Soulcalibur Legends (Wii)

I adored Soul Calibur 2 on the Gamecube, and when I saw this I decided to pick it up. I didn't realise when I bought it that this is not, unlike the other Soul Calibur games, a beat-em-up game. Instead, it is a third person adventure, designed especially to take advantage of the Wii's unique controls. The game also, for those who have enjoyed the Soul Calibur mythos, explores the history of the swords Soul Edge and Soul Calibur in greater detail, in particular focussing on the knight Siegfried, who becomes corrupted by the evil Soul Edge and becomes the dread knight Nightmare in the other games.

Set in a fictional sixteenth century, a young knight desperate for power discovers the evil sword Soul Edge, and in doing so unleashes the Evil Seed, a wave of destruction that spawns a number of monsters called Evils across the world. A year or so later, Siegfried is with the Holy Roman Emperor, whose capital in Vienna is under attack from the leader of a band of thiefs: Barbaros, who has taken the Holy Sword Soul Calibur and used its power to try and take over the world. Siegfried is charged by the Emperor to defeat Barbaros, and in doing so gathers a band of familiar faces to him from the Soul Calibur series, such as Ivy, Astaroth, Taki etc, to aid him in his quest.

So far, so good - unfortunately, the game degenerates pretty quickly from the description on the back of the box. The problem is that gameplay is not well thought-out. Levels are played in a linear sequence; you move through an environment in a line, and periodically stop to defeat hoards of ever spawning enemies. There are a few very basic puzzle sequences to solve from time to time, such as finding some switches and hitting them in the right sequence to activate a door, but they are so basic that even a 4 year old wouldn't have any difficulty working them out. Missions become endlessly repeated, and have little variation. Generally, you have to either defeat all enemies or defeat a boss. There are a few different locations but you end up revisiting them to replay them time after time.

Controls are simple; swinging the remote swings your weapon, and the nunchuk joystick is used for movement. You can also shake the nunchuk to perform a forward charge, or dodge to the side or rear. You can block attacks by pressing Z, and hitting B makes you jump. However, the game becomes something of a button masher, with the exception being that instead of mashing buttons, you end up waving the wii remote manically and frantically to execute your attacks. Although you can string different swings together to create combos, the problem is that unlike the other Soul Calibur games, which had a very fluid combat system that allowed you to go gracefully from combo to combo, there is not enough finesse in swinging to achieve the results you want. Furthermore, the camera action is distinctly unhelpful; it is slow to move around, and it automatically locks onto an arbitrary enemy and stays focussed behind you on that, making it difficult to see into the peripheral. Third player games can have very fluid camera actions - look at the Zelda series - but the camera in this game is at best ok and at worst a downright hindrance to game play.

Overall, the game isn't that bad. It is diverting enough, and it is fun to learn more about the mythology of the Soul Calibur universe. Unfortunately, this game feels incredibly rushed, with little thought going into it. The dialogue of the game is hackneyed and annoying, and it constantly tries to hammer home the point that seeking power for the sake of power is a bad thing. This ends up getting ridiculous, and one of the non-playable character's backstory, which is supposed to be poignant and moving, becomes stupid and somewhat inappropriately funny because of how it always ends up a semi-lecture on how much it sucks not to have power, because his sister died and could no longer bake him his favourite Hungarian treats. Literally, that is how stupid it is.

As a stick waver (i.e., button masher for the Wii), the game is ok - it kept me entertained enough to keep playing it. However, it is not a game I want to play again and with the benefit of hindsight, I probably would have preferred to spend my money on something else.

Overall, I would say go for it if you are a serious fan, or looking for a simple, reasonably entertaining way to pass a few hours, but do not expect great things.

If you are already a soul calibur fan then I recommend this game as this is very different to the original soul calibur and instantly becomes fun with the wii remote and nunchuk controls. In many of the levels you can switch between two characters which makes the level easier to complete as you have two different bars of health but I still found the game challenging at times. Characters include- Ivy, Astoroth, Sophita, Taki, Mitsurgi, Lloyd and in some levels you have to play only as Siefried as he is the main character.

It is nearly a purely fighting game but I enjoyed the occasional problem solving or required logic to complete a certain part. The different locations are good with interaction with the environment such as breaking barrels, switching levers and turning lights on to open doors. The enemies vary according to levels- some may need speed, some may need strength, some may need both to defeat them. I preferred this game in single player but two player is much the same with levels of competition or cooperation of two players.

Soul calibur games have never been known for their difficulty and this game is no exception. I found this challenging in only a very few levels, mostly boss levels (such as Maki and Geki- you have to kill each of them twice!). However this does not take away from enjoying the game and having fun. I would recommend this game to any gamer but may not appeal to everyone. If in doubt grab a friend and start in two player!

There are other reviews that give a lot of detailed information so I'll keep this short.

BE WARNED - This is not the traditional Soul Calibur fighting style of one-on-one 3D combat. This is a run-along beat-em-up, which simply means it is a platform fighting game where you run around killing monsters, in 3D.

OK now have been warned, this is a simple and fun run-along beat-em-up, especially for Soul Calibur fans who want to play with their favourite Soul Calibur characters in a different scenario, but the graphics are by far not as good as the other Soul calibur games.