Soulcalibur IV (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

Soul caliber has been a popular fighting game since the days it debuted in arcades and for the dream cast. Over the years it has grown and evolved, perfecting its fighting styles, animations, and characters. Being a major fan of the Soul caliber 4 franchise, I had to get it.

The Good:
The graphics have made a nice jump forward with higher rez characters and beautiful environmental lighting. The custom character creator is much improved over the original in SC3. Giving much more options to customize. Your even able to change breast size of female characters and missile in male. Which is good because a speed caricature with a dagger just doesn’t look right with a lot of bulk in one area if you catch my drift. Original characters can also have custom clothing rather than just coloring them like in the last game. Items, clothing, and weapons are right in character creation and are bought in that mode, rather than buying item in the item shop and then making the character. Weapons are right there on hand so you don’t need to have everything unlocked right away to make something cool like before. The speed of the game has been dropped a little from what it was in SC3 but is still faster pace than SC2, so it’s just right in my opinion.

The Random:
Darth Vador and his apprentice are in it… its kind of cool and all but you can’t make your own Jedi in the character creator and they just don’t fit. There’s a cut scene where Mitsurugi’s sword clashed with Vador’s light saber and all I can think is “how doesn’t a light saber cut through a steal katana but can cut through the 3 foot thick hall of a space ship?” I don’t know, maybe that’s just me…


The Bad:
The game seems a little lacking in content. The quest mode “tails of the sword” has been removed and replaced with “tower of lost souls” which is nothing more than a survival mode covered in wrapping paper. The quest mode they had before actually had a story to it, and where as it needed a lot of working in SC3, I think they should have expanded and improved on that rather than totally dropping in SC4. I don’t care what others may say, I liked having a story for all my custom characters. On another note, in the custom character creator your characters stats and strengths are determined by their cloths. This is a good and bad idea all at the same time. It seems the only way to get a character to have a lot of power is to load them up all in armor and a crap load of cloths. So if you want a bikini swordsman don’t expect them to have more than 50% health’s and be able to kill anything in less than 40 hits.

All in all, it’s a decent game and possibly one of the best fighters out there. If you like the soul caliber franchise or just like fighting games in general I would defiantly recommend this game.

This game was the ultimate reason we stepped up to the ps3 since we were pretty pleased with the ps2 we already had. If you're really picky though, I'd say wait till you can find it under 20 bucks or used, since it doesn't really offer a whole lot more than the last version. Like most of the titles we have on PS3, we found this one a little short of the hype, but I still love the game.

There isn't a whole lot more to it than WYSIWYG. There is online play to take on some non-ai challengers if your roommate/friend/spouse has had enough already, but otherwise there isn't a whole lot more to it than previous releases. There are some new character moves/weapons and Vadar/Yoda is much fun, but I actually miss Heihachi Mishima who was the Tekken guest star on PS2. Plus the single player questing is actually a little disappointing compared to previous releases.

Ultimately, how well you enjoy this game will probably depend directly on how familiar the Soul Calibur line is to you already. If its your first foray, you'll probably find nothing to complain about and be completely satisfied, but if your looking for bigger and better than what you've seen already in the line, you may wish you had tried a different sequel instead. Its still a to-notch fighter in its own right though; good enough that I bought this again because my hubby stepped on our first copy, but as with so many of the recent games my heart is still with the PS2 releases. I would say its worth the price at anything under 20 bucks.

Quite a number of gamers have been eagerly anticipating the next installment of the Soulcalibur series, considering the notable quality of past iterations of the franchise. Making its debut on the current generation of platforms, Soulcalibur IV once again offers fantastical, weapons-based combat and an inspired cast of characters, which should be appetizing to fighting game enthusiasts and casual players alike. I was particularly excited to play Soulcalibur IV, especially in light of my fondness for the first Soulcalibur title. I'm pleased to say that this game is an excellent addition to the series -- despite its problems -- and should find a welcome spot in your collection.

Soulcalibur IV is a great game -- especially if you've been following and enjoying the series for the past few years. There are over 30 characters to try out (granted, some of them are clones of each other), several gorgeous stages to battle in and enough special moves to keep you memorizing commands for months. As you might expect, Soulcalibur IV also has a healthy number of modes and unlockables that will keep you thoroughly engaged, along with a new online mode that lets you challenge other Soulcalibur fanatics through the magical power of the Internet.

Soulcalibur IV boasts the standard Arcade and Story modes that will be familiar to fighting game fans. I was actually surprised that virtually every character in the game has a "story" to play through, but I was disappointed that Story mode only lasts about five rounds and you can get through a character in ten minutes or less. There aren't really any cinematics except one towards the end, and many of those are repeated. What's there, however, is solid and works to give at least a marginal backdrop to the cast.

At first, this game seems a bit short. You can play through every character rather quick, but that's not the point. If you're into the story, then I suppose you might like it (but even the story mode is short and not very in depth). I was more interested in the custom characters. If you like creating your own characters, this game can be quite versatile....as long as you're creative and have a smidge of patience. You can't design whatever you want....well, at least not right off the batt. You do actually have to play through the HARDEST part of the game to get more tools to design your characters: "the Tower of Souls." This will certainly challenge ANY fighting game aficionado. If you thought the game was short, believe me, you'll wish it was shorter once you start tackling the tower of souls. 60 floors to beat (not including decent into the basement floors, which I believe is more like infinity since it's a 'survival mode' approach). But to get the most out of playing the tower of souls, you must defeat each floor in a specific way that is only hinted at (but you can find out how online...but that doesn't make it any easier). Oh, one last perk: who doesn't like playing as Darth Vader? Or, if you have the $4.99 to buy him, YODA!!!!

This game is good,got this game because i love the soul calibur series and i love the star was saga so mash em up together and Bam!awesomeness!Compared to the other fighting games,this one is the real deal,nice graphics and good gameplay.