Dark Edge (ダークエッジ) is a 1993 fighting arcade game developed and published by Sega. It was one of Sega's earliest attempts at creating a competitive fighting game along with Holosseum after the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II. Although the title screen reads "1992", the arcade game was first sold in 1993.
Although Dark Edge contains similarities to other versus fighting games during its release, such as motion controls for performing special moves, and the object of the game requiring the player to fight against his or her opponent in best two-out-of-three matches in a single player tournament mode with the computer (or against another human player in multiplayer mode), players can move their chosen characters not only left and right, as well as using the jump button, players also can move their characters toward and away from the fourth wall endlessly, creating a 3D effect; however, the characters and other objects in the game are in sprite format. This type of movement is slightly similar to the ones in Atari Games' Pit-Fighter and SNK's Fatal Fury: King of Fighters, but with a lot more free movement. The player has a character roster of six playable fighters to choose from, each with their own fighting style and special techniques. In one player mode, after selecting a character, the arcade randomly selects an opponent. After the player wins against every other playable character, the player will fight against two bosses and will beat the game if he or she knocks them out.
The following plot summary is translated from the Japanese version:
"In the 25th century, the human beings are allowed to live in the unified world controlled by the ultra large computer. Those tough people who got out of their control now seem to be battling for the sake of their ambitions and desires. Even that battling, however, is controlled and the super-fighter is destined to fall a victim to an assassin sent by the ultra-large computer."
Source: Wikipedia, "Dark Edge (arcade game)", available under the CC-BY-SA License.