Bashing exotic opponents with gigantic fantasy swords is brilliant. That's the fundamental thing that sets Soulcalibur apart from other...

The meatiest impacts in games; Outfits bordering on the illegal; Beautifully balanced fighting

Slightly disappointing roster; No creation-based fighting styles; Star Wars fighters out of place

The last time we saw Soul Calibur , the third installment didn't really seem to impress many people. Released on the PS2 a few years ago, it came at an inopportune time and didn't add enough to the formula to make a huge difference to most gamers.

It's the herald of a new generation. The big name fighting game is back. As good as Virtua Fighter was, and as much as everyone is looking forward to Live Arcade's HD Remix, Soul Calibur is still very definitely The People's Fighter.

Fabulously beautiful; Old-fashioned fun

Barely changed since III

Soulcalibur returns with the same deep fighting system and a new online mode that makes it an easy game to recommend.

Online play is smooth and hassle-free; Plenty of different characters; plus you can make your own; Gameplay is accessible for newcomers and has plenty of depth for veterans; Tower of Lost Souls mode offers plenty of single-player challenge; Looks great

There's no team battle mode; Story mode is short and disappointing; You can't pit Yoda against Darth Vader; yet

Relax, breathe easy. All is well within the Namco fighting game universe. Soulcalibur IV boots up predictably with the usual CG intro loveliness, staggeringly good HD graphics, the full-fat 60FPS gameplay experience and a satisfyingly vast selection of single-player modes in addition to versus and...

Despite its drawbacks, this is a good fighting game, with a fine choice of characters, numerous skills, weapons and arenas to fight in, on top of a variety of modes, each of which can be great fun both offline and online.

Enough content to guarantee some pretty wild matches; both online and offline; a few nice innovations make this game an improvement over earlier editions in the series; excellent visuals and sound

Single-player is underdeveloped, lacks a richer narrative, rare moments of lag in online matches, no Yoda vs; Vader..; yet

"Is that all this game is?" asks a voice from behind us. It's Amy 19, Yoshimitsu 7 at this point and even after 26 five-round matches, our weary combatants show no sign of giving up.

Swords will be honed and weapons optimized in Namco Bandai's Soulcalibur IV. Delivering new gameplay modes, characters and enhanced features with unprecedented 3D modeling and animation, Soulcalibur IV will be the definitive fighting game experience.

Unique fighting styles, weapons and characters coupled with very fluid and technical gameplay is really the formula for success in an ideal fighting game. Soulcalibur IV hits all those right on the head.

SC4 features a mix of single player modes and online play to keep players busy. Like all fighting games; there is typically an arcade mode where you need to battle through 8 rounds of increasing difficulty.