Soulcalibur

Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Project Soul
Genre: Fighting
Release Date: July 2, 2008
Platforms: Xbox Live, Arcade, Dreamcast

Reviewer: Eric

If you owned a Sega Dreamcast then you must have owned Soulcalibur. If you didn’t own that game then you really didn’t appreciate video games. Soulcalibur is the stepping stone in 3-D fighting games. No other game has come close enough to Soulcalibur, many have tried and tons have failed.

Soulcalibur is about using weapons instead of fists and fireballs. Each character has their own unique weapon, which they can use to perform special attacks and combos. Even though some of the characters may have a similar weapon they will play as two separate characters. There are no Ryu and Ken clones in Soulcalibur.

This is one of those fighting games where you have to master certain lengths to become a master. You can get away by hitting random buttons, but the true magic in Soulcalibur is learning all of the bells and whistles. Sure the game can still be enjoyed by anybody, but just try playing this game with somebody else that knows their way around.

Thanks to the Xbox Live Arcade, Soulcalibur is getting another chance to shine again. The game looks just as good as when it came out in 1999; however the borders really bother me. Instead of trying to enhance anything, Namco put the game in 4:3 perspective. Still it looks nice, but those borders are not very pretty.

Soulcalibur features everything you normally see in fighting games now. There are two on two battles, arcade mode, team battles, and a few other options. One huge problem I have with this game is the unlockables.

In the Dreamcast version you could play the game and earn points, which could be used to unlock different little pictures and so fourth. The XBLA version has everything unlocked. This takes away a lot of the games fun factor. All you can really do in this version is read the achievements and unlock them.

Mission mode would have been nice. Online features would have been nice too, but I have a feeling Namco pushed this one out for a few extra bucks. To be fair though, this game only costs $10, which is $40 cheaper from when the game came out before.

Final Verdict
For what you get with this game you can’t complain about the price. Soulcalibur is still an excellent fighter after all these years. Thanks to Xbox Live all you have to do is load this up and have hours of fun with your friends. Sadly I wish you could say the same thing about playing with online friends.

The only reason I can not give this game a perfect is because of the lack of online play. Yeah the borders are annoying, but at this time and age, online would have helped.

Rating
8 out of 10