X-Box Soul Calibur 4 Review ( 9.5 out of 10 ) ...

August 21, 2008 ... Review by Chad

This is the game that I’ve been wanting to play ever since I played Soul Calibur 2 on the original Xbox. Since SC3 was a step back graphically, I could never really get into it while there were other fighters out there like DOA4 that just blew it away (at least in my eyes).

SC4 came out with much fanfare, and instant bickering over the system-exclusivity of certain Star Wars characters. Yoda appears in the 360 version, and Vader for the PS3. This is a review of the 360 version played with an arcade stick, so please take that into consideration as you read the review.

The first thing I noticed when I popped this game in was that this certainly wasn’t just a tiny upgrade from the previous games in the series, it was a giant leap forward. Controls work smoothly, you barely have to do anything to open up the extra characters in the game (something that Nintendo should take notes on), and the graphical effects in the game are among some of the best I’ve seen on the 360.

There’s one thing about the game that I just didn’t like. The female characters in the game have chests about as big as most normal people’s heads. As an avid Dead or Alive fan you’re probably wondering what I’m griping about, but to be honest it’s all a little overdone. Just look up pictures of Ivy or Sophitia from the game on Google and you’ll see exactly what I mean. In fact that’s probably all you’ll see. I miss the days of Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, days when the only character with gigantic chesticles was Taki. Now Taki, Ivy, Sophitia, Shura, Kamikirimusi, and Setsuka are all just ridiculously proportioned. It doesn’t affect the way the game plays, but it’s just something that a lot of people will find a little extreme.

To finish out the gripes I have with the game, the soundtrack to the game isn’t exactly amazing. It seems that most of the pieces in the game repeat far too often, and just don’t differ from each other that much. You can extend the soundtrack for an extra $15 online (thanks a LOT Bandai Namco), but no one in his or her right mind would pay for that. There’s also another character slot that will be downloadable content later in the game’s lifespan, but I really wish they would just open that character up now. The last complaint I have is that a choice of weapons with different abilities aren’t available at the character selection screen, and haven’t been since the game was Soul Blade back on the PSX. That would have really been amazing to have in this game.

Now excuse me while I get back to what makes SC4 worth your hard-earned money. The characters are all reasonably balanced with only a couple of exceptions. Astaroth and Sophitia can be abused, and Raphael has always been a pain to deal with. Other than that though, most of the characters in the game play really well.

The addition of Star Wars characters is something that people will either love or loathe. There are only a couple of characters in the game (as of this writing, I have a feeling one more is coming), and they don’t necessarily make the game better or worse. Yoda can be a pain to play as or against. Starkiller (The Apprentice) is a cool character that I think just about anyone will like once they see him in action.

There are two modes in the game that really make me want to recommend this game to anyone, even lonely people out there who are just going to play the game by themselves. Create a Soul (CaS) is the best character creation systems I’ve even seen in a fighting game, and the Tower of Souls (ToS) is an adventure game that will challenge every bit of gaming fiber in you. These two sort of work in tandem as you need to create different characters in order to defeat some of the harder levels in ToS. It works in reverse too as you earn money and rewards to use for CaS in order to make a character that you can use in order to clear the next set of bosses. It’s also nice that the achievements in this game actually mean something. The more achievements you get, the more items open up in CaS mode.

There are so many reasons to buy this game that I really can’t go into detail about each one. I wouldn’t go as far as say that this game revolutionizes fighters, but it certainly gets nearly every little thing right. Even after all these years, the soul still burns.

Completion Time – You’ll put more time into this game than you can imagine, even 1-player modes.

Achievement Information – 30 of 50 achievements are needed to unlock all CaS parts, the rest are rather tough an time-consuming to obtain.

Soul Calibur 4 360 At A Glance
	9.5	The Good	Plays like a dream. Online with someone on the same continent is great. The announcer. CaS and Tower modes. Destructible outfits.
		The Bad	Mammaries that will make you want to hide the game from children. Soundtrack is bland. Where are Li Long and Hwang?
	Amazing	The Verdict	Buy it and buy an arcade stick for it. I even bought two.

 

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