Battle Arena Toshinden (バトルアリーナ闘神伝, Batoru Arīna Tōshinden) is a weapons-based fighting game developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara and Sony Computer Entertainment in 1995 for the PlayStation, followed by 1996 ports for the Sega Saturn, Game Boy and MS-DOS. It was one of the first fighting games to boast polygonal characters in a 3D environment, and features a sidestep maneuver which is credited for taking the genre into "true 3D." The Game Boy version of Battle Arena Toshiden despite sharing the same name as the console & PC counterparts is a different game. It is a 2D weapons based fighter and supports the Super Game Boy cartridge peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom to allow the game to be played on a TV with colour palettes and borders.

The game was announced as a PlayStation exclusive, with Sony initially promoting it as a "Saturn killer" (against Sega's Virtua Fighter), but it was ported to the Saturn with additional features less than a year later. After fighting games like Tekken started emerging, Battle Arena Toshinden declined in popularity, but still spawned a series of sequels, starting with Battle Arena Toshinden 2. Battle Arena Toshinden was the first 3D weapons fighter, and was succeeded in spirit by Soul Edge and other games of the genre.

Each character has his or her own unique set of basic moves, special attacks, and a desperation attack that can only be used when the player has low energy (around 10% or less). The player can move in 3D around the 3D arenas using the L/R shoulder buttons, which can be used to dodge projectile attacks or get away from a dangerous spot.

Players move using the directional pad. Holding the backward directional button allows the player to block basic attacks and reduces most of the damage from opponents' special moves. Players can also run by quickly tapping the forward directional button.

As with other games of the genre, the player wins by depleting the opposing players health, having more health than their opponent if the time runs out, or knocking their opponent out of the non-walled arena. Unlike many fighting games of the time, it was possible for a player character to accidentally fall off the arena with a miss-timed run or special move, resulting in some unique tactics.