The Video Game Revue

Soul Calibur XBLA

I spent a few hours with Soul Calibur on Xbox Live Arcade last night, and holy shit is it ever good. I don't have a copy of the Dreamcast version to compare it to, but the high resolution graphics are nice even though the character models are crude, and the gameplay is exactly the kind of fast and furious experience that I want out of a Soul Calibur game. The practice mode works well, and the inclusion of bonus art galleries was more appealing than I expected (old school stuff happening there).

One huge feature is missing, however: online play. What could have been an absolutely epic XBLA release is, instead, merely worthwhile, at best. I'm hard-pressed to recommend it to any of my Xbox 360 owning friends because, well, what's the point--we have to meet up to play it anyway. But we'll have Soul Calibur IV for that, I guess.

I also had the chance to try Guilty Gear X2 on Xbox Live last week, which is available via the "Xbox Classics" store. It was a lot like sitting down to play Guilty Gear with a buddy, except that we didn't have to leave our respective couches, and there was a ton of lag in the character select screen. Overall it was an excellent experience, but I can't shake the feeling that somehow my PS2 version of Guilty Gear X2 looks less pixelated. (shrug)

While I'm on the subject of fighting games, I caught the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom promo vid over on Insert Credit. The quality of the video is poor, but holy crap does that game ever look gorgeous! I want to see the Capcom vs SNK series get that kind of treatment!

posted by Parappa @ 1:33 PM