Platform: Gamecube

Developer: Namco

Publisher: Namco

Genre: Fighting

ETA: 2002

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Soul Calibur 2

Whenever a company announces that they're working on a sequel to a fighting game I can't help but be torn on whether or not it's a good thing. Yes, it's nice to see a bunch of new characters and some new arenas to fight in, but will it wow me as much as the previous game, or leave me thinking that it is more of the same. Maybe it's from being subjected to countless pseudo-sequels to Street Fighter II in the mid-90s or maybe it's the often underwhelming improvements that most fighting game sequels get (about 2 new fighters and a dozen new costumes: Lame), but the past has developed a deep cynicism in me as to what to expect when a fighting game series gets a sequel. Hopefully with Soul Calibur 2 my instinctive lack of faith will be proven wrong, as I quite liked the original game.

So what should we expect in this sequel. Well, not so surprisingly, there are new characters, new arenas, and flashy new duds for the characters, not to mention new moves for returning fighters. Standard, but mandatory, fair to be sure. Now hopefully there will be enough additions to make the game worth buying. Namco has said that there will be 18 fighters to use in Soul Calibur 2, but so far only 10 of them have been named. New to the roster are

 Cassandra Alexandra who is the younger sister Sophitia from the first game, she's taking up her big sister's sword and shield to fight, also new are Hon Yun Tsung, a swordfighter in the tradition of Hwang Sung Kyung of the previous game, and a young lass named Tarim who seems to be filling the obligatory spot of at least one 15 year-old warrior in any console game ever created. There are plenty of returning characters too including the whippy sword fighter Ivy, and the slow, devastating Astaroth, not to mention Siegfried, Mitsurugi, Hwang Sung Kyung, Nightmare, and Taki. All with new moves added to their repertoires.

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There will also be plenty of aesthetic improvements over the original Soul Calibur as the sequel will have snazzier environments and some pretty lighting effects to get people quoting tech specs on the game until it hits stores and they realize they should be spending more time having fun playing the game, not looking at it. Also included in Soul Calibur 2 is a plot. Stop laughing, we all know that storylines in fighting games range from weak to pathetic, so let's leave it at that. Story here basically equates to the evil sword, Soul Edge, and its dark wielder, Nightmare, lurking about again spreading their special brand o' badness. Yup, the plot looks about as gripping as any other story found in a fighting game. Thankfully it's gameplay that carries the genre, making this more palatable.

So far Namco has been relatively hush-hush as to what to expect in Soul Calibur throwing us a few bones to keep fans happy, but not a whole lot overall. It's too bad really, because what makes a fighting game sequel enticing to most is the extras. So far it seems like it's the clout of the Soul Calibur name that is being used to drive people's interest in the sequel. Hopefully a whole bunch more will be added to the game on top of what has been announced so far, as what we've seen so far amounts to a nice start, but there's a whole lot more I'd still like to see (Mostly more new characters).

Previewed by Mr. Nash