ZTGD Review: Soulcalibur (XBLA)

ZeroTolerance Writes: "It's hard to believe that it has been nearly a decade since I stepped into the shoes of staff-master Kilik and sword-slinging Xianghua which leads me to two revelations. First that I deeply miss the Dreamcast and all of the glorious fighting games it delivered; and second that I am getting old. Now with the growing popularity of digital downloads we are able to re-live the experience of one of the greatest fighting games of all time. To this day few games match the greatness that was Namco's finest offering for Sega's ill-fated console and for good reasons. Soulcalibur displayed some of the finest visuals you had ever seen coupled with an intricate balance, pin-point controls and a colorful cast of characters that contained more than a few memorable heroes still etched in the hearts of many a gamer.

For the Xbox Live Arcade version of Namco's weapon-based brawler not much has changed, but a few things have been sorely left out. For anyone who has never played this game let's first break down the basics. This is a fighting game that focuses on weapon combat as opposed to fisticuffs. The weapons are just as important as the characters themselves as they define what kind of fighter each combatant is. For example Siegfried carries a giant sword that is great at long range while Voldo relies on his Wolverine-esque spiked claws and acrobatic contortionism to dominate foes in close."