{"id":1192,"date":"2008-08-12T18:45:51","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T00:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2008-08-12T18:45:51","modified_gmt":"2008-08-13T00:45:51","slug":"game-review-soulcalibur-iv-360-ps3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/12\/game-review-soulcalibur-iv-360-ps3\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Review: SoulCalibur IV (360, PS3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/a>\"\"<\/a>I HATE fighting games. I stink at them so badly and I can’t figure out all those button combinations and moves. I’m lucky if I can make Ryu poop out a fireball! However, even though I detest fighting games, I still really like SoulCalibur IV. That’s how good it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

SoulCalibur IV is the latest in a series of weapons-based, 3-D fighting games from game maker Namco Bandai. Choose from more than two dozen warriors and master their unique weapons fighting styles. Star Wars fans, take note: a couple of popular characters are playable in each version-Yoda on the 360 and Darth Vader on the PS3. They don’t quite fit with the rest of the cast, but who cares? It’s fun!<\/p>\n

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While the single player modes aren’t as robust as in previous games, you still have Arcade, Story, and Tower of Lost Souls modes. The latter has you ascending or descending a tower, fighting opponents along the way as you unlock treasures and goodies. You can also play versus with a nearby buddy, but as far as multiplayer goes, online is where it’s at. Playing online is easy to do and runs pretty smooth. A few expert players I know say that sometimes, a slight lag can mess up timing on special moves, but I don’t know any different. Even though I lose a lot online, I still have had fun playing against family, online friends, and co-workers. If you’re having trouble winning online, you’re more than welcome to play against me. I guarantee you’ll win most of the time! My Xbox Live gamertag is Klonoa360.<\/p>\n

Character creation mode is back and is more versatile and easier to use than ever before. Make a male or female character and outfit them with armor and garb, choose skin and hair color, voice pitch, and even physique. It doesn’t take very long to make a decent looking character, and you can even show them off online. I’ve made a lot of fun characters from other games and TV shows myself, including Ulala (Space Channel 5), Cammy (Street Fighter II), Reiko Nagase (Ridge Racer), Phoenix Wright and his lawyer rival Miles Edgeworth, Jimmy T. (Wario Ware), and even Iron Chef Yellow (I call him “Chef Sweaty”).<\/p>\n

Play control is fluid and smooth. A novice fighter like myself can push buttons and directions on the joystick and still perform pretty cool attacks, and an expert player can do even better moves and timed hits for more powerful blows. New gameplay elements include breakable armor and critical finishes. The graphics are some of the best I’ve seen on the new consoles, it’s as if you could almost reach out and touch the characters. Overall, SoulCalibur IV is one of the best fighters this year. 5 out of 5 stars! (My favorite characters are Nightmare and Cassandra, if anyone cares)<\/p>\n

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Kid Factor:<\/strong>
\nSoulCalibur IV is rated T for Teen by the ESRB for Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, and Violence. Of course the game is violent, it’s a fighter after all. But there is no blood or limbs being chopped off or anything. In fact, blows just go through the other player like butter, and only flashes of light are shown. Although some of the throw moves still look pretty painful. The partial nudity and sexual themes come from some of the female characters who don’t wear enough clothes and have ridiculous proportions (Ivy and Taki, I’m looking at you). And some of the characters occasionally curse. A few of the fighters are scary enough to give very young kids nightmares. Heck, there’s even a character named Nightmare!<\/p>\n

But even though it’s rated T, I would still let some kids a little younger than that play it, provided I was there to supervise. However, I wouldn’t let anyone less than teenage play online. Other players are free to make whatever kinds of characters they want online, and I’m a little embarrassed to say what some of the ones I’ve seen are! So online is best for older gamers only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I HATE fighting games. I stink at them so badly and I can’t figure out all those button combinations and moves. I’m lucky if I can make Ryu poop out a fireball! However, even though I detest fighting games, I still really like SoulCalibur IV. That’s how good it is. \u00a0 SoulCalibur IV is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}