With Nintendo Transfer 2 bringing a number of GameCube classics to Nintendo Transfer On-line Enlargement Pack subscribers very quickly, we appeared into our again catalogue of unfashionable evaluations and located we did not have one for one of the vital best possible preventing video games ever created…till now. Revel in!
Soulcalibur II, of the entire video games on this mighty collection, used to be the person who actually cemented it in our minds as a franchise to have sat along the likes of Boulevard Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken and the perfect opponents of its generation. And some other generation, let’s accept it.
Bringing guns to the birthday celebration would possibly now not appear to be this sort of giant deal this present day, however again in 1999 when the unique Soulcalibur launched, now not many video games had controlled to introduce them smartly, never-mind effectively mix them with a recreation that clings to the flashy, easy-to-learn, super-move pushed fight that used to be so common on the time – and stays so!
Soulcalibur controlled it (development on Soul Edge‘s basis). On the other hand, it used to be locked in a Dreamcast-shaped jail, so this giant, daring, multiplatform sequel used to be the primary SC that many avid gamers performed. The hype pre-release used to be one thing to behold because of this, and fortuitously the sport grew to become out to be an absolute cracker that increased the entirety about its predecessor into one thing we can very luckily sit down down and play, and entirely experience, to this very day. Soulcalibur II is the very definition of an all-timer.
Alright. However what makes it so nice?
Neatly, let’s get started with the fantastic roster: the mythical Mitsurugi, Yoshimitsu, Ivy, Taki (this author’s go-to), Nightmare, Voldo, Cervantes… In truth, once we commence speaking about those characters, we are whisked again to an excellent time when preventing video games arrived as whole applications, filled to the gills with wonderful opponents and dazzling arenas, all of which we would spend a number of time getting to understand in detail. You even get the thrill of unlocking a host of opponents via beating the arcade mode. Take note how a lot a laugh doing easy such things as that used to be?
Soulcalibur’s solid stays one of the vital perfect round, too. It has got one thing for everybody, with clean novice heroes like Mitsurugi, proper as much as off-kilter brawlers like Voldo and Nightmare. This model additionally arrived with Hyperlink as a unique personality and…smartly, he is not anything particular compared to the remainder of the lineup (brutal honesty FTW), however hi there, it is a a laugh bonus, a very easy ‘in’ for Nintendo lovers, and the most productive of the platform-specific visitor characters (Sony were given Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima, Microsoft were given Spawn).
Every fighter within the lineup is designed to attraction on an excessively fundamental degree to gamers who have been raised on Boulevard Fighter and its ilk, and so the core of motion — but even so the side-stepping 2.5D side and the acting of specials — will come as 2nd nature by means of design, leaving you with the unfastened brain-space to paintings your weapon methods into the combo.
And as a substitute of pinpoint accuracy, or fumbling the ball by means of having the guns turn into overbearing or complicated, they roll with a hack-and-slash taste that delivers engrossing and exhilarating fight, giant combinations, clean mixes between weapon and limb assaults, and a few very fancy throws to extremely addictive impact. It is welcoming to newcomers, too, making you are feeling like a proper show-off onerous b*****d who is aware of what they are doing even when you are in reality simply finding out and are fearful of the entirety.
Enjoying in 2025, that is nonetheless an in an instant enticing and ambitious factor, then. Entering into and out of the foreground with a snappy double-tap of your D-pad is one thing that also feels slightly novel, even lately, and timing particular assaults that best happen as you dodge and weave into the again and/or foreground like that is addictive as ever. There are so, such a lot of techniques to sneak an assault and switch the tide whilst you open the fight up into 3 dimensions, even if it is just a bit, as it’s right here.
Having block set to its personal button is all the time an advantage in this type of weapons-based caper, too, supplying you with a lot more keep watch over over defence, and forcing you to root your self to the spot every now and then, converting the glide and velocity of fights and placing you able to utilise the advantages a weapon brings. Those scraps can get unusually (and pleasingly) strategic with a lot of these transferring portions, because of this.
With blockading, dodging throughout a 2.5D aircraft and, lest we overlook, ring-outs, there is quite a lot of techniques to each dominate an enviornment by means of protecting the central flooring, or to play possum and lead your foe to their doom with a snappy side-step and, “Oops, you have got simply been chucked out of the sector while urgent the benefit. Dingus.” There may be artful opponents after which there is artful opponents, mate, Soulcaliber 2 is a artful fighter. Upload in guns that actually do topic, that actually do supplement and upload choices to a roster of impressively various and technical preventing types, and you might be in a combat fan’s dreamland.
So, the fight is fantastic – we’re just right to head on that entrance. The roster is a cracker. The phases are nonetheless stunning to behold. And it continues on this vein, even all this time later. There may be an OTT taste to how the entirety is gifted, proper right down to the remark, that is not elderly an afternoon, both. It is all so pompous, grandiose, and self-important. Outrageous a laugh. We will’t flip it off.
But even so the entire common modes you would look forward to finding, with usual arcade, time assault, survival, workforce battles and a convention mode, the sport additionally comes with a stellar Guns Grasp mode, the place you kick about a large map scrapping everybody and taking their swag. The collectible guns and power side of this has resulted in us pumping manner too many hours into this recreation prior to now – and it is gonna occur once more on Transfer 2, imagine it.
Guns Grasp harkens again, in fact, 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 tale of varieties supplied alongside the best way, as you blast throughout a map of Europe choosing fights with low-ranked foes, wading via dungeons to stand boss battles, and the entire whilst bettering your little fighter till they’re mega-badass.
This can be a mode that is were given far more intensity to it than you could suppose from a cursory look. There are heaps of demanding situations, fit modifiers, and difficult hoops to leap via to growth via its 15 chapters. There may be in actuality so much to sink your tooth into, and it additionally doubles as an excessively exhaustive instructional that walks you via the entirety you want to understand concerning the core fight.
In reality, we would really feel slightly assured in suggesting that only a few trendy opponents, proper as much as the arriving of the newest Mortal Kombat and Boulevard Fighter releases, have controlled to incorporate anything else remotely drawing near a single-player mode as just right as this. It is nonetheless the most productive the collection has to supply on this regard.
When Soulcalibur II first launched, truthfully, we type of had our suspicions. With its flashy console-exclusive characters, extremely just right appears, and apparently large promoting finances, used to be there going to be the intensity required to compare the entire snazziness? Because it grew to become out, this is without doubt one of the actually nice 3-d opponents, and a main instance of ways the perfect video games do not turn into much less relaxing through the years.
