Soul Calibur IV

Soul Calibur IV is an unparalleled aesthetic accomplishment, and, over a decade after its release, it endures as a digital apotheosis of beauty. Perhaps it is shallow to begin a review with a discussion of graphics, but, true to the Soul Calibur series, the fourth iteration is a truly stunning game, and the depth of its bright and glossy visuals abidingly occasions amazement. So many different materials are rendered convincingly here, ranging from metals to leathers to textiles. Future iterations of the series have not drastically overhauled the graphical style, and with good cause, as SCIV is among the most aesthetically satisfying games ever made.

SCIV had—and has—perhaps the best create-a-character in all of video games, another feature so stellar that it has only been slightly tweaked for sequels. The editing suite provided on SCIV is nothing short of a triumph—what can't be created here? The textural and sartorial variety are so vast, it is difficult not to create a character with personality. You can realize virtually any classical warrior archetype: samurais, knights errant, ninjas, barbarians, cowboys, nurses, Nazi werewolves—they're all here, vividly imagined and waiting to be drawn out from the creation suite. Beyond that, you are able to equip your creation with a wealth of classical weaponry drawn from across historical periods and civilizations. It would take multiple master's degrees and PhDs in the humanities to know if it's all historically accurate—indeed, the majority of it is probably not. But placed in a tapestry as beautiful as that of SCIV, it all feels accurate. And if we've learned anything from history, it's that the inaccurate take is usually the most entertaining and awesome one.

You come to love your creations. Indeed, their top-class rendering and texturing gives them a strangely alluring character. The zaftig and/or callipygian female form is particularly well-rendered in SCIV. "Women have always been a visual mystery to men," Hollywood director Brian De Palma once offered. "They don't have to say anything—they just look." In SCIV, the women look, but they do so much more. They brandish battleaxes and wield bullwhips and kick ass and quip at par with their male counterparts. The characters are comely no matter what gendering you prefer, and so alongside your buxom bombshells, their breasts bound up firm in metal bodices, you also get square-jawed, stubble-chinned Adonises, their packages snugly girded. And the editing suite is not limited to just the two genders or just the one species.

Soul Calibur IV's gameplay is as lovely as the visuals. The controls are smooth enough that you can button mash and still have success, even feeling graceful while doing so. It all comes together, historically and aesthetically, in Soul Calibur IV, which stands as the best weapons-based versus fighter in the chronicles of video gaming, hands down.

But it goes beyond history. Soul Calibur games from II onward have included guest warriors, usually famous licensed characters from other franchises, the most notable being Link from Legend of Zelda. For Soul Calibur IV, Namco managed to land the most prestigious of all licenses: that of Star Wars. And so, the capacious Soul Calibur universe welcomes Yoda to the Xbox 360 version of IV, and Darth Vader to the PS3 offering thereof. For a small fee, owners of either system could download whichever of the two Jedis they did not get with their version of the game. The incorporation of the rival Jedis rendered Soul Calibur IV an absolute must-buy at the time of its release, and certainly, the collector who does not own the game would be remiss not to seek it out.

The question remains, then: if you are a retro gamer with both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, and you don't want to mess around with downloads for an outdated system, which version do you buy? The simplest response is that you buy both. But for the sake of argument, let's say you can only have one. So which is it?

The answer is PS3. Darth Vader, your correspondent submits, fits the Soul Calibur aesthetic impeccably, as he is multi-textured, with cloth cape, abdominal dials, and spit-shined headwear. Moreover, Vader helps SCIV fully realize its aspiration to present a trans-historical menagerie of warriors. Darth Vader is the future,* but he is also the past with his Samurai-inspired, glans-shaped helmet. Yoda, though he is formidable, will always feel like a bit of a novelty character on account of his diminutive stature and croupy, mangled elocution.

But this Star Wars debate is immaterial. Buy Soul Calibur IV and every other iteration of the series. Of course, for the truly discerning gamer, such an imperative is redundant.

NOTES:

* I realize it all happened "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" but, nonetheless, Star Wars still looks futuristic from the perspective of our own time.