The Soulcalibur series is a line of classic arcade fighting games, created by Namco and their dedicated development team, “Project Soul“. And this is a conversion of Soulcalibur II – from arcade to GameCube – first published in 2003.

The crux of Soulcalibur is weapons-based combat, with a strong fantasy element, set in a dynamic arena. And with a very imaginative Japanese comic book flavour to it all.

In Soulcalibur II you can initially choose between fifteen different fighters (but can unlock more), and fight over a wide variety of settings. One to four players can play the game.

Play modes include: Arcade, Versus, Team Battle and Versus Team Battle. Teams can be up to three players each, if using a multi-tap controller extender. The GameCube has four gamepad ports as standard, so multiplayer games of Soulcalibur II are easy to set up, which makes it a good party game. As long as you have enough gamepads…

There are other types of play modes, such as “Survival“, which sees how far you can fight through a bunch of opponents on only one health bar full of energy; “Time Attack“, where you have to win a certain number of battles in the fastest possible time; “Weapon Master” mode (which is a whole ‘nother game in itself), and “Practise” mode, with interesting on-screen diagnostics.

To be an effective Soulcalibur II player you of course need to master the moves and timings, and learn how to use Guarding moves (which can protect you from powerful attacks, if timed and executed properly). And also learn about “Guard-Breaking“, which is a technique used to a break a guard held by an opponent.

Soulcalibur II has plenty of over-the-top weapons, moves, characters (and their associated set of taunts. Although, to be honest, the taunts are pretty mild in this), and the gameplay is quite forgiving at times, so it is a enjoyable game to play overall. The presentation is top-notch, too.

What makes Soulcalibur II great is that it’s mostly focussed on the sword and weapon fighting, and it isn’t interrupted by too much by magical craziness or outrageous visual effects, that a lot of fantasy fighting games seem to let dominate. Soulcalibur II is pure fighting action, with just enough visual trickery to remind you that it’s a top-quality production. And the camera movement and positioning is so good that it makes replaying after losses less painful… 🙂

Also: each character has an alternative outfit, and they switch between them quite often, so it feels like you’re fighting against more opponents than there actually are.

Every GameCube owner should have a copy of Soulcalibur II in their collection. It’s an essential party game for fighting game fans, and it plays beautifully in an emulator. Definitely a GameCube game to re-visit from time to time, just to remind yourself of how playable and fun weapon-based console fighting games can be.

[The Soulcalibur series’ signature wipe to black here, please.]

More: Soulcalibur II on Wikipedia