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Soul Calibur Legends
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco Bandai
Genre: Action
Release: November 20, 2007
Platform: Wii
Reviewer: Eric
The Nintendo Wii developers are trying so hard to bring out
some fun games. You would think Namco would make us happy
whenever they announced an exclusive Soul Calibur for the Wii.
Now that this hack and slash is finally out I am ready to
breakout my Sega Dreamcast to play the original Soul Calibur,
Soul Calibur Legends is far from being great.
 Soul
Calibur Legends has everything you’d expect from the Soul
Calibur series, but it doesn’t have the same controls that we
feel in love with. What this game does succeed in is having a
dumb downed character selection screen, a boring fighting
system, bad AI and about three other bad things that you should
notice within the first few minutes of game play. This game is a
disgrace to the Soul Calibur name.
Legends has a story that sounds all too familiar. There is a war
raging on and it is up to you to collect all the shards of the
ancient sword. If you haven’t guessed by now then I’ll tell you,
Legends has a lot of similarities as past Soul Calibur games. It
may seem a little different at first since you are running
around killing such creatures as skeletons and demon samurai
creators.
Unlike other Wii games Soul Calibur Legends has some cut scenes.
All of the cut scenes are extremely short but they do have some
voice acting. This is another thing that is lacking in most
Nintendo games, voice acting is a crime. Namco maybe listened to
Nintendo since they only offer enough voice acting to make
people smile. You better get your reading glasses ready for this
game.
Graphics in Legends look like a Playstation 2 game. I know Soul
Calibur 3 came out on the Playstation 2, but for some reason the
graphics don’t look as good. Capcom proved you can make good
graphics on the Wii with both their Resident Evil games.
Whenever any of the characters are up close they’ll look
completely different, the colors look blurry and the polygons
don’t look up to par with other Soul Calibur. I will say though
all of the attack animations, both good and bad guys, look
alright…
There really isn’t anything too great about the game play here.
Hack and slash games tend to get old after awhile and Soul
Calibur Legends is defiantly one of those boring ones. All you
do is pick a character and go through stage after stage. There
is nothing new on the table here. If you’ve played one hack and
slash from the SNES era then you’ll know what to expect here.
Just remember though that the graphics in Legends are a lot
prettier than most hack and slash games.
 Even
though this game feels like a hack and slash from yesterday it
does have some nice elements. As you progress through the game
you will gain upgrades, which change the way your character
looks like. Yeah earning a new weapon for one of the characters
in the game does sound cool, you could/can do this in other Soul
Calibur games. It is sort of nice being able to switch between
characters, but we have seen this before so it is nothing new.
Siegfried, Ivy, Taki, Mitsurugi, Astarotha and Tales of
Symphonia’s Lloyd are all selectable characters. You can control
any of these characters with the Wii Mote and Nunchuk, which
does not really work all the time. In order to attack with your
character you need to use the Wii Mote, but doing those up and
down strikes only seem to work after a few tries. It wasn’t my
TVs fault either, I tried hooking this up to my other television
and I had the same problems.
Multiplayer game play in Legends is alright, but it looses its
fun factor after awhile. The multiplayer parts in the game are
in split screen. So whenever you are facing off against a friend
or fighting off those horrifying demons you’ll have to do it in
split screen. Why must Namco set us back in history with split
screen? I can’t even remember a hack and slash game with split
screen.
Final Verdict
Nintendo gave us Super Mario Galaxy last month and it was
and still is the best game out on the Wii. After that game came
out we haven’t had anything that really justifies the systems
purchase. Soul Calibur Legends should have been a good game, but
it isn’t. If you are a fan of the Soul Calibur series then you
may enjoy this. I have been a fan of the series since Soul Edge
and I can honestly say this game has changed my mind, that is
until Soul Calibur 5 comes out next year.
Rating
6 out of 10
Soul Calibur Legends Trailer
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