A 90s PS1 series is being released on modern platforms. There is no word of exact platforms, but presumably PS5, and possibly even PS4, are on the agenda, considering the heritage of the series, which was exclusive to the first-ever Sony console. Not only is there no mention of platforms, but there is no mention of a release date or whether or not the games will be released piecemeal. There is a release window, though, and it is sometime between fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
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To this end, sometime in the somewhat distant future, nostalgic gamers who grew up playing the PS1 in the mid-1990s can expect to return to the Battle Arena Toshinden series because Edia has struck a licensing agreement with Takara to port the collection of 3D fighting games to modern platforms. More specifically, the following three titles: Battle Arena Toshinden, Battle Arena Toshinden 2, and Battle Arena Toshinden 3.
About the Games
If you aren’t familiar with these PS1 games, that would not be very surprising, as they are fairly niche, especially outside of Japan; however, not too niche obviously, because they are getting re-releases 30 years later.
The series began in 1995 when Battle Arena Toshinden was released for the PS1 as a PS1 exclusive game, as one of the first-ever 3D fighting games. While a pioneer in the fighting space, it failed to penetrate the mainstream market and was ultimately overshadowed by fellow 3D fighting game series, Tekken. It still did well enough to get a sequel in the same year, Battle Arena Toshinden 2, also developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara. At first, the sequel was exclusive to coin-operated arcades, but came to the PS1 in 1996. Then, Battle Arena Toshinden 3 came in 1996. While Battle Arena Toshinden was a pioneer in the space, and in particular, helped shape the Soulcalibur series, it is not very relevant in 2025. To this end, the series hasn’t received a new release since 1999, when Toshinden 4 was released. Toshinden 4 is not being released as part of these new ports, though.
While purely coincidentally, the timing of this announcement is interesting because Tekken 3 just came to PS4 and PS5. As you may know, there has been a surge of nostalgic re-releases, and the longer this goes on, the more obscure the pulls from the back catalogs get.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
