Bandai Namco’s Soulcalibur II turns 20 in Japan right now. The basic preventing sport — a sequel to what many already thought-about one of many finest preventing video games ever, Soulcalibur on Dreamcast — launched on twenty seventh March 2003 in Japan on GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2.
But, c’mon, everyone knows the GameCube model was the very best model, and for one massive purpose — the Hero of Time.
Not solely is Soulcalibur II adored by preventing sport followers world wide (I and II often duke it out for which is the very best within the sequence), however the console variations every introduced a selected cameo character to the sport in a time the place cameo characters had been a bit extra of a novelty quite than an expectation (Final Fantasy XV‘s Noctis and Negan from The Walking Dead in Tekken 7? Sure).
The Xbox model gave us Todd McFarlane’s comedian guide antihero Spawn, whereas on PlayStation 2 Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima was playable. Both enjoyable crossover characters, for positive. However, the GameCube bought the Link from The Legend of Zelda, and there is not any competing with that basically.
Link in Soulcalibur II got here outfitted with every thing you’d count on — the Hylian Shield and the Master Sword; a boomerang; bombs; his bow and arrow. It was grownup Link simply as you knew him, dumped into the fantasy alternate historical past world of Soulcalibur. And it was lovely. Link additionally simply would not converse — so each time a personality is attempting to have a dialog with him in Arcade or Story Mode, properly, it is a bit bit hilarious.
Brilliant crossover cameos apart, Soulcalibur II is solely an impressive preventing sport. It has a strong single participant marketing campaign, tons of characters to play as and unlock, and actually quick, tight gameplay. It’s simple to choose up, arduous to grasp, and it seems to be completely beautiful even right now. Really, it builds upon every thing that made its Dreamcast predecessor nice and polishes it to a high-quality sheen.
At the time of scripting this, solely two video games within the Soulcalibur sequence — which began in 1996 with Soul Edge (or Soul Blade) — have been on Nintendo techniques: Soulcalibur II and SoulCalibur Legends on Wii. And, regardless of getting an HD Online rerelease again in 2013 (which has now been delisted from each the Microsoft Store and PSN), Soulcalibur II has by no means been rereleased on a Nintendo system. That means Link’s cameo is caught on the GameCube.
But we’re in the course of a GameCube renaissance in the meanwhile — Metroid Prime Remastered, Tales of Symphonia Remastered (regardless of some questionable high quality points), and the Resident Evil 4 remake are all from that period and have been launched within the final two months. And not too long ago, rumours of a remaster/assortment have as soon as once more reared their head. So, please, take into account the Switch, Bandai Namco?
