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Easily one of the most impressive fighting games to ever launch with a console

Soul Calibur is a series you've probably heard of, if not played. But do you know where this series started? It started first in the arcades, then made its way to the Sega Dreamcast. The original Soul Calibur was developed by Project Soul and published by Namco. It was released exclusively on the Dreamcast in 1999. In fact, it was a launch game for the Dreamcast in North America, and this is one awesome launch game. Soul Calibur would quickly prove what the Dreamcast was capable of.

SC is a weapons-based fighting game. Fighters use weapons such as swords, spears, daggers, and other sharp objects. You can move in any direction on the arena, which is a circle or square surrounded by water, lava, or an abyss. You can actually knock your opponent out of the arena or yourself be knocked out. Also, you can't jump. I tend to jump all over the place in fighting games, so SC really made me think and strategize about what I was doing.

Here's how the actual fighting works: you can attack low, mid, or high. The four buttons on the DC controller are all attacks; the L button is your block while the R button charges your attack. At any time you can pause the game and look at your fighter's combos, and believe me, there's tons! You can also grab your opponent, which is easily the coolest part of the game. The grabs and throws are simply amazing. Also, you can actually have a double KO, which means you and the opponent were both defeated at the exact same time. In this case, you both win one battle (you have to win two to win the overall match).

The cast of characters is great. They vary in speed and weapon. Kilik and Ivy both use swords and are well-balanced; Xianghua uses a thin sword and Taki uses ninja daggers and are both fast fighters; Nightmare and Astaroth, on the other hand, are big and slow, but strong. Then there are characters who just stand out, such as Voldo, who has knives attached to his hands and uses his flexibility to do all kinds of crazy attacks. Maxi is also unique; he uses nunchucks and will keep spinning them around his body even when you're not pressing anything. The cast of fighters is just awesome, made only better by each one's fighting style and the life-like graphics.

There are a lot of modes in SC: Arcade Mode, Mission Battle, Practice, Survival, Time Attack, Team Battle, Vs. Battle, Museum, and Options. That's a lot for a fighting game! Arcade Mode is the basic one player mode in which you fight through seven battles and then face the final boss Inferno, who is a clone of any of the fighters (it's random). After beating him, you get to watch that fighter's ending. All the fighters are after the Soul Blade, a magical sword. Some of the endings are really sweet while others are very sad. Beating Arcade Mode is also how you unlock more fighters and stages, and there's quite a few, giving you that incentive to beat it with as many different fighters as possible.

In Mission Battle, you must perform specific attacks to pass missions. This one will appeal to hardcore fighting game fanatics, y'know, the ones who have to learn every combo for their favorite fighter. This mode simply proves how complex the fighting is in SC! You learn about basic attacks, blocking, countering, unbrakeable attacks, and all kinds of other stuff. Beating missions earns you points which you can use to unlock artwork (which you can view in the Museum) and fighter costumes. 

The next mode, Survival, is exactly what you would imagine. You fight a string of battles until you lose. It's quite empowering to see all the fighters you defeated after you finally lose. "Yeah! I kicked 'yalls' butts!!!" But you also lost. It's a fun mode. In Time Attack, you fight opponents as usual, but this time you're timed, trying to see how fast you can finish. This one was just an easy thing for them to add onto the game.

Team Battle is a pretty cool mode. Here you can choose between 2 and 8 fighters and do consecutive battles. When you defeat your opponent, the next fight will begin right away until you've defeated all of them. If you lose, you'll fight that same opponent with your next fighter. Then, of course, there's Vs Battle, which is the two player mode. Playing against a friend is very fun.

Overall, SC is a very impressive game. The graphics are outstanding, possibly making it the best-looking game on DC. In fact, they still look good! Apparently the console version's graphics are even superior to the arcade version, which is quite the feat. The DC, while overlooked, was certainly a powerful system. Also, the music is great, grand orchestral themes that add to the fights. They even tell you the song you'll hear before the fight starts. Classy!

Final Verdict--5 Stars: Awesome!

Namco pulled out all the stops for this incredible fighting game. A great cast of characters, tons of awesome moves, impressive graphics, grand music, and plenty of modes round out the package to make this a great launch game for the DC. But that's not all it is: it's also one of the finest fighters you'll ever play. And unlike the other fighters of the 90s, it doesn't look dated. Soul Calibur is truly a masterpiece, and as the announcer said at the end of ever fighter's story, "The legend will never die."

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.