With Nintendo Change 2 bringing a choice of GameCube classics to Nintendo Change On-line Enlargement Pack subscribers very quickly, we regarded into our again catalogue of retro critiques and located we did not have one for among the finest combating video games ever created…till now. Get pleasure from!
Soulcalibur II, of all of the video games on this mighty sequence, was the one that basically cemented it in our minds as a franchise to have sat alongside the likes of Avenue Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken and the perfect fighters of its period. And every other period, let’s face it.
Bringing weapons to the social gathering won’t look like such an enormous deal these days, however again in 1999 when the unique Soulcalibur launched, not many video games had managed to introduce them effectively, never-mind efficiently mix them with a recreation that adheres to the flashy, easy-to-learn, super-move pushed fight that was so fashionable on the time – and stays so!
Soulcalibur managed it (constructing on Soul Edge’s basis). Nonetheless, it was locked in a Dreamcast-shaped jail, so this huge, daring, multiplatform sequel was the primary SC that many players performed. The hype pre-release was one thing to behold in consequence, and by chance the sport turned out to be an absolute cracker that elevated the whole lot about its predecessor into one thing we’ll very fortunately sit down and play, and totally get pleasure from, to this very day. Soulcalibur II is the very definition of an all-timer.
Alright. However what makes it so nice?
Effectively, let’s begin with the unimaginable roster: the legendary Mitsurugi, Yoshimitsu, Ivy, Taki (this author’s go-to), Nightmare, Voldo, Cervantes… Truthfully, as quickly as we begin speaking about these characters, we’re whisked again to an excellent time when combating video games arrived as full packages, stuffed to the gills with superb fighters and dazzling arenas, all of which we would spend an entire lot of time attending to know intimately. You even get the thrill of unlocking a bunch of fighters by way of beating the arcade mode. Bear in mind how a lot enjoyable doing easy issues like that was?
Soulcalibur’s secure stays one of many easiest round, too. It is bought one thing for everybody, with straightforward newbie heroes like Mitsurugi, proper as much as off-kilter brawlers like Voldo and Nightmare. This model additionally arrived with Hyperlink as a particular character and…effectively, he is nothing particular compared to the remainder of the lineup (brutal honesty FTW), however hey, it is a enjoyable bonus, a simple ‘in’ for Nintendo followers, and the perfect of the platform-specific visitor characters (Sony bought Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima, Microsoft bought Spawn).
Every fighter within the lineup is designed to attraction on a really fundamental degree to gamers who’ve been raised on Avenue Fighter and its ilk, and so the core of motion — in addition to the side-stepping 2.5D facet and the performing of specials — will come as second nature by design, leaving you with the free brain-space to work your weapon methods into the combination.
And as a substitute of pinpoint accuracy, or fumbling the ball by having the weapons change into overbearing or advanced, they roll with a hack-and-slash type that delivers engrossing and exhilarating fight, huge combos, straightforward mixes between weapon and limb assaults, and a few very fancy throws to extremely addictive impact. It is welcoming to newbies, too, making you are feeling like a proper show-off exhausting b*****d who is aware of what they’re doing even while you’re really simply studying and are afraid of the whole lot.
Taking part in in 2025, that is nonetheless an instantly participating and spectacular factor, then. Moving into and out of the foreground with a fast double-tap of your D-pad is one thing that also feels fairly novel, even at present, and timing particular assaults that solely happen as you dodge and weave into the again and/or foreground like that is addictive as ever. There are so, so some ways to sneak an assault and switch the tide while you open the fight up into three dimensions, even when it is just a bit, as it’s right here.
Having block set to its personal button is at all times a bonus on this type of weapons-based caper, too, supplying you with rather more management over defence, and forcing you to root your self to the spot at instances, altering the circulation and pace of fights and placing you able to utilise the advantages a weapon brings. These scraps can get surprisingly (and pleasingly) strategic with all these shifting elements, in consequence.
With blocking, dodging throughout a 2.5D airplane and, lest we neglect, ring-outs, there’s quite a lot of methods to each dominate an area by holding the central floor, or to play possum and lead your foe to their doom with a fast side-step and, “Oops, you have simply been chucked out of the world while urgent the benefit. Dingus.” There’s intelligent fighters after which there’s intelligent fighters, mate, Soulcaliber 2 is a intelligent fighter. Add in weapons that basically do matter, that basically do complement and add choices to a roster of impressively diversified and technical combating kinds, and also you’re in a battle fan’s dreamland.
So, the fight is superb – we’re good to go on that entrance. The roster is a cracker. The levels are nonetheless stunning to behold. And it continues on this vein, even all this time later. There’s an OTT type to how the whole lot is offered, proper all the way down to the commentary, that is not aged a day, both. It is all so pompous, grandiose, and self-important. Outrageous enjoyable. We won’t flip it off.
Apart from all of the common modes you’d look forward to finding, with normal arcade, time assault, survival, staff battles and a apply mode, the sport additionally comes with a stellar Weapons Grasp mode, the place you kick a couple of huge map scrapping everybody and taking their swag. The collectible weapons and equipment facet of this has led to us pumping means too many hours into this recreation previously – and it is gonna occur once more on Change 2, consider it.
Weapons Grasp harkens again, after all, to 1996’s Soul Edge (or Soul Blade for us non-Japan dwellers) and its Edge Grasp mode, in that it once more sees a narrative of types supplied alongside the way in which, as you blast throughout a map of Europe choosing fights with low-ranked foes, wading by way of dungeons to face boss battles, and all of the whereas enhancing your little fighter till they’re mega-badass.
This can be a mode that is bought far more depth to it than you may suppose from a cursory look. There are tons of challenges, match modifiers, and hard hoops to leap by way of to progress by way of its 15 chapters. There’s genuinely hundreds to sink your tooth into, and it additionally doubles as a really exhaustive tutorial that walks you thru the whole lot you could know in regards to the core fight.
The truth is, we would really feel pretty assured in suggesting that only a few trendy fighters, proper as much as the arrival of the latest Mortal Kombat and Avenue Fighter releases, have managed to incorporate something remotely approaching a single-player mode nearly as good as this. It is nonetheless the perfect the sequence has to supply on this regard.
When Soulcalibur II first launched, actually, we type of had our suspicions. With its flashy console-exclusive characters, extremely beauty, and seemingly big promoting price range, was there going to be the depth required to match all of the snazziness? Because it turned out, this is among the really nice 3D fighters, and a main instance of how the perfect video games do not change into much less fulfilling over time.
