Soulcalibur IV

Given the number of sequels with 4 in the title that have come out for current systems, it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone to think that the video game industry has only been around for four generations. Sequels pose particularly interesting questions for developers of fighting games, since changes to a game's formula can take it in a drastic new direction and possibly alienate longtime fans. As a result, the changes tend to be gradual. With this latest installment of Soulcalibur, Namco brings all the bells and whistles of this generation's consoles into play, but while it is an excellent update, there are a few things that could keep it from being the greatest Soulcalibur ever.

The most significant change from previous titles is the Soul Gauge, which amounts to little more than a means to limit the reliance on blocking. Block too much and over time your Soul Gauge (and your character's clothing) will be depleted. If you are caught in a "Soul Crush" state you will be susceptible to a cinematic one-hit kill. Namco included this feature to add some visual variety to the battle damage and discourage a static defense, but you generally won't find yourself able to use it, as it takes some serious abuse of blocking to be susceptible to a Soul Crush.

New fighters debuting in this title are Hilde, a German princess wielding a short sword and a lance, and Algol, a boss character with the ability to make both the Soul Edge and Soul Calibur swords appear out of his hands. Less balanced are the guest characters appearing in a bit of cross-promotional synergy with LucasArts' upcoming Force Unleashed game: Yoda and Darth Vader's right hand man, The Apprentice. (Vader himself currently appears in the PlayStation 3 version only). Both characters have some punishingly ridiculous advantages at their disposal. The Apprentice is able to chuck Force lightning bolts and shockwaves and toss his lightsaber around, and Yoda's diminutive stature assures that most horizontal attacks whiz over his head. While the effect of their presence on the balance in the cast of characters is in question, however, one has to at least applaud Namco for going to the trouble of creating unique move lists when it would've been fairly easy to simply clone existing characters.

While the narrow focus of fighting games might give the developers a hard time at expanding gameplay for sequels, the presentation is another matter, and Soulcalibur IV is no exception. You'll be hard pressed to find characters more detailed or better animated in any other game as the series continues its tradition of visual superiority that shames nearly all the competition. The backgrounds don't fare as well, and seem to be largely recycled from other titles in the series. The few entirely new backgrounds for SC4, however, stand out as being some of the most visually impressive – like the marsh stage, in which a variety of wild birds wander around the battlefield. And while this is all par for the course, there are even some surprisingly forward-thinking notions: at certain points, character's clothes become damaged, for example, with the degree of destruction ranging between "slightly frayed" to whole pieces of clothing and armor being disintegrated. It might make you squirm a little if you knock Xianghua's shirt off in front of your girlfriend, but there's no question that you will feel like a badass the first time you hit Maxi so hard his shirt evaporates in flying cloud of particle effects.

Debuting in the post-arcade world means ready-made single-player diversions that somehow feel a little less thought out for having been developed side-by-side with the actual fighting core of the game. The Arcade mode is a pretty straightforward series of eight fights with little pomp and circumstance. It works, but after the interesting and vaguely RPG-esque takes on the subject in Virtua Fighter's Quest mode and the PSP version of Tekken V, it seems a little threadbare. Accompanying Arcade mode, the "Story" mode (note the quotation marks) is little more than a string of special battles with the occasional bits of unique dialogue depending on who your opponents are. The Soulcalibur team would do well to learn how to execute a fighting game story mode from the Tekken series. All we get here is a few pieces of custom intro dialogue, a couple of generic cinemas that have nothing to do with the individual characters or their stories, and remarkably short in-game engine endings.

The growth of the character creation mode is a much more satisfactory improvement, now sadly named "Character Creation" instead of the deliciously endemic "Create-a-Soul" from the previous installment. This mode gains and loses a bit from its previous incarnation. Now, instead of being able to choose from a set of archetype-oriented fighting styles, you are only able to select the styles of the regular cast – understandable in the name of maintaining greater balance between fighters, but still a regrettable loss. What we've gained is greater customization of a character's base appearance. While still a far cry from being able to craft, morph, and detail every single aspect as in modern wrestling games, you are now able to adjust a character's build and voice with greater detail. I have to question, however, why the Star Wars character's styles are not available to customize. I can understand that the ability to create your own unique Jedi might step on LucasArts' toes, but at least having their move sets available would have added a lot. If you took The Apprentice, replaced his lightsaber with a katana, and made him an old Japanese man, you could have an excellent Zatoichi.

Arguably the biggest addition to Soulcalibur is online play. This is largely hit or miss, mostly due to the nature of online play and the pinpoint timing necessary for fighters. It can be hard to fault Namco for questionable online performance when there are so many other factors that can contribute to lag. The biggest compliment I can give it, however, is that it works. It isn't perfect, but odds are that you be able to enjoy a number of passable-to-awesome online matches. There is room for improvement – perhaps better matchmaking could help, as well as an expanded set of option that could block Star Wars characters from being selected – but it's a step up from nothing. Having something to complain about is better than having nothing at all in this case.

At first, it can be easy to proclaim SoulCalibur 4 to be the greatest entry in the series. The gameplay tweaks are enjoyable and online play is a great way of adding value when your friends might not be around to compete with. But when you examine it closely, you can see the chipped pieces on the armor of Namco's weapons fighter, and although they are all minor, they take a bit of the luster away. This is not to say that it's a bad game, or even bad for the series. But like a hot new high-performance new car without a USB connector for your MP3 device, you can still be satisfied while wishing that a few of the details weren't overlooked.