A Classic Reborn

I once played a 3-D fighting game on my Dreamcast for almost two years in a row. I could have run out and spent a ton of money on the Arcade versions, but my home version was just as much fun. Well, the Dreamcast went the way of the Dodo, and so did one of the greatest fighting games of all time. Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Soul Calibur® II has arrived for the Xbox! I suppose this is good news for Namco and gamers, but bad news for everyone else. After all, if we all rush out to buy our copies to play for two years, what's that going to do to everyone else's sales?

Sucks to be the new guy, don't it?

At any rate, enough of the peripheral junk, let's get to the good stuff! At first glance, it is a bit hard to see a difference between the new version and the old one. The artistic style and feel is exactly the same in both versions, so they really do look very similar. The old versions were all known for having beautifully rendered arenas, and excellent character graphics. The new one certainly hasn't lost anything in that department. The arenas are even better than they were last time around, and the characters are drastically improved. If all that is true, then why did I say it's hard to see a difference? Because they look so similar. The way the fighters move, the style of the artwork, the sounds, and even the controls are all familiar to anyone who played it the first time around. Just like a comfortable pair of shoes, they all just fit perfectly. Let me put it another way: When you come so close to perfection the first time, there's less room to improve.

Mitsurugi: King of the bad hair day.

The roster of fighters has been reworked, as you would expect. Old favorites that are returning for another round are: Mitsurugi, Taki, Kilik, Xianghua, Maxi, Nightmare, Ivy, Astaroth, Voldo, Cervantes, and Yoshimitsu. New characters include: Spawn, Necrid, Hong, Talim, Cassandra, Raphael, and Charade. While some of the old favorites aren't returning, most of the new replacements have some link to the character they are replacing, and have a similar fighting style. So, if you got used to fighting as Hwang, don't sweat his absence, you will be comfortable with Hong's fighting style. The returning fighters still have many of their old moves, making relearning them almost second nature. Astaroth is still a big slow thug with some of the most painful-looking moves around, and Maxi is still a lightning-quick little ball of energy that can put together what looks like some of the most long-winded combo attacks imaginable (doesn't that guy ever get tired?).

The vacation didn't make him any prettier.

One of the nicer things about the way that Soul Calibur II is set up is the familiarity of the controller. I know that some folks may not quite get what I mean, so I'll explain it. The old Dreamcast control had an analog pad and a digital pad on one side and a cluster of four buttons on the other one. That means that the basic buttons are set up exactly the same as the old version was. Once again, this makes it incredibly easy to pick up the new version and play it, if you've never played the old version. (If you never played the first one, it's still very easy to get the hang of, but difficult to master.) Gameplay is so similar to the old version that you could easily get the two confused, if you ignored all the other upgrades. Fortunately, it's kind of hard to miss the other features. There's a truckload of game modes and more unlockable stuff than you can shake a very large stick at. With Namco's reputation for putting out killer games, and with the success of the last console version of Soul Calibur to back it up, Soul Calibur II looks like it may well become the leader of the pack. Considering the size of some of the big dogs in this particular pack, that's saying quite a bit!

By Carlson