Review by Brutilus

The most kick ass series in 3-D fighting games is back with a vengeance!

Soul Calibur II combines the best in realistic fighting styles with great character design, beautiful scenery, and good challenges.

All of my favorite features from Soul Edge and Soul Calibur can be found in this latest installment.

Namco included all of the standard modes (Arcade, Survival, Time Attack, Versus, Team Versus, and Weapon Master) and they added enhanced modes of each of them except for Weapons Master. I think that's because Weapons Master mode takes long enough already!

There are Art Galleries to be unlocked just as in Soul Calibur that contain beautiful drawings of each of the combatants.

Most of the original Soul Edge characters are back: Sophitia, Mitsurugi, Taki, Voldo, Seung Mina, Siegfried (as Nightmare), and Cervantes. Soul Calibur got to throw in Yoshimitsu, Astaroth, Xianghua, Maxi, Lizard Man, Ivy, and my personal favorite, Kilik. Finally, there are quite a few new characters that are unique to Soul Calibur 2: Yunsung; Todd McFarlane's Necrid; Raphael; Sophitia's sister Cassandra; shape-shifting Charade; Berserker; Assassin; and Talim. There is also one system specific character: Link of Legend of Zelda fame on Gamecube; Heihachi from Tekken on PS2; and Todd McFarlane's Spawn on X-Box.

All of the characters are exquisitely detailed. And before anyone asks, yes... Taki jiggles as nicely as she always has while Seung Mina and Sophitia provide lots of gratuitous panty shots.

The weapon forms for the realistic characters, such as Kilik and Mitsurugi, are straight from the proper forms as performed by martial arts masters. They are fluid and beautiful to behold. The more fantastic characters, such as Yoshimitsu, have at least a minimal basis in real forms, but also have some entertaining aspects thrown in for good measure.

Gameplay is extremely well balanced and favors players who are willing to learn, and use, all of the blocking techniques and counters. Speedy characters can be beaten by an equally skilled player using a strong and slow character. Link is almost an exception to this with his ridiculous throwing ability, but I was able to handily trounce him and my friends. All I had to do was keep them away from the edge of the ring and counter their throws.

Weapons Master mode is Soul Calibur 2's story mode. It tells of the hero's search for the legendary Soul Calibur. You can change characters at any time, but I found Link, with his uncanny throwing ability, to be the best choice for three quarters of the missions. There is sufficient variety in the mission types to keep your interest up and make you willing to play all the way through.It is also a great way to learn how to use your fighters more effectively.

In Weapons Master mode your character gains experience (which never caused a noticeable change in the character) and gold. You can spend the gold in the various areas to purchase new features (the Art Galleries, new costumes (2 additional costumes per character), and new weapons (9 additional per character).

There are actually 11 weapons per fighter, but at least one for each of them must be won. Included among their 11 weapons is an ultimate weapon and a cheesy weapon with an amusing description.

Overall, this is the best game to come out, so far, this year. (I think Half Life 2 will kick its ass, but we'll have to wait and see...[Ed note: even longer now buddy!]) It balances gameplay perfectly and is loads of fun. Soul Calibur 2 will be hard to find used for a long time to come because nobody will be willing to part with their copy.

You can pick up your own copy of Soul Calibur II at Amazon.com for Gamecube, XBox, and PS2.

All images are property of Namco. Article copyright 2003 MillionairePlayboy.com