BOMT: Soul Calibur IV

I just traveled across the mystic desert that is Soul Calibur IV. My throat is parched, my thumbs are sore, and I have some things to say. Let’s get started.

I have been a fan of the Soul Calibur series for a long time. Each game has the usual characters that, like wine, only get better with time. On top of the awesome selection of diverse fighters you are also offered a few special guests from other notable sources of awesome. In Soul Calibur IV you are allowed characters from the Star Wars universe. If you play on Xbox you are able to play as Yoda. I played on the PS3 so I was open to Darth Vader and his apprentice Star Killer. Now the game definitely made some big changes from its predecessors. The characters have changed in story and appearance. A lot of the characters have donned more heavy and elaborate costumes for the purpose of driving the new battle feature of damaging ones armor. During a fight you can do certain actions to damage the other characters armor and slowly strip them down to their bare essentials (wink wink). Performing counter attacks or successfully hitting with powered up heavy attacks will break apart their armor showing that they are weaker and easier to damage. So when you see the end game boss standing proud in full plate mail that was made to look like the nemean lion, you can break that all off in just a few moves. This brings me to character creation.

In character creation you can make some pretty crazy things. It opens you to create the ultimate fighter using other characters moves and specials or creating completely original ones. I threw together some simple characters that kick all kinds of ass. Playing through single player arcade and story mode will grant you money to purchase cooler moves, weapons, and costumes for your characters.

 

Other than the basic single and multiplayer options you can take the challenge of The Tower of Souls which is similar to Mortal Kombat style tower advancement. As you ascend the tower by winning matches you get to change things up each fight. In some fights you get to choose some alternate characters to switch out. As per the usual Soul Calibur challenge style you will be put under certain restraints or advantages in fights such as regenerative health or hidden bombs across the floor and walls. I never made it to the top of the tower in fear that if I die in the game I die in real life.

I really enjoyed Soul Calibur IV. Much like any fighting game I like learning the unique combo attacks and watching them fail against people online. Soul Calibur not only utilizes quarter circle moves but forces you to make your right thumb multitask with square, circle, triangle, X combos. After playing online for I while I actually started to understand a few other fighting games more. Not like “Mike Ross understand” them but enough that to make some people shut up. One problem I have had with the Soul Calibur series is the over emphasis behind making methodical characters. I was interested by how Vader fit into the scheme of things so I sat through his back story and how he came into the Soul Calibur tournament. He had a good 2 or 3 page explanation full of plot twists and character development. Reading through the character bios was like watching the opening credits to star wars scroll by. I get that Soul Calibur is the ultimate power in the universe and all these great warriors are fighting to get it but something simple like “My village burned down, you bastards!” would have sufficed. Mortal Kombat is a grand tournament with the grand prize of not being exterminated. Twisted Metal granted one wish to the winner. Neither game had a novel sized explanation. I don’t need the Cohen brothers to direct my video games, just throw me into the fighting and I can figure it out from there.

I would highly recommend playing the game just to compare with previous ones. They made a lot of happy changes and any fan will enjoy the new special moves and campaign modes.

Well my little goonies, we’re almost done with the might Box of Many Things. For the grand finale I will be playing Final Fantasy XIII.