My thoughts (Soul Calibur IV)

After finally getting an AU release on the 31st of July. The raving fans were finally able to get a taste of action from the highly anticipated 3D fighting game. Having played the game for about 5 hours straight now, I can say this game is highly addictive and lots of fun. I am aware many reviewers have given the game much flak for the poorly integrated story-mode and personally I am not all too fond of it myself. However, this is only a minor setback toward what the game is suppose to portray. The game mechanics are great, it plays familiar to the previous installments but are also kind enough on new comers to the game. A newly integrated soul system allows players to beat at each others armor and prevents other players to drag a match on by constantly blocking. Furthermore, this system has been integrated to reflect this by adding 'battle damage' to the players armor as the gauge decreases. To add to the excitement, once the player's soul gauge runs empty you are given an oportunity to release I devasting finishing move by pressing all attck buttons. For those of you familiar with 'Mortal Kombat', the finishing montages are much like the MK fatalities only the execution is slightly different. Although, many have argues this system is flawed it is nonetheless a very nice addition to already good game mechanics and it gives players a diversity to their playing style.

Players are able to customise their characters by completing battle missions which allow special armor sets and weapons to be unlocked given the specific requirements are met. This can become slightly frustrating as some goals can become quite cumbersome to achieve. Nevertheless, the armor sets are elaborately animated and further add to SC4's power to impress gamers.

The graphics are flawless and the character movements/animations are fluid to the inept realism of integrated game physics. Adding to this, the models are simply stunning, more simply put... the game itself is a 'visual orgy' and guaranteed to impress the most hardcore gamer critiques. Finally, the STAR WARS touch is a nice gimmick that further adds to the ever growing concept of the 'Dream match' concept. Personally, I have always wanted to pit 'Darth Vader' against another fighter of a 3-D genre and NAMCO in collaboration with Lucas Arts Ent have gone out and made this possible.

To all the people who were against the addition of these characters: The developers did it for the consumers... yes, we may argue it was unecessary, but nonetheless we all must agree that it was a nice bonus.