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The Soul Calibur series over recent years has
grown and understanding with placement of Special Characters. The
Previous-Generations’
Soul Calibur II bought with it an exclusive Special
Character for each of it’s host formats; Heihachi from the Tekken
series appeared on PlayStation2 –
Tekken being Soul
Calibur’s stable-mate at NAMCO-Bandai – Spawn from the Spawn
comic books on Xbox, and Link from
The Legend Of Zelda
series on GameCube.
Soul Calibur II was well received, by both the
critics and game-buying public – especially on GameCube, which is
widely thought to be the best One-On-One Beat-‘Em-Up of the
Previous-Generation. Soul Calibur III, however, ousted both
its multi-format status and its Special Character arrangement,
instead opting for PlayStation2-exclusivity and a Character Creation
option. While it could hardly be commented that Soul Calibur III
performed badly, stating that its sales peak was disappointing for
NAMCO-Bandai probably won’t come as a surprise to many. And so we
arrive at Soul Calibur IV – coming to both PLAYSTATION3 and
Xbox360: each with an exclusive Special Character.
No doubt, by now you will have heard about the Star
Wars influence on the series, if nowhere else than on our very
own Electronic Theatre Forum. Darth Vader being exclusive to
the PLAYSTATION3, and Yoda on Xbox360 (although, it is widely
believed that in time either character will be made available on as
Downloadable Content for both releases), has been less than a secret
for some time. However, the latest news comes in the form of an
additional previously unannounced Special Character set to be
appearing on-disc at launch in both editions. In the latest trailer
for the game, that character is revealed to be the star of LucasArts’
forthcoming
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, currently due to
arrive in Europe in September, 2008, on Xbox360, PLAYSTATION3 and
Wii. There’s a whole heap more screenshots for you over at the
Electronic Theatre: Assets section, including the complete
version of the brand new
Soul Calibur IV trailer. Going
head-to-head with
Street Fighter IV, and SEGA’s constant
Virtua Fighter 5 updates, Soul Calibur IV is certainly
one to keep an eye-on. |
