The Soul lives on.... (Soul Calibur (DC))

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Product:	Soul Calibur (DC)
Date:	30/07/01 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good graphics, tonnes of modes, AI is perfect

Disadvantages: .............

Ok so Soul Calibur may not be a sega game but we got it first for the DC. Probably the best beat’em up around at present and It would stay like that for a while. This is mainly because of its cool moves and great modes but you will just have to read on…
modes;
Vs battle mode-Battle it out against friends. Have a brawl with your friends and in a way, this is what the game is all about.
Team battle mode-Get into your teams with your favourite characters and
Do your thing. You can also play multiplayer teams, which is also a great time with your mates.
Practice mode-beat the heck out of a lifeless player. This is an excellent mode to practice your favourite characters moves and fighting style. You will see how powerful and manoeuvrable your player is and really get a feel to them. Time attack mode-this is a one-player mode where you go against the computer to finish it as quickly as possible. You just choose a character and get going. This is a good place to practice finishing off quickly and it will improve your skills of the game, so I suggest you try it.

The main game mode for Soul Calibur is the Mission battle mode that is the game really shows of its depth where every other game of this sort seems to lack. You progress through missions like killing two people when you are being poisoned or in quick sand. There is another complex concept to this mode. Cards and points. When you complete a mission you will get some points and if you do swell, sometimes bonus points. With these points you can go to the art gallery and buy cards. These cards open levels unlock modes, give you more cards to buy, just a normal card, make new maps and other various things. IT is usually the expensive cards that open the better options but you have to spend wisely. It is for this reason that I say the game has a lot of depth to it.
A good thing for novices in this game is that you can view the command list and go mental with these new stu
nts.

The characters in this game are superb. They all look fantastic and their moves are beautiful to watch. As the usual beat’emup gives you a load of muscle bound hunks that just wrestle each other to the floor. But soul Calibur gives every character a unique weapon that reflects their personality and the way they fight. Some of them are: A whip/sword, num-chucks, a big stick thing like a pole vault and a dagger. These are just some of the weapons given. But these weapons aren’t just used to bludgeon your opponent to death, lord no. You can pull off moves with them. For instance, one guy can put his opponent onto his hands that are knives and spin them round and round, ewwwww!
The backgrounds and scenery for each character is also very original and fun to go to. They make sure that you feel like you are in the real place. Every level has a circle and you can hit people off of it. Like hitting them into a lake and win the match. The gameplay is excellent and definitely one of the smoothest fighting games I have seen for a while… not since streets of rage… The controls are easy to move around and moves are very easy to do as well which makes the game more fun to play than some fiddly, tedious game that we have seen.

The graphics are gorgeous and it boasts some of the best on the Dreamcast apart from shenmue maybe. You will look at the arena and get pumped up for an amazing fight in an amazing place which all looks great. Namco haven’t let us down and I am hoping for a sequel to see some more of these graphics.

The sound is good with some good music going on and the characters speaking. At the end of every fight they will say something or have a line of text saying something witty.

In my views it is the best fighting game around with few games to challenge it. It boasts a combination of graphics, gameplay, sound, originality and some mega modes. We have never seen this kind of Calibur in a game a
nd we hope to see another one like it soon.

T_W

Summary: