You probably have fond memories of the particularly impressive and quite technical fighting game that (allegedly) was Soul Calibur 3 for the PS2. Well, I don’t. Never played the thing. What I do remember though is just how brilliant the original Soul Calibur game was. Both in the arcades and on the beloved Sega Dreamcast in the comfort of my home. It was, after all, the game that led me to the discovery of my refined and frankly banal button-smashing technique; the bane of any average to moderate skilled SC gamer. All I had to do was randomly and quickly push every available button while moving the control stick around and simultaneously clicking on the shoulder buttons. Ahh, the days…

Shockingly, I haven’t really enjoyed a good fighting game since. Not that I tried or anyone would care, mind you, but still. Then again, Soul Calibur IV, or apparently Soulcalibur IV as Ubisoft and Namco prefer calling the thing, does seem like a great chance to revisit the genre. It looks absolutely stunning, will sport new fighting techniques, introduce a few intriguing and probably ridiculous back-story bits, and -yes- will even feature a very playable Darth Vader. A Yoda too! Oh, and finally there will be some proper online multiplayer options available to help me button-smash on a global level. Hooray!

Now, to the more practical bits of news: Soul Calibur IV will hit European stores on July 31 2008, which is quite soon. It will only be available for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Posted on April 18th, 2008 by konstantinos