The SoulCalibur series of games has its origins on Sega’s Dreamcast console 9 short years ago.  It is known as the game that managed to successfully pull off weapon-based fighting.  Not much has changed over the past 9 years, with the SoulCalibur games making appearances on the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, original XBox, and now for the first time on next-generation consoles, it makes an appearance on the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3, with extra special next-gen goodness.

SoulCalibur IV is at its heart a 2D/3D fighting game, with tons of characters to choose from, each with their own unique fighting styles and weapons.  This has not changed from the very first SoulCalibur game.  Not all of the 30-plus characters are available at the onset of the game, including our lightsaber-wielding Jedi Master Yoda from Star Wars fame (For the XBox 360, Darth Vader comes with the PlayStation 3 version of the game).  Unlocking the other characters happens by defeating them during the course of the single player game.

The single player game is based on a rather weak story, but let’s face it, the story is really not that important.  What’s important is the insanely creative, detailed combat moves for each of the characters, and the vast amounts of combinations of thumb-stick moves and button presses that unleashes these moves.  I’m sure that certain of these moves are only possible if you have a third hand helping out.  But for those of you wanting a story, you get a unique plot for each of the characters that play through the single-player game.

Watch the official trailer:

Visually, the game is stunningly beautiful.  The sheer attention to detail in creating each of the characters is phenominal.  Add to this the fact that you can play dress-up in the character creator mode where a large number of customisations can take place to create a unique character, and you get a game that is extremely visually appealing.  It’s just a pity that most of this detail gets lost during gameplay, as while playing you are so focussed on pressing the right buttons and dodging your opponents’ attacks that there is not time to take in the beauty, except perhaps for the stunning backgrounds.

For newcomers to the SoulCalibur franchise, the sheer number of moves available to each of the characters may be daunting, and may be tempted to do just some button bashing to get by.  I assure you, button bashing may work for the first, perhaps the second stage, but not again.  It is worth learning 4 or 5 moves for a few favourite characters at first, and then move on to the five million other moves available.  (Yes, I’m a newcomer to the series…)

Something new to the series is the online play.  Smooth, lagless online play makes this mode probably the place where most hardcore players will find themselves spending the most.  Both ranked and unranked games area available, with some special extras in Special Mode when playing online.  The one big pity about the game is that there is no tag-team mode, mysteriously ommitted from both online and offline modes.

If online is not an option, or if XBox Live Gold account is not available, players will likely find themselves playing the Tower of Lost Souls mode.  This mode lets players go up the tower, one floor at a time, fighting groups of enemies, without having your health replenished between fights.  This may seem an impossible task, and, guess what, it is.  For the most part.

Yoda gameplay video:

SoulCalibur IV, even though it can be seen as merely another weapon-based fighting game, there are many different modes, online and offline, a story for each character, ad the Tower of Lost Souls mode especially, that keeps the game entertaining, and making players want more by learning new moves to advance even further.  The added bonus of being able to unlock and play as Yoda just adds to the fun.

SoulCalibur IV gets a slice-and-dice 8.5 out of 10.

This game was sponsored by www.leno.co.za

This review also published on IOLTechnology.co.za