Title: Soul Calibur IVPlatform: Xbox 360
Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Rating: 8.8
“Soul Calibur IV” is an old favorite with a top shelf online upgrade.
When Soul Calibur was originally released for the Dreamcast it was easily the best game of its time. Four installments later, Soul Calibur remains a dominant player in the Fighting genre. The fluid animation has only gotten better with time. And you’ll be surprised at how good old favorites like Nightmare look.
Soul Calibur IV introduces a few new features including the Tower of Lost Souls mode, a soul gauge system, and of course Yoda.
At the end of each battle you’ll earn money that you can use to purchase locked players, different weapons and clothing. From there you can swing by the Character Creation screen to modify existing characters and user-created characters. Each weapon and clothing option helps to heighten your characters skill-set. Looking cool isn’t the name of the game here. You’ll come up with some pretty quirky outfits that will simply make your character bad ass.
One of the best features of “Soul Calibur IV” is the online component. Users will experience little to no lag when executing the high speed combos that have made Soul Calibur famous. Unfortunately, you can’t work any team battles in the versus mode.
Team battle is reserved only for the Tower of Lost Souls, which is by far the best mode of the game. You can ascend and descend the levels in the tower unlocking different items to save for character modifications.
The most disappointing feature of Soul Calibur IV is the Story Mode. Despite having nearly 30 characters to choose from, you’ll fly by the story mode in less than 30 minutes. It’s just not designed for long term play. So, if you’re interested in keeping your soul burning get online.
Each character’s story begins with a long winded opening you’ll have to read through. For instance, Yoda senses tremors in the Force to explain why he’s left his exile in the Dagobah System to sign on to a video game. On a side note, you’ll enjoy hearing Yoda’s little catch phrases at the start of each battle.
Soul Calibur IV introduces a Soul-Gauge system, and a force gauge system for the Jedi. Too bad Yoda doesn’t have many force attacks. I wouldn’t mind a nice little Jedi push. When a soul gauge flashes red, you can put an opponent in a state of Soul Crush and execute a Critical Finish. It takes a while to do this, but you’ll want to get used to this if you’re into player Achievements.
Speaking of Yoda, he is not as fun to play with as you’d think. He fights more like he did in his battle with count dooku in Star Wars Episode 2. He jumps all over the place with his light saber and is somewhat difficult to control. THe best part is pitting him against a character called “The Apprentice,” who despite not being Darth Vader (who is only in the PS3 version), puts up a pretty good light saber battle.
All in all, Soul Calibur IV is a great fighting game with an online component that edges out the competition. You’ll get hours of game play online, just don’t expect to be challenged in the Story mode.
Love having Yoda in the game