Soul Fighter

"A fighter that needed more soul in its gameplay."

Picture Final Fight,no better yet picture Golden Axe in A 3-D environment and what do you turn out with? Soul Fighter (kind of sort of.) Basically, in Soul Fighter you proceed through each level slashing, punching, down your foes while collecting souls. Cool! It is these type of games I can play all day long and not become frustrated. So why does it has the score its given? Read on to find out.

Gameplay: 4/10
Now I don't want to go in to this subject deeply nor do I want my head being chewed off by another author because of this, but it must be talked about. Gameplay is the most important part of the video game. It has made Street Fighter played like Street Fighter, and has made Mortal kombat played like Mortal Kombat so on and so forth. If the Gameplay is not outstanding or great within A game nothing else can keep it up. Everything will eventually go down hill including that high quality eye candy, and thus Soul Fighter is no exception. In Soul Fighter there are three warrior selectable. They are: Altus, the main character and most basic. Orion, who is the strongest of the three, but is slower in speed than the rest. Last but not least Sayomi,A female warrior who weak points are both strength and range, but makes up for it in speed. Each individal has their own fighting style so find which one best suits you. Just as in other fighting/beat'em ups, you have A life bar, A combo meter, and A brand new weapon meter. I should not have to give A explanation on the life bar. If you lose all of your stamina you die. The combo meter fills when lashing out combo on enemies or based upon how many foes you've slain. Once the combo meter is filled completely you may use that character super combo attack with or without weapons. Now the weapon meter is totally new to me, but here's the low down. You can use your character's weapon as long as there's energy in the weapon meter. Sad to say once the energy deplete completely your character will draw in their weapon(s) automatically and cannot use them again until the weapon meter energizes itself. Bummer! For controls you have punch and kick buttons that can easily pull off combos. A block/weapons button and the ability to use ether analog or control pad. Analog is for more freedom of movement. (not really.) The movement of this game is horrible. Using the gift of estimation I'd say the commands are off by 1.5 seconds, because of the lag time from the character actions. For example, you mash on the punch button to attack, but before your attack comes out 1.5 seconds has gone by. Get it? The defense system plainly is road kill unless you master it. The way to block is not by holding the button, rather you find a certain rhythm from your adversary attacks and tap the button in that manner if you want to defend properly. (I don't like it.) If you find yourself surrounded by enemies you can press the punch/slash and kick buttons together to use the classic circular attack. (note: this take away from your life so use wisely.) or better yet run!

Graphics: 8/10
Ok...Ok...I'll admit it. The eye candy for this game is top notch. Both the characters and backgrounds contain a lot of colors and the animation is smooth. One of my all time favorites is when selecting Sayomi. I like the way she moves her arms and legs as she goes into her martial art stance. ( did I say like I really meant love!)

Sound/Music: 4/10
The in game music is there, but most likely you want notice it since there's a lot of action taken place. One thing I did notice is how the BGM changes every time you encounter an enemy. That's the most amusement I can get out of the BGM other wise nothing spiceal.One of my favorites sounds is the Sword clinging,but some of the death cries could've been A lot better.

Replay: 3/10
After beating the game there's not much enjoyment you can get out of it unless you're die hard fan of fighters like Final Fight, Fighting Force, etc....

Buy/Rent
I would say rent this game first definitely before buying it. The game is all right with a few twists here and there, but there really nothing new about it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/01, Updated 09/04/01