Soul Fighter

"Good looking, but not much fun"

When I heard about a Dreamcast game that would somewhat simulate a 3d Golden Axe, I began licking my chops. Now that I've given Soul Fighter a shot, I can report that it's a mixed bag that's probably best to rent before buying. As a big fan of the beat-em-up genre, I was able to garner a fair bit of entertainment from the title. But I'm not certain that everyone will get similar mileage - there are a lot of problems with the game that could easily spoil the experience.

Firstly, the basics. Soul Fighter is a one-player only (boooo!) medieval fantasy fight-fest that pits you as one of three characters against legions and legions of foes. Your task is to save the souls of these enemies by pounding and dicing their furry, feathery or scaly hides into goo. You choose from a male warrior, a female acrobat-thief, or a male monk-wizard and make your way through dungeon, alleyway, ship, lake or whatever environment lies ahead to clear the various levels in the game. You can use fists and feet or withdraw your weapon for limited time periods to have at them with some decently designed combos. There's also an interesting first-person mode that allows you to fire long-range missiles at enemies if you catch them unaware. Sound like fun? Well, it can be at times, but...well, just stick with me.

We'll start with a big positive - the eye-candy. This is an excellent looking game. Many many polygons per character, decent resolution, lots of great colors, terrific lightsourcing and fluid motion. Graphically, Soul Fighter has got it going on. Explosions and special effects have perfect transparency to them, backgrounds are wonderfully textured and detailed, and the shambling monsters look very good and creepy. The game gives you an excellent feel of actually being in the environment.

Enemy design is also a high point of the game. Most opponents are half-man half-animal, and some combinations are quite bizarre. One particular boss is a half-shark pirate. You read that correctly - a half-shark pirate, with one peg leg, one human leg, one arm with a hook on the end, and a giant, terrifying open-mouthed shark's head topped with a pirate's black hat. Insane and good in my book, arrrrg matey I say.

Another positive is that it's a free-roaming fighter. While there are areas that you need to clear, you have a lot of choice about where to go and what areas to swashbuckle through in what order. Chests containing items (such as food or weapons) can be left unopened and collected when needed, such as after you've taken a pounding.

Unfortunately, there's a lot to dislike in Soul Fighter also. Most notably, the camera. It doesn't really seem to know where to go a lot of the time. Now, it's not bad enough that it ever gets caught behind a post or any such, thankfully. But it is bad enough that one can easily be attacked by an enemy who is completely off screen, and this gets very frustrating very quickly. There is a chance to reset the camera to the over-the-shoulder view by tapping one of the triggers, but it just doesn't seem to work as well in practice as it should in theory.

Another critical flaw is the game's penchant to knock you down in such a way that you're facing away from your enemies, who then attack from behind as you get up, allowing for no way to block or respond in kind. Boss characters in particular use this cheap tactic to such an extent that you may find yourself testing the durability of the Dreamcast controller on a nearby wall or floor.

These two problems in combination produce quite a hex upon the game. Add to this a complete lack of multiplayer support (boooo again!), and Soul Fighter finds itself in trouble. It's a shame, really, because there are some really nice touches. There's a great Sean Connery impostor doing the King's voice, the music is very heroic and glorious, cutscenes load almost immediately, and a lot of the enemy AI is quite cunning. That is, when you actually get to fight enemies straight on. When the camera is in the right place. And they're not sticking swords and spears in your back from off-camera. Which...is an awful lot of the time. Ahem.

Overall:
There's a lot to like about Soul Fighter, depending on a person's tolerance for the above listed problems. In spite of the flaws, it is possible for a hard-working somewhat masochistic player to progress through the levels and get an eyeful of some great environments and very interesting creatures. On the way there, some of the battles will even turn out to be pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, most of them (and therefore most of the game) won't, and chances are you'll be reaching for one of your more entertaining Dreamcast titles not long after a few rounds of this one.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/01, Updated 05/29/01