Release Date: September 9, 1999
Developer: Project Soul
Publisher: Namco
There sure have been a lot of notable anniversaries in the last couple of months that conspire to make me feel even older. The most recent anniversary to add to the gray in my beard is the 20th Anniversary of Bandai Namco’s Soulcalibur series. The series pioneered true 8-way 3D, weapons-based combat and has been a staple of the fighting game genre for years. However, the subject of this Retro Review, SoulCalibur, is a story unto itself. The game, a launch title for the SEGA Dreamcast, was the first title to surpass its arcade cousin, and would never have come to pass except for a borderline miracle. The result, however, is just about perfect.
First, a bit of history. The series began in 1996 when Namco, then a singular entity, released Soul Edge in the arcade. Due to a legal dispute over the name “Edge” in the UK, it was renamed Soul Blade in that region. A successful port for the PlayStation followed. In 1998, Namco released the sequel, SoulCalibur. The name change was to unify the titles under one name; the name “Caliber” was purposely misspelled in case someone wanted to claim that name, too. It was an arcade hit, so a home port was sure to follow. There, Namco hit a bit of a snag.
At the time, Namco had a very cushy relationship with Sony. From the moment the latter company entered the home video game console market with the PlayStation, both Sony and Namco were happy bedfellows. Namco had grown tired of Nintendo’s bullying antics, and SEGA was a direct competitor in the arcades. With Sony, Namco had a partner that was both easier to work with and not a hated rival. All of Namco’s arcade ports were planned exclusively for Sony’s nascent console.
The partnership was a success. Home ports of the Tekken series and Soul Edge/Soul Blade were big sellers, with Tekken 3 being the biggest. But that last game was a chore to port over. As popular as the PlayStation was, it wasn’t really a powerhouse console. Technically, it was a stripped-down Namco’s System 12 arcade board with less memory. In order to shoehorn the game in, Namco had to do a lot of tweaking, compressing, and praying. The result was excellent, but not up to Namco’s standards.
When the home port of SoulCalibur was discussed, Namco’s top brass was faced with a difficult choice. They knew that the game was too big to work properly on the PlayStation. Their only other recourse was to port the game to SEGA’s then-new Dreamcast. To them, that was akin to not only sleeping with the devil, but asking him for seconds. SEGA and Namco were bitter rivals at the time; we’re talking SEGA/Nintendo Console Wars rivals. The thought of porting one of their arcade titles to their arcade nemesis was akin to Nintendo porting Super Mario World for the Genesis.
Still, the Dreamcast’s NAOMI architecture – an arcade architecture – was more than powerful enough for what Namco was planning for their home port of SoulCalibur. So Namco’s execs swallowed hard, clenched their teeth, and slid into bed with Satan.
The result was one of the best fighting games I have ever played.
The story follows the events of Soul Edge/Soul Blade. It’s the 16th Century, and the dread pirate Cervantes de Leon possesses the mythical Soul Edge, a pair of powerful long swords. For 25 years he has remained in seclusion. But thanks to the efforts of Greek warrior Sophitia and the ninja Taki, he is killed. In the process, one of the twin blades of Soul Edge is shattered. Siegfried, a Prussian knight who arrives afterward, manages to fight the reanimated corpse of Cervantes and prevails, claiming the remaining sword for himself. The Soul Edge then awakens, releasing the Evil Seed and transforming Siegfried into Nightmare. He then goes on a tear through Europe, taking the souls of anyone who crosses him. It’s now up to Sophitia, Taki, and a new group of warriors to stop Nightmare.
When this game launched with the Dreamcast on September 9, 1999, everyone lost their minds. Gaming publications were tripping over themselves, throwing 10s at this game like NBA players throw 100s at strippers. Words like “masterpiece” and “state-of-the-art” were bandied about like the words didn’t mean anything. I, being a cynical jerk since birth, didn’t believe the hype. Sure, the game looked great on paper and in still images on websites, but it’s just a home port of an arcade title. The arcade version is always better.
For Christmas, I bought the Dreamcast for my son, age 6 at the time. I purchased two games for the console: Sonic Adventure and SoulCalibur. On Christmas day, he opened up his Dreamcast and immediately popped in Sonic Adventure. We played for a few hours, and the requisite ooohs and ahhhs over the game’s shiny next-gen graphics were uttered. After a couple of hours, he decided to pop in SoulCalibur.
I wet myself.
Until that moment, the only way to get an arcade-perfect experience at home was to either buy an arcade cabinet or buy a Neo-Geo AES. Actually, that’s not an apt comparison, because SoulCalibur for the Dreamcast was SUPERIOR to the arcade game! Namco’s System 12 hardware had no chance of competing with SEGA’s NAOMI architecture, and SoulCalibur proved it. Everything was beautifully rendered; the character models were absolutely gorgeous and brimming with detail. The backgrounds, slightly muddled on the arcade version, were spectacular on the Dreamcast. The control was arcade-perfect, even on the Dreamcast’s odd controller. The music was appropriately bombastic and amazing. Everything was superior to the arcade game.
SoulCalibur was the title in the series that pioneered true 8-way 3D movement in a fighting game. Prior to it, games like Soul Edge/Soul Bade used the third dimension only for side-stepping. The new mechanic was a hit in the arcades of the time, and the Dreamcast port handled it beautifully. It was awesome to slide to the side of an attacker and wail at them from their side. The added benefit of using weapons instead of fists made the attacks much more satisfying.
In true Namco style, the home port had tons of additional content. There were tons of alternate costumes to unlock; my favorite was the Elvis Impersonator outfit for nunchaku expert Maxi – though the thought of a Japanese nunchaku-wielding Elvis impersonator in 16th-century Europe is a bit odd. Tons of artwork and music were unlockable, too. You unlocked them by playing mission mode, where you fight against the Edge Master – your virtual tutor – and other AI opponents. Winning matches earns you points you use to purchase the unlockables. Mission mode is included in addition with the standard time attack, survival, and team battle modes.
The thing that struck me the most about SoulCalibur back then was its incredible attention to detail. When spectating, you notice tiny things about the game and its characters. When Nightmare fights, the eye on the Soul Edge moves on its own, staring at different things. Mitsurugi’s katana catches reflections of the area around him. Pervy gimp Voldo wields twin katars, and they move independently. When characters move, they kick up dust. The real-time shadows were amazing, especially with Ivy’s whip-sword. These things are taken for granted now with the horsepower on tap in today’s consoles. In 1999, this was Star Trek-level stuff.
Soon after my purchase of the Dreamcast, I learned of the console’s VGA adapter. It was a little box that would allow the Dreamcast to be attached to a VGA monitor. I quickly purchased one and connected my PC’s VGA monitor to the Dreamcast. To test it, I had to load up SoulCalibur. I just had to. The resulting image quality nearly brought me to tears.
The SEGA Dreamcast was an absolute technical marvel in its time, and SoulCalibur was its show horse. Prior to that point, the best arcade experience was found at an actual arcade. The Dreamcast brought the arcade home; later ports of House of the Dead and Crazy Taxi would cement that statement. SoulCalibur completely trounced the arcade experience!
Of course, after Namco slept with the devil, it sought salvation. It faithfully returned to Sony before discovering polygamy and getting in bed with Microsoft’s Xbox as well. The Dreamcast, SEGA’S last console, only saw three other Namco titles: Namco Museum, Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, and Mr. Driller. All were decent games – I’m rather smitten with Mr. Driller – but none on the level of SoulCalibur.
Does it still hold up? FUCK YEA! The game still looks great, sounds divine, and plays like a champ. My Dreamcast is connected to my HDTV via its VGA input, and the output it sharp. It may look dated compared to its sequels, but it’s still incredibly solid. It’s on my permanent rotation of Dreamcast games I’ll play, right alongside Chu Chu Rocket, Power Stone 2, and Marvel vs Capcom 2.
Fortunately, you don’t need to own a Dreamcast to play this game. It’s not available for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but you can buy it for the Xbox 60 via Xbox Live. There are also iOS and Android versions of the game.
As a fighting game on its own merits, SoulCalibur has to be one of the finest. As a home port, SoulCalibur on the Dreamcast was revolutionary. It turns out the gaming publications weren’t just throwing the words “masterpiece” and “state-of-the-art” frivolously. And it seems something good can come from sleeping with the devil. I’m not condoning it, but it’s not completely useless.
Good: Excellent graphics, music, control, modes..excellent everything!
Bad: <<thinking>> I got nothing!
Final score: 10/10
