100 Reviews for 100 Games: #2 Soul Calibur

Soul Calibur is a very easy fighting game to pick up and enjoy through its simple controls and easy to grasp mechanics. Upon turning on the game the player is immediately introduced to the roster of main characters. Each character has a distinctive feel and play style inviting all kinds of play styles and entices players to learn new characters as they provide very different play experiences adding a welcome element of discovery to the fighting game genre.

The combat feels very heavy and powerful as each attack has immense aesthetic feedback, characters swing their weapons and bodies with all their might creating a very satisfying feeling of power and fidelity. The gameplay is very to pick as it allows players with very little knowledge of the game to start creating a flurry of combos and devasting attacks that chomp away chunks of their opponents lives as green pieces from the the health bar fly off the screen. As you may pick up on this game is very big on feedback that directly leads to player empowerment. Some characters yell and lunge their weapons forward while heavy characters stomp around the arena and heavy attacks make characters writhe in pain and fall to the ground. All of this is more than just audio and visual eye candy as these cues are all part of the secondary feedback that telegraph to the player the state of the game with great effect.

The game is balanced in a peculiar way as in rather than giving each character an balanced and equal feel, instead each character feels overpowered in one aspect creating a sense of controlled chaos. Whether its Voldo's slippery control style with unorthodox stances to Astaroth's giant weapon that seems to clear the screen with every swipe. This all correlates a common theme which is empowerment, the genius is that at the end of the day every character feels satisfying to control, gives the player a feeling that they have the upper hand, and is still statistically balanced. While each character may seem to fight very differently all of their attacks and moves still adhere to a set of guidelines and attack rules. There are only 3 main attack types, horizontal, vertical, and kicks as well as a slew of technical moves which include jumping, grabbing, and guarding. Guarding is activated via a button press instead of moving away from the player and hops and crouching allow for more advanced dodging maneuvers along with impact guard which allows for offensive blocking. Since the fighters can move in all 3 dimensions the game takes advantage of this by having attacks and grabs change depending which direction characters are attacked from.

Since this is a console port of a fighting game, the designers felt the need to pad out the fighting experience with extra modes, which really just amount to drawn out explanations for characters to pummel each other with various conditions. With the mission mode allowing players to build up techniques by having to perform various conditions besides just defeating your opponent as quickly and violently as possible. The core experience never gets muddled, however, the game is first and foremost about fighting and delivers its unique experience allowing players to enjoy it in its purest form with a combat system that is incredibly satisfying and easy to play.