Soulcalibur IV comes at a time when playing it safe is the most popular move in game development. You'll gain access to more than 20 characters, wield lightsabers with Yoda and The Apprentice from The Force Unleashed, and battle online over Xbox Live. But aside from the addition of two Star Wars characters (three total if you count Darth Vader in the PS3 version), Soulcalibur IV doesn't do anything that wasn't expected. The major differences (breakable armor, new critical attacks) are minimal; the minor differences (slower game speed, rehashed character mechanics hidden by new aesthetics) are monumental - and not in a good way.

If the Star Wars characters do their job, Soulcalibur IV will attract players that have never played the series before, and possibly not any fighting game at all. Unquestionably, those players will be in awe. But if you're a series veteran, brace yourself for the same old song and dance - plus an online mode but minus some of the things that made Soulcalibur a fighting champion.

Characters Aplenty

Soulcalibur IV is more of a Tekken Tag-style collection than a true sequel. All your favorite characters return, plus many you probably don't care about, a couple newcomers you'll love, and several clones you'll wish didn't exist. For the first time in Soulcalibur, clothing and armor damage are now visible. The afflicted fighter is partially weakened, though not to the extent you might expect. If you’re the kind of fighting fan that pays attention to every gameplay detail, this may be useful to your strategy. But it’s more of a visual addition than a physical one, as characters respond the same regardless of their appearance.

Three of the four brand-new characters are less realistic - or rather, more fantasy - than Soulcalibur’s previous combatants. This isn’t limited to Yoda and The Apprentice, who use lightsabers and should therefore be able to cut through the sword and flesh of any adversary (they can't, of course). Algol, another new character, uses projectile force balls that float through the air. He has spikes that pop out through his back, and can lift others into the air as if he was one with The Force. Hilde is the only new character that tries something unique. Her fighting style is filled with hints of Kilik or Seong Mi-na, but she doesn't merely use a staff - she wields a spear and a dagger. This combination leads to some excellent moves that will surely appeal to fans looking for someone more complex to master.

Other supposedly new characters aren't so new: the other five are aesthetically different but are physically the same as an existing Soulcalibur character. With a cartoon face, unusual clothing and an exaggerated body, Angol Fear looks like she came out of an anime. But her moves mirror those of Seong Mi-na.

 
She's very flexible.

New and existing (but locked) characters are acquired by completing the story mode, arcade mode, or by purchasing them with points earned from playing those modes. Points are earned from every win. In addition to unlocking characters, points may be used to buy new weapons and equipment for your characters. This plays into the character creation mode, which is more of a customization feature than anything else. Armor and clothing may be added or removed. Equipment is linked with various properties that enhance your fighter in minor ways. The most deadly is the one Algol uses in the story mode that prevents him from losing to a ring out. But you can also find equipment that'll increase your ability to resist being thrown. That too can cause problems for the player trying to execute the throw.

On the single-player end, Soulcalibur IV has the aforementioned story and arcade modes, the former being very short, easy, and without much depth. You should be able to beat the story mode with most characters in eight minutes or less. That's pretty sad, to say the least. There was once a time when Soulcalibur was not only one of the most challenging fighting games, but one of the most difficult games of any genre. The developers pulled a Tekken Tag by throwing in a tag element that lets you compete with a partner or two while taking on as many as four different opponents, one at a time.

Aside from training, your only other single-player option is the Tower of Lost Souls. This mode rehashes the story mode experience of having multiple adversaries per battle but is more challenging and is therefore closer to the arcade mode in execution. There are no lame text intros to read, and no boring real-time sequences to sit through. It's just one battle after another, testing your endurance and nothing else.

Not surprisingly, Soulcalibur IV’s greatest asset is its ability to compel, addict and enamor every player that engages in a two-player battle – offline or online. Though most of the characters have been seen and mastered in previous iterations, the vast number of unique fighting styles, no matter how familiar, ensure the game will have a long life. Two or three years from now, gamers will still be playing it on Xbox Live and PSN. But they’ll be playing it as fans of what Namco accomplished more than eight years ago with the first Soulcalibur (and before that, to a degree, in Soul Blade).

 
Yoda and The Apprentice square off.

Slower With Age

Is it me or are fighting games aging? The last three Mortal Kombat games were slower than Mortal Kombat 4, and MK4 was slower than MK3. Smash Bros. hasn't increased its speed at all since the first game. And Tekken 4, one of the last fighting games to appear in American arcades, was slower than Tekken 3. (Namco thankfully corrected that mistake with Tekken 5, which also came to a few American arcades as well as PS2 and PSP.)

Keeping with that theme, Soulcalibur IV is a bit slower than Soulcalibur II and III. The average player may not notice, especially while playing on a large high-def screen that magnifies the characters, their beauty, and the entire visual experience. But if you're one of the several million gamers that played SCII to death, you're going to notice the drop in speed. While this doesn't kill the fun it certainly detracts from it. Aren't fighting games supposed to be getting faster and more intense with each console generation, just as they once did in arcades? We could speculate all day long about why the developers would do this. But if it had anything to do with making the game more mainstream, they're dead wrong.

The Force (a little) Leashed

What could be better than playing as Yoda? Nothing if he exuded the same power that he had in Episode II and III. But while he has some of the same moves as his movie counterpart, his actual movement is a bit sluggish. Yoda's tiny stature isn't a problem - if he can take on Count Dooku and Darth Sidious, why should Kilik or Mitsurugi pose a threat? But his combos are short and unenthusiastic. He should be leaping all over the screen with power and finesse. Instead, Yoda is scaled back to short strikes and lackluster spins. Without checking the move list or a strategy guide, players won't know Yoda's attacks off hand. Regardless, they won't have any trouble finishing the story mode with him. While playing as Yoda, enemies seemed to block less and use weaker attacks. It's as if the game wanted players to win - perhaps assuming that we may be entirely new to Soulcalibur and have no interest in being challenged. Wrong again.

The Apprentice is not as sluggish as Yoda but feels stiff. His moves are purposely fast and hard-hitting but lack the ability to be linked for strings of seamless combos. He has combos but they don’t feel quite right. The Apprentice seems better equipped for one- or two-hit moves, rather than a lengthy display of movie-quality sword-wielding. This differs from The Force Unleashed, where he truly moves and feels like someone being trained by Darth Vader.

Soulcalibur IV isn't a bad game. It's a great game we've already played. This is not the first time I've said that, but the trend seems most potent with the fighting genre (and RPGs, which is ironic considering the new equipment feature). As someone that invested hundreds of hours in the series over the last 10 years, it's hard for me to recommend this game to series veterans. Would I myself be satisfied with spending $60 on a game for a console that once cost $400, even though it's not that different from the first or second game, which retailed for $50 and were available for consoles selling for $300 or less? It's the lack of progress that Soulcalibur made in 10 years and a couple console generations that's most troubling. In the long run I'll probably spend another hundred hours playing Soulcalibur IV. But that doesn't lessen the disappointment.