by: Michael Ogunnubi

October 18, 2008

Straight from the 3rd iteration, the Custom fighter mode has returned. This feature of the game is where you can build you own fighter from scratch. This gives you a lot of freedom on how you want to play the game by utilizing what characters moves you want for your character and how they look. New armor and weapons for your characters can be unlocked from finding secrets in the Tower of Lost Souls mode. This gives the game a bit more objectivity rather than just fight, fight, fight.

Fortunately this game does have online features so you can play with friends across Xbox Live. This is far more enjoyable than completing the story mode twenty times over. Battling against your friends and showing off your custom fighters makes this a more enjoyable experience and can make you forget the repetitive format. But at least you get to shout your annoyance at your friends rather than the television screen when you loose. Luckily the game also features near perfect online play and in a game where timing is everything this is highly important.

Unfortunately another old feature to return is the completely confusing control system. Marking the buttons as Guard (G), Attack (A) etc… If your new to the game series you will no doubt feel hopeless and lost, and when consulting the moves guide to find that when it say press A it means press X you will have lots of painfully irritating fun trying to memorize this pointless system which mealy confuses and aggravates people. The control help is laid out clearly for you to understand but doesn’t help when you’re in the midst of battle and you have to remember which buttons are what for performing complex combos.

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The character creator mode and its classic fighter format is the only thing that’s holding the game together. This game just doesn’t achieve the highs the series reached with Soul Calibur 2 but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

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