I’m not the hugest fan of the Soul Calibur series. Fighting games are all about the fists or fatalities to me, and the Soul series with the ridiculously huge weapons never really appealed. But this game was eagerly anticipated by many people, so I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. And honestly, after playing Soul Calibur IV, I still don’t know what the fuss is about. Sure, the game is fun in a mindless, button mashing way, but all in all the game doesn’t impress me that much.

The overarching story, if it can be called that, is about a couple of swords and the fighters that have been in some way affected by their power. It’s as warped and interleaved as any fighting game, and with over 30 characters, including some not even from the Soul Calibur universe but from a galaxy far, far away, I don’t think it’s possible to understand all the links, even with the handy flowchart they provide in the game. Although there are over 30 Characters, there are really only about 12 different fighting styles. Still, it’s a very impressive amount and you’ll quickly find your favourite type to play.

Story mode was the weakest in the single player game. Choose a fighter, and fight through 5 rounds, and that’s it. You fight two to five combatants each round apart from the third where you face “a formidable foe”; and the final round where, depending on the fighter chosen you get one of two bosses, but it’s all over very, very quickly. Some characters start with an ally and others pick them up as you progress, and this makes short work of the mode, even on hard. Fighting through the mode will unlock different characters as you encounter them, and after defeating the boss, you’re awarded gold, which is used to buy more characters and buy items for the character creation stage.

Arcade mode offers a bit more than the story mode, and features far more interesting stages to fight on. It’s always one on one, but the fights are more difficult as you progress. Until you figure out how to throw, that is, and then it becomes simply a matter of waiting to the right moment then executing throw after throw. Yes, it’s cheap, but it works so well for most characters and modes that it feels criminal not to use it, especially considering there is so much to get through to unlock. I say most characters – some characters have anti-grapple skills that can prevent the character from being thrown, and Yoda, the Xbox360 Star Wars exclusive character, can’t be grappled at all, even by another Yoda.

Tower of Souls is a far better mode, being challenging and fun. You have to Ascend the tower first, and fight different battles and characters on every floor. During each floor block you get to choose a number of characters to fight with. Swapping characters allows them to heal up, which is good against some of the tougher opponents. During each battle you have the chance to unlock chests, which contain items you can use in character creation. It’s not very clear how to unlock the chests though, with some being simple to figure out like “Become a shield to repel the blade” is obviously block the character. Others are a bit more esoterically worded and you’ll need your noggin to work them out. At level 20 you gain Descent, a survival mode. Your character never regains health and you have to make your way through all the stages with just two characters. After defeating every 5th level, you’re rewarded with more items.

I’ve talked about character creation, and this robust mode allows you to take existing characters or create brand new ones and change their clothes, weapons, outfits, hair and skin, completely customising them to your taste. Some are unlocked by playing and completing story modes, and other are unlocked by Honour (basically getting achievements) and others are still unlocked by spending gold. Each character you can make is based on a premade character, and I couldn’t seem to edit some of the unlockable characters such as Yoda or Angol Fear, but otherwise it’s a great editor and allows you to choose different skills for your favourite characters for some of the tougher opponents in Tower of Souls. For example, giving an attacking character HP Drain or Gain is a must for the descent levels.

There’s also Versus Mode, which allows you to fight against another player with another controller. I didn’t really try this out as I only have one controller and don’t get many visitors who want to play fighting games. However Xbox LIVE more than makes up for not having any real friends to play the game with, and most of the combatants are much, much better than they would be.

Over Xbox LIVE, the game plays pretty well. The lobby opens 4 slots for players, and two people fight whilst the others observe. The games can be customised to go for certain amounts of time and to win any number of fights – standard fare really. You can choose to play the game’s regular characters without all the bonuses and abilities, but it’s far more fun to play other people’s often whacky creations, and it’s a real test of your knowledge of character creation as well as skill pulling of combos. I think I learned more going online than I did in the game, simply by watching other people and taking note of how they fought. Button mashing can still win games no matter how skilled you are, unfortunately.

During some matches I noticed some slight lag behind my actions – it was slightly off putting as I’d go to make a move and it would take that fraction of a second to respond. However, the games I noticed it occur the most were the ones I won (which was not many, mind you) so it’s certainly not game breaking. It was observing whilst waiting where I had the most drop outs – starting and playing the game were fine, but I kept getting dropped out when trying to view the games in action.

Soul Calibur is a mixed bag when it comes to presentation. The character models are splendidly detailed, and their fighting moves fluid and impressive. However, some items tend to stick through other items or the characters flesh, so, with one character for example, she had sword hilts coming out of her breasts every time she bowed in the end of fight cut scene. Speaking of breasts, they are truly beautiful in this game, bouncing around almost uncontained within the skimpy clothing of most of the female characters. Yes, I know that’s rather chauvinistic of me, but hey, I didn’t design and make the game, and I have to give credit where credit is due. The way armour shatters with equipment hits is also really cool, and it’s hilarious to see a pant less knight in full helm swinging his sword around.

The bad part is the story telling. Call me spoilt, but I was expecting with such colourful characters that the storyline would be told through video animation. After all, this is a videogame! But it was disappointing to start the Story mode and see a page of text scroll down the screen, much of it poorly translated. And, once you’ve defeated the boss opponent, you’re graced by a short animation of the character dealing with the immediate aftermath of the fight – usually simply teasing the last boss you fight – and then two lines of text. No elaborate animation of the character partying or suffering through life, just a couple of lines that amount to “and they lived happily ever after”.

Also the way the start/end of round voice goes over the voice of the character get’s really annoying. Even though it’s completely inconsequential what is said, it just seems silly to have the two voices, the announcers voice, and the music competing for your ears’ attention. Speaking of music, it’s okay for a fighting game, and although it’s different for the various stages it still sounds pretty similar from one stage to the next. The exception of course is for the Star Wars stages, where John Williams’ masterpiece plays.

Conclusion:
Not being a Soul Calibur fan, I found it a little difficult to fully appreciate the game. Yes, the game is fun and the amount of options and unlockables is incredibly impressive. The amount of characters and styles is huge. Going online and playing against friends with your cool creations is very enjoyable. However, to get the most out of the game you have to unlock everything. And that gets a little tedious. The Story mode is greatly lacking, and the other modes can be incredibly frustrating at times, so it feels like a chore to unlock all the cool stuff for Character creation.

Pros:
+ Incredible amount of unlockables and characters to play
+ Awesome character creation tool
+ Great fun over Xbox LIVE
+ Great Animation

Cons:
– Button Mashing works better than working out combos.
– Throws are too easy to execute.
– Story mode is very weak.
– Unlocking everything becomes a chore
– Bland music.

78/100