Soul Calibur 2

Its little known to most gamers now that the Dreamcast, game-wise, did extremely well. Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur, House of the Dead, and even that-lowly-space-dancing-game-we-will-not-name, the Dreamcast did very well for itself. The issue was really that the PS2 wooed everyone's hearts with a DVD player, nothing more. In that vein, a lot of gamers are still pining for the times we had with the originals.

Enter Soul Calibur 2. On every next gen console (XBOX, PS2, Gamecube), each game has been tailor made for the console, but still almost perfectly fits the old game. Because the gameplay is the same, I'm a whore for graphics, and the Gamecube addition of Link was a cheap attempt to get Zelda fanboys, I'm reviewing the XBOX version. Oh yeah, and the fact that Mike has this game and it's the fighter to whip out at parties. That too. (Hah! Eat that, Mike! I got top review!)

Soul Calibur 2 is a game that really sets itself apart from other fighter games for one reason: WEAPONS. Instead of being like any other fighter game out there and giving all the characters nothing but moves they stole from Bruce Lee movies, Soul Calibur has the characters actually use... WEAPONS. From a bigass sword to kunai to nunchaku, this game basically covers the board in "Kickass oriental weapons and more".



The game itself is smooth as a baby's behind. Fighting can still be accomplished by mashing buttons, but this game takes a decent percentage of that cheapness out of the game by allowing many counters. (Which still hasnt fixed that stinking Rafael thing with the Y button. I hate that.). Whipping out combos is more or less just like any other fighter game, in the sense that you can either memorize the combos before the match (Boring), or push buttons in random order praying to god for something cool.

The game looks and sounds beautiful. Honestly, there isnt so much you can do with fighter game graphics, because it could be 2D as far as the vast majority of us care. However, Soul Calibur 2 keeps it nice and tight with the 3D, and still gived the 2D fighter feel, while letting your characters run around in a 3D arena. The weapons and hits are spot-on, and I never felt like the game had that "Floaty Hit" feel that a lot of fighter games I play do.

Oh, and for those of you dissapointed because you're too embarassed to walk into a video game store and purchase "DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball" with a straight face, this game features your normal load of sexuality. It seems like any fighter game, because of its inherent fighter-game-ness, requires bouncing b***s. Not that I'm complaining. One debate I've had constantly with people hanging out playing Soul Calibur is if you can actually see Taki's nipples via error of on purpose. Off that topic.



For you wierd people who like mundane storylines in your video games, there is actually a story mode. Through this mode, you can get weapons and/or progress through the story by beating enemies in one-on-one combat. This has been done before, but this feels rather complex, making me honestly say this is one of the best first-player modes on a fighter game there is.

There's only really one issue with this game, and it happens with all fighter games. I'd love to see a fighter game with enough depth to keep me entertained for years. However, as it seems, if you don't like fighters, this game will bore the tears out of you. While I suppose it's better than dealing with s***ty RPG elements like in some of the Virtua Fighter games I will not name, I wish this game had built the weapons system a tad bit more. Granted they built it solidly already, but I would have loved to see some form of extreme story mode for getting these weapons. However, that's like complaining about striking gold in a goldmine and not having the gold magically come to you, but whatever.



Overall, I give this game one mushroom. A somewhat enhanced story mode would have been rather awesome. One thing that would really make me piss myself is if they let characters choose what weapons they want to use, and then build up stats for it, like... well.. an RPG. Okay, I'll stop comparing fighter games to RPGs. One mushroom.

4 star(s) out of 5

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