SoulCalibur

"The Dreamcast Classic, Now Available on the Xbox 360"

Most of you should know about the original Soul Calibur game that was on the Sega Dreamcast, although many of us never got to play it [including me] because of how the PS2 caused the Dreamcast to go down in flames. Luckily, the good people at Namco are allowing a new generation of gamers to finally experience this game by porting it to the Xbox 360 Arcade.

Story: 6

Unfortunately there is no real story in this game, mainly because the story mode had to be taken out so the game would be small enough to get past the 150 Megabyte limit on XBLA games. But from what you see, the game is basically about the two swords called Soul Edge [evil] and Soul Calibur [good]. Soul Edge is being wielded by Nightmare, who is the quintessential evil ******* in this game, so you have to beat him.

You can also look at the Character Profiles to get a look at their story, but I haven't checked all of them yet. It also isn't really delved into during this game, but everything takes place in 1587.

Gameplay: 7

Comparing everything in this game to Soul Calibur III [or IV which will be out in a couple weeks] will show you just how much has advanced in the series, but Soul Calibur is still an excellent game with very well balanced characters.

As I said above, the Story Mode was taken out because of the limitations on size for Xbox Live Arcade games, even though those limitations were removed recently [but just a little too late for Soul Calibur]. But you still have the Arcade mode, which is exactly what it sounds like, a fight through 8 characters. Its nothing special but it is fun. You also have some things like Survival or Team Battle, which are also exactly what they sound like.

All 19 characters also come unlocked with the game [as does every other bonus in the game] without you having to do any work. And as I said before, they are very well balanced and fun to play as.

Challenge: 6

All you have to do is beat Arcade Mode with every character to consider it finished, the AI's difficulty also varies on what level you set them on, but no matter what you will do everything there is to do very quickly.

Controls: 8

Thankfully, the 360 Controller is similar enough to the Dreamcast one that you can control the characters very fluidly. As soon as you memorize how to do all of the combos [which will take a while], you should be able to easily pull them off.

Graphics: 9

Back in 1999 when this game first came out, it was hailed as a Graphical marvel, and proof of just how much Graphics could advance. And it still looks great today, even though some people are whining about "no Wide Screen support".... boo-hoo.

The characters and the levels all look great and there is a lot of detail to everything. And Soul Calibur is also one of the best looking games on the Xbox Live Arcade from what I have seen.

Sound: 7

I don't know what the sound was like on the original version, but this port defiantly takes a hit here.

The sound effects, and the Music are great, but the problem is that there are no English Voiceovers for the characters [everything else is]. I have looked in all of the menus and I could not find a way to take them off of Japanese. I have no idea why English was not put in, it just sounds like laziness too me.

Atmosphere: 8

The story is nonexistent in this game, but the complex fighting is enough to immerse you.

Multiplayer: 8

Soul Calibur gets even better when you an play with a friend, but unfortunately you are unable to play online so everything ha to be local. If you can get a friend over to play with you [which may be tough now, since everyone loves going online so much] you should have fun.

Replayability: 6

After you have done everything there isn't much left to do except play Multiplayer. And as I said before, everything comes unlocked with the game and Story Mode was removed so that took out a few hours of time that could be spent with the game.

Pros:
Lets more people experience the classic game, well balanced characters, great graphics.

Cons:
Removal of Story Mode, Starting game with everything unlocked decreases replay value, lack of English voice overs, no online multiplayer.

Should you get it:
You only have to pay 800 MS Points for this game so if you have never played the first one, or just want to have something to help get ready for Soul Calibur IV in a couple weeks go ahead. But if you have a Dreamcast, then stick with that version.

Overall:

Soul Calibur is often thought of as the greatest fighting game of all time, and while this port of the classic Dreamcast game does not live up to that, it is still a great game. And if Namco was able to get everything into this game, and include Online Multiplayer, I would of definitely bumped up the score to a 9.

7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/08

Game Release: SoulCalibur (US, 07/02/08)