Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360, 2008)

ANOTHER SOULCALIBUR GAME BUT NOW WITH FINISHING MOVES AND STAR-WAR FIGURES,WHAT THE HELL?COMPLAINTS:IF YOU'VE PLAYED THIS GAME YOU'LL NOTICE THE PHYSICS ARE SIMILAR TO 3 BUT A DRIP HEAVIER.ITS JUST BARLEY SLOWER.THE FINISH MOVES ARE KIND OF SILLY AND THERES STILL NO BLOOD!PLUS ITS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THE FINISH MOVES ON SOME ONE UNLESS THEY OVER BLOCK A LOT OR IF YOU ARE EVENLY MATCHED AND YOUR BOTH DECENT.IM PERSONALLY NOT BAD AT SOUL CALIBUR,IVE WON ABOUT 10 TOURNAMENTS IN FIRST PLACE AND HAVE NEVER GOTTEN LESS THAN 2ND PLACE EVER. THAT'S PROBABLY DUE TO THE FACT THAT IVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF PRACTICING WITH SOME VERY GOOD PLAYERS.SO WE DO PLAY A LOT!BUT WE PLAY SOULCALIBUR 4 THE LEAST THOUGH.I THINK THAT'S BECAUSE THE STUFF THEY ADDED TO 4 COMES OFF A LITTLE CHEESY AND UNFAIR.YODA FOR EXAMPLE IS VERY SHORT AND CANT BE THROWN.ITS LIKE FIGHTING GON FROM TEKKEN!I CAN STILL BEAT HIM THOUGH , BUT HAVE TO DO A BUNCH OF DUMB LOOKING MOVES JUST TO REACH DOWN THERE!ALGOL, THE HEAD HONCHO OF THE GAME IS A CHEAP ASS IN GENERAL,LOTS OF POWER HOUSE MOVES BOT HES QUICK PLUS CAN THROW A CRAP TON OF ENERGY BALLS AND TELEPORT.ALSO HE LOOKS LIKE A DAMN DRAGONBALL Z CHARACTER! FORTUNATELY STAR-WAR AND BOSS CHARACTERS ARE USUALLY BANNED FROM TOURNAMENTS ANYWAY...SO THEY DID ADD A LOT OF NEW STUFF TO THE GAME AND A LOT OF NEW CHARACTERS THAT (I DON'T REALLY LIKE).IF ITS NOT BROKE DON'T TRY TO FIX IT!!ON THE PLUS SIDE, COMPLIMENTS NOW:ITS THE BEST FIGHTING GAME ON PS3 OR 360 PERIOD!!ITS A VERY FUN GAME IN GENERAL AND is FULL OF AWESOME GRAPHICS,SOUNDS AND EXCITEMENT!IF YOU LIKE THE OTHER SOULCALIBURS YOU'LL LIKE THIS ONE TOO AND ITS A MUST HAVE TO COMPLETE YOUR FIGHTING GAME COLLECTION.THERE ARE ALOT OF GREAT THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME ACTUALLY BUT MY FAVORITE SOULCALIBURS ARE 1 AND 2 SO THAT'S WHY I MIGHT COME OFF AS A PRUDE!REALLY THOUGH IF YOUVE NEVER PLAYED SOULCALIBUR THEN YOULL PROBALY THINK THIS IS THE BEST F'N GAME EVER f'N MADE!!SO GO PLAY IT NOW!!!!!!thanks for reading this and sorry about all the yelling...

Short review:

I bought this game summer 2008 when it first came out. I thought it was great, but I quickly put it down because I guess I wasn't interested in it as much.

Fast foward to late 2009 and I had recently bought tekken 6, also, before that I bought soulcalibur on XBL and I was greeted with the same pitch perfect gameplay and nostalgia from 10 years ago.

I'm going through a rabid star wars phase, so buying this game again was definitely on my radar. And for less than 16 bucks, you really can't go wrong with this game.

Likes:
- polished fighting system (harkenes back to soulcalibur 2, and ditches the broken float-fest that is soulcalibur 3.)

- tower of souls is a nice edition to the series. You basically ascend a tower and fight a ton of enemies while earning items and gold to use on the create a character mode.

- starkiller's pretty badass. Super effective in all aspects of battle.

- it's the most polished and well organized game since soulcalibur 2. No more pointless modes, just good, clean fighting, with tons of depth and substance. Story modes and tower of souls modes are great additions to the single player experience.

Dislikes:

- star wars characters are really gimmicky.

- yoda's pretty much the most broke character in the game.

- create a character could've been a bit more deep.

- online netcode could be a little bit better.

- kinda miss the edgemaster quests from soulcalibur and soulcalibur 2.

- you need to pay to unlock vader

Conclusion:

If you hated soulcalibur 3, this game redeems itself in every possible way. It's a gorgeous game, with tight, fluid controls, an incredibly deep easy to learn hard to master, fast paced, fighting system, and a character balance that is much more polished than it's previous entry. Although star wars cameos are a bit on the gimmicky side, but at least starkiller is cool. I would've liked to have a better netcode with this game as well, but a lot of players I play against have really weak connections. Story mode and tower of souls just engross the player and I miss the edgemaster quests from the first two games.

Overall, it's a great package. It's worth every penny if you can find it cheap. It's still worth the money if you see it full priced.

9/10

This game isn't as extensive as we expect in games these days, but we have to keep in mind that this is an arcade-style fighting game. You won't see much story, character development, or dialogue and don't expect to be moved by the time the credits roll (half an hour into playing Story Mode with a certain character). What Soulcalibur IV DOES supply are plenty distinct, playable characters and the smooth gameplay that earned the franchise a place in the genre. If you like weapon-based combat, Soulcalibur IV should be your pick. Also, the Character Creation option is expanded, and takes some playing around to find all the options available to you.

Some downsides include:
-Star Wars characters don't seem to fit like Link and Spawn did in the second game.
-Team Versus Mode is missing, a feature that always made versus matches more engrossing.
-Although character leveling is there for customization purposes, they cap off very quickly (level 9 or 10), so any run with your favorite character is short.

In summary, Soulcalibur IV is one of the best arcade fighting games you can buy, so get it if you like the genre and can throw down twenty bucks.

The graphics of Soul calibur IV have a better appeal than the original. There are more characters to obtain and use throughout gameplay. I do like the single player mode in which you can ascend or decend the "TOWER", thus gaining more skills for your character. ie: better fighting power, better defense, more equipment to obtain as well as "special" abilities. At first, its a little difficult(atleast for me) to try and learn all the various moves a character can perform. But, at the end of the day, it does make gameplay more interesting. A new twist in this game is using the starwar character YODA. How he ended up in this game is anyones guess. For a little guy, he is a worthy opponent. But, all in all, its still just a fighting game with better graphics. What I don't like is in single character play (not the tower" mode, you fight your opponent thru I think 8 levels and thats it. The game just ends. The creators should have put in special levels or special items you can obtain in this mode rather than just end. Graphics are alot better than the original. all in all, not bad. It just seems there should be a better story line to follow, paths to take and not just be pick up a weapon and fight. In two player mode, I think the battles are better as with single player mode, the CPU character is somewhat predictable. It keeps me humored, but thats about it.

I decided to buy this game after playing it extensively at a friend's house. I am a fan of the Soul Calibur series, and this game is one of the best. The character creation feature is very extensive, and arcade mode is what you would expect it to be. The only thing of lesser quality than previous titles is this games story mode. Unless you feel like reading through many screens of text on the same background, the story is non-existant. It just consist of fighting almost the exact same characters, in 5 stages. However the new Tower of Lost Souls is a great feature, and is something nice and innovative like you would expect from a game these days. I truly suggest that you buy it, as long as you have liked previous Soul Calibur titles you've bought.