­ eat your heart out. You might as well pack up and go home! The fighters in Soul Blade even have mouths that move in time to their battle cries for gawd's sake. Let's see the poxy Nintendo 64 produce something to rival this.

And if that wasn't enough to have you smashing piggy banks and ordering American Express cards while you're reading this, everything moves so fast as well. With all that eye candy you'd expect the motion captured fighters to be just a little bit sluggish, and perhaps the textures would bitmap occasionally when you move ­ but no, in fact having played the two back-to-back I'd have to say that the PlayStation version is actually a little bit faster than the coin-op! From huge Rock with his thundering great axe, to nimble little Sophitia, every character in Soul Edge is beautifully motion captured, with seamless flowing moves and combos coupled with surprising little flourishes at the end of a well executed attack. Armed with two sais, Taki for example, spins her blades on her wrists when an opponent hits the deck, and you even get highly complicated moves strung together, where she uses the handles of the blade to block, parry and finally trap the unfortunate opponent's hand, before bending it back and leaving him open to a neck chop. You have never seen anything like it. Tekken 2 and its fist-based conflict was advanced, don't get me wrong, but you cannot hope to match someone with a sword for sheer brutality, and that's what makes Soul edge so appealing. Instead of a slap, you can hack, chop and eviscerate your opponent like a piece of celery. Shame there's no blood though. Perhaps Bushido Blade can fill that gap.

You're So Transparent
Another great feature of the graphics in Soul Blade is the transparency and lighting effects that the PlayStation does so well. You can see that Namco had the Sony console in mind when they designed this game. Perform a power move and your trailing blade or leg will leave behind a shard of colour which when combined with a flurry of fists and kicks makes for some spectacular moments. Even more fun can be had from pranging two swords together, as a blistering electric shockwave dances over the blades in various hues to show the hard contact. This can be taken a stage further and it is possible to jam your weapons together if you both try the same move simultaneously. The only way to break the deadlock is to hammer the buttons and see who can gain the upper hand, a bit like the grapple mode in Tobal No.1. There are also smooth light changes during rounds, with the sun going down and the light sourcing on the characters reacting accordingly. The first time it happens you can't help but gasp.

Mover Shaker
The best enhancement in turns of moves that Soul Blade brings to the genre is the side-step move, first shown in the Toshinden series. If you remember, in order to get your player to cartwheel left or right you held down the appropriate shoulder button (L1 or R1). Soul Edge steals that idea but makes it even more pleasurable to use. Simply by tapping Down, Down or Down Up on the pad, any character neatly takes a step in either direction and this is perfect for avoiding an opponent's charge and turning his aggression against him.

Now instead of just using the block to deflect blows, you can actually kneel down, duck to the side and before your opponent realises you're not in front of him, you've hit him from the side, or swept him off his feet; leaving him completely disorientated. And it doesn't stop there because of course with your foe out of position, you can now use a different set of killer moves to make the most of his undefended body. Taki likes nothing better than to drop her short sword into the stabbing position and then sneak its blade between her opponent's ribs when they're off balance. Li Long is a master of the nunchakkas, and with a crafty side-step move executed, it's leg sweep, face-smash time. The possibilities are endless. Now are you beginning to see the advantages of weapons-based combat? And it wouldn't be a descendent of Tekken if Soul Blade didn't give you the chance to execute all sorts of elaborate and frankly anti-gravitational moves too. Get in close an opponent while they're blocked or simply having a breather and press a couple of buttons for a glorious and painful special move, usually to the accompaniment of a bone-jarring "crack!" Choice moments include Sophitia's 'knees around the neck and sharp twist of the hips', Mitsurgi's 'Zorrow slash' and Taki's throat slit which literally brings tears to the eyes (and I'm told it is considerably toned down from the coin-op version). Naturally this is just the icing on the cake of what is one of the most deeply rewarding games you'll ever play.

Ring Stinger
One of the main differences between Soul Blade and the two previous Tekken games is the inclusion of the "ring out," or a raised arena which you can be pushed off and lose the round instantly. This is very much Virtua Fighter territory, but I have to say that it's always been a great feature and the lack of it was one of my criticisms of Tekken 2, particularly the skyscraper stage which was begging for you to be thrown off. Soul Blade makes good use of the edges of each level, and on Rock's for example, the ground is a hundred feet below, making it even more satisfying when you hurl the big brute to his death. Coupled with the side-step move, there is huge scope for egging on your opponent by standing on the very edge of the level and then nipping out of his way at the last moment and giving him a helpful shove. Two player games don't get much more rewarding than that.

Soul Provider
To be honest the backgrounds in Soul Blade are its worst feature. Whereas Tekken 2 stunned all audiences with its deeply layered and highly atmospheric landscapes, Soul Edges prefers to keep them simple, and on some levels, most notably Siegfrieg's and Hwang's, it looks nothing short of drab. Okay so Siegfried, in keeping with his knight image, has his home turf in front of a besieged castle, but did those catapults have to look quite so two-dimensional? Many of the other levels, such as Rock's, with its knee-high grass and perilous drops, are pretty good though, and special mention must go to the two tilting arenas which look fantastic. Somehow it adds immeasurably to the gameplay if you're fighting on a raft which is floating down a river and pitching this way and that. Added suspense is gleaned because instead of falling out of the ring, you actually plunge into the drink if you lose the match ­ an excellent touch, and an idea borrowed from Virtua Fighter 3. It's just a shame that you couldn't force the opposite end of the raft into the air if you were both grappling on the same side. That would have been special.

Staying Power
Soul Blade is a real stayer. Throughout the production of this entire issue of Play there was rarely a moment when someone wasn't playing it somewhere in the office, and this is testament to its long term challenge. Once you've completed the arcade game with all the characters, secret ones appear and so you've got to start from scratch with them. Then you've got the excellent Edge Master mode, which gives every fighter eight different weapons to choose from (and each affects the way they fight even further), and believe me, it's a true Soul Blade master who can complete the game on all its levels.

From the wealth of screenshots in this review I can tell you're already drooling at the mouth because, well let's face it, Soul Blade is the best looking game on the PlayStation by a long long way. Animation, range of moves, character variety, special features ­ it adds up to a game that has "Classic" written all over it. Apart from the some uninspirational backgrounds, the only problem with the game is that some characters have a tendency to pause before doing special moves, and in this game, a millisecond delay can get you killed. Other than that it's damn near perfect.

Soul Blade represents state-of-the-art gaming and pushes the PlayStation to its limits -- short of nicking a coin-op, this is the closest thing you'll ever come to arcade perfection in the home.

Verdict: 96%