PS2 Review: Soul Calibur III
Reviews
Gamespot writes:
Ten years ago, Namco released an arcade fighting game called Soul Edge, which was kind of like its extremely popular Tekken series, except all the characters fought with various weapons. But only when a visually stunning version of the sequel came home to the Sega Dreamcast in 1999 did Soul Calibur became possibly the best-known name in competitive fighting games. It’s been more than a couple of years since the last Soul Calibur sequel, but all this history still hasn’t caused the series to take any particularly dramatic turns since its Dreamcast heyday. Expert players will quickly notice all the characters’ new moves and other gameplay tweaks in the latest installment, but for the most part, Soul Calibur III still plays very much like Soul Calibur, while a lot of the new modes and stuff outside the core one-on-one fighting isn’t all that noteworthy this time around. To be clear, Soul Calibur III is one of the best fighting games around. But it earns this distinction largely by playing it safe while most of the competition simply dropped off.
1Up says:
Anyone who’s ever been religious about Soul Calibur will tell you that it’s the game’s deep, lightning-fast, fighting system that gets under their skin and keeps them slaves to its magic. It’s a fact — since the series’ “reinvention” in arcades and on the Dreamcast six years ago, there still isn’t a versus game today that really does justice to the weapons-based fighting that’s at the heart and soul of the Calibur experience. The series also has the distinction of being both impossibly deep, and extremely novice-friendly. While Soul Calibur undoubtedly has its legion of joystick junkies who systematically rage against the ignorance of those less-skilled, the series recognizes mashing-away-at-buttons as a raw, primitive technique, making it popular, as well, amongst the great unwashed. For Soul Calibur III, the game’s fourth iteration across three platform generations, Namco takes this design dogma to shocking new heights, giving both polarities of their audience a shipload of content and experimental single-player ideas.
Game Revolution writes:
I once went head to head against Gary Coleman in a Soul Calibur event at E3. I was doing well, too, until his seven-foot tall bodyguard got me in a headlock and unplugged my controller. Even though I could counter Coleman until the cows came home, there was no move in my list for use against a three-hundred pound gorilla. I tried a couple outlandish maneuvers like reverse psychology - “Now I’ve got you where I want you!” - and lying - “Ugh! You just ruptured my glavin!” - but none of them worked.
Namco seems to be in a similar spot with Soul Calibur III. Its predecessor, Soul Calibur II, is still pretty much the best fighting game around, making it a bit of a tough one on which to improve. So like me, they got creative and added an expanded Story mode, an unorthodox real-time strategy game and a create-a-player feature.
