Soul Calibur 3
I have to admit that I only played Soul Calibur 3 recently. While going through my PS2 collection I saw it, realized I had never played it and decided too.
Like many gamers I fell in love with the Soul Calibur series when Soul Calibur was released on the Dreamcast. Sure Soul Blade had already been released on the PSX, but this was so incredibly fluid and fun. It was the best 3d fighter up til that point. I was there for the launch of Soul Calibur 2 and 4 as well, but 3 seemed weird. First off I felt like there was no hype about it at all. I never even heard a word about it until it started showing up on budget racks. I eventually picked it up, but just shuffled it away. It only came out on the ps2, which was surprising since the previous title came out on all 3 consoles. With just this information in mind I must have assumed it was just a lackluster title. I couldn’t have been more wrong…
The game was easy to get back into. The combat system is purely Soul Calibur (you don’t mess with a good thing!). There were also a couple new characters and a larger roster than previous games. That kind of stuff is always expected in the next installment of a fighting game though. What really surprised me what the depth that went into some of the new modes. Namco has always taken great care to throw TONS of extras into the console ports of their fighting games. Compared to other fighter series that only have the standard Arcade, VS, Training (and sometimes Story and Tournament modes) the Tekken and Soul Calibur series have always offered extensive alternate modes. These modes are great as they give the game more re-playability, and give novice players more of a reason to try out different characters.
Soul Calibur 3 offers a mission mode that is basically the same adventure mode from the previous games, only scaled back a bit. It also offers an interesting tournament mode that’s more fleshed out than most.
The most interesting mode though, is the new strategy mode. This plays out like a mini RTS game. You take your units and move them around; if they encounter an enemy or building they’ll attack it. You can (and most of the time have to) jump into the battle and fight it like a standard Soul Calibur Match. The idea is to take over the enemy’s stronghold to progress to the next map. The game is very fleshed out, and it’s a whole lot of fun.
All in all, I think I would recommend this game to anyone. I found myself enjoying it even more than Soul Calibur 4. If you’ve never played a Soul Calibur game, it’s a good one to start with. Of course the Dreamcast one is still my favorite, but most gamers don’t have a DC, and the game will be annoying to find now.
