Soul Calibur IV - Hands on

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First impressions? Well, we're not really sure yet...

Oh, Namco – what have you done to our beloved Soul Calibur? Ubisoft's big Parisian gamesfeast, Ubidays, recently treated us to a hands on with Soul Calibur IV. And while the general feeling around the demo pod was that the game is awesome, we’re not quite so sure.

For starters, the aesthetic of the game may be technically proficient – impressive, even – but the fighting seems a lot less fluid than previous iterations and the whole ‘stage of history’ feeling is definitely missing, in places at least.

Of course one of the biggest reasons for this is the controversial inclusion of Star Wars. We hate the idea. Sure, a Star Wars fighter using this engine would absolutely rock bells, don’t get us wrong, but seeing Siegfried take on Yoda on 360 or Mitsurugi battle Darth Vader on PS3 is frankly ridiculous.

And yes, it’s got a stage on a Star Destroyer with the Death Star in the background and it’s got the music… and Yoda looks exactly like Yoda should (and he’s very short, which makes him harder to hit). But it just doesn’t sit right.

Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t seem as intuitive as past versions, with several moves coming out the same when we felt like we had input different commands. The sidestepping freewalking seems slower so you’re less likely to avoid a vertical attacks, let alone horizontal ones.

Justin Towell
Justin Towell
Freelance Writer

Justin was a GamesRadar+ staffer for 10 years but is now a freelance writer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.