Soul Calibur for Sega Dreamcast

Released: September 9, 1999
Platform: Dreamcast
Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Genre: Fighting

Soul Calibur* really needs no introduction. It's one of the best fighting games ever made. It's one of the few exceptions to the rule in that it's far better than the arcade original. It was one of the best Dreamcast launch titles. It's one of the only games that I bought on hype alone. On 9.9.99 I had Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, an extra controller, and a VMU on reserved and paid in full.

I ditched school that day. krazy "borrowed" his parents car to take me to the mall to pick up the Dreamcast. He was convinced that it would suck, but became a pretty big fan later on. When I got home with it, I knew that I would want to spend hours with Sonic Adventure, so I put in Soul Calibur first. Plus, it was a two player game and krazy was going to come over play. This made it the third Dreamcast game I ever played. The first was the far inferior Virtua Fighter 3tb that was set up at a kiosk at EB. The second was Sonic Adventure which was playable at any Hollywood Video location anywhere in the country.

It was hard to not be blown away. Better than arcade quality graphics, precise controls, and no goofy hit detection problems. The characters were... balanced. Taki was fast as hell but had a short reach. Xianghua had average speed and strength. Kilik was quick and powerful, able to strike from a good distance, but could take damage. Siegfried was a fuck you up bad ass weakened only by his speed.

Aside from the single player, two player, and tag team modes, I spend a lot of time in the Mission Battle Mode. Each challenge is different. Defeat a number of enemies, fight in a ring where touch the edges cause explosions, fight while being poisoned, avoid poison rats, knock the enemy out of the arena to win... et cetera. All great fun.

Soul Calibur is one of the few games that I've ever rebought. One night after a long tournament, one of my friends lost and jerked the cord, causing the Dreamcast to come crashing to the floor. The disc popped out but the lid didn't open, causing very nice circles to be etched into the GDROM.

I've had hours of fun with this one, solo and with a room full of friends. Event today the graphics still look good, and in my opinion it's still the best game in the Soul series. To me it's the best game in its genre. Not only weapons based fighting, but fighting games in general.