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Soul Calibur II Sparks Subdued Joy

Posted by simoniker on from the love-it-but-seen-it-before dept.

Thanks to GameSpy for their (similar, and in descending score order) Xbox, Gamecube, and PlayStation 2 reviews of the newly-released Soul Calibur II, plus a detailed Soul Calibur II: Pile-On! article, where-in "...a battle royale of GameSpy's biggest SCII fans pick apart a hit." Opinions? One editor suggests: "It's a fabulous game, but the original Soul Calibur wasn't just an excellent game: it started a new age for fighters. On the other hand, SCII - no matter how good it is - is just an incremental upgrade, a fairly routine fighter sequel."

2 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Descending Score?! by PaleZer0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ya know I would start to believe that the X-Box title is a *little* better than the Gamecube title which is a *little* better than the PS2 title if they didn't rate EVERY multi platform game that way. Its almost like a rule because the games SHOULD look better on the X-Box.....

    --

    PaleHour
  2. Jaded reviewers by pommaq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That pile-on thing was a load of crap, Fargo was the only one to get it right. They're sort of blasting the game - not because it's bad, they all said it was super - but because they expected it to "revolutionize the genre". Uh-huh.

    I seem to recall an earlier Slashdot article (from yesterday?) discussing whether people want original games or not. Well, this is a prime example of a sequel that does absolutely everything right. It keeps the controls and the feeling that worked so beautifully in its predecessor, spices up the graphics, adds new characters and new playmodes and a ton of unlockable goodies (oodles of weapons, kata theater, concept art gallery, new costumes, etc etc). This is a must-have game, beyond excellent... and still it catches flak because "um, you know, it didn't radically change the way we view fighting games". Feh. I don't WANT Namco to change Soul Calibur. Yeah, I want them to sharpen it, refine it, make it better... but keep the meat, the stuff that makes it legendary. Which is exactly what they have done.

    Anyway; I imported the Japanese SC2 for my cube several months ago, and I can only say buy this game now, whichever platform you're on. I fired up the old SC next to it, just to check the difference... and no matter what the cracksmokers at GameSpy have to say, it's a HUGE upgrade. It's the best fighter available, and I have a feeling it will stay that way until the next iteration (at which point the GameSpy editors will yammer about how SC3 STILL won't brew coffee for them).