The absence of any multiplayer mode – the bedrock of any fighting game – is a more serious offence, and Soul Calibur’s lifespan suffers as a consequence.Īfter all, trouncing your friends has always been excellent motivation for memorising combos, and pounding the AI doesn’t really offer the same thrill. Thankfully, the placement of the on-screen buttons is highly customisable, and problems are an occasional irritation rather than a constant issue. Someone of your Caliburīut despite the relative accessibility of Soul Calibur, porting an arcade fighting game to a touchscreen device has resulted in some inevitable compromises, and there are moments when the flow of gameplay is interrupted by control inadequacies. For those who couldn’t manage so much as a hadouken or a sonic-boom, Soul Calibur offered visual spectacle and flowing combos with just a few button-presses. What’s more, the game emphasised accessibility where other fighters catered only to the hardcore.
Genre veterans accustomed to the pace of Street Fighter and the technical demands of Virtua Fighter discovered that Soul Calibur brought something entirely new to the fighting genre on its 1999 console release:
