Fighting games are a genre that over the years has been symbolized by an elite few blockbuster titles. Of those titles became gaming series that carried on at least some part of the successful formulas that made their predecessors great. I would dare say today's gamer hasn't heard of Street Fighter, and anyone who played games during the early to mid '90s can remember the grip Mortal Kombat had over both the arcade and the home console. At along the same time, SEGA unveiled Virtua Fighter, which took fighters into the three-dimensional world of polygons. In more recent times, gamers are most familiar with the Tekken series, and those who have had the pleasure to sit down and play Soul Calibur also hold it in the highest regards amongst such legendary titles.

Naturally, any sequel to the 'flawless' effort that was the first Soul Calibur is going to be met with a tightrope walk, or to put it in contrast, the proverbial fine line that exists between two extremes or opposites - only if there's a mistake, it's a long fall to the ground. Either example defines the arduous task that Namco faced in bringing their fighter back and placing it on today's consoles. And then there's the age-old question, how do you improve upon perfect? It's a mind-boggling scenario to be placed in when such a project comes about. It's really not a question that the developers sit around trying to answer, rather they have a whole set of questions to deal with. For instance, how much of the predecessor's game engine should be used in the sequel? How much should change to set the sequel apart from the original? Should the old engine be scrapped and a totally new one be created? How many modes of play should there be, and what exactly fits in a fighting game with a sword theme? I'm sure the most important question of all that every developer wishes to answer correctly is, what will make the gamers (read consumers) happy? Game development is about the passion of game design and entertaining gamers, but the bottom line is creating a product the consumer will want to buy.

Nearly four years ago, Namco released Soul Calibur in the arcades and on the SEGA Dreamcast. It received the highest possible marks by numerous review publications. Today, we walk the tightrope in the same fashion as Namco with Soul Calibur II, the much-anticipated sequel to one of the greatest fighters ever. We'll be asking the same questions the developers probably did to decide the quality of their work and how this game rates in comparison to other fighters of today and in the past.

Presentation:
From the moment I peeled the clear plastic off of the game case to the start of the first fight, I was impressed with the feel of the game. No - impressed is not an accurate term - it's more like I was developing a crush. The introduction video is the perfect start to hook gamers new to the series and reinvigorate any old flames of passion that veterans previously had. And any Nintendo fan will feel a certain amount of pride upon seeing Link in the collection of movie scenes amongst such impressive fighters.

Exiting the introduction, a fairly simple menu appears and the easiest thing to do is to select Arcade from the Original category. This will bring up the character select screen and promptly place the player in a fight. Doing the arcade style fighting is the easiest way to jump in and get accustomed to Soul Calibur II. Navigating the rest of the menu is easy and straightforward with an intuitive layout.

Along about this time, as I'm getting my rear handed to me, I finally pull the instruction booklet out of the case and look at it. Like the cover of the case, the artwork on the front of the booklet is respectable and fitting for the title. I flip through the pages to try and figure out what I'm doing. The booklet faithfully explains the button layout (it translates the A, B, K, G button labels that I would assume are uniformly used across all consoles), the types of attacks such as high-level attack (upper-body), mid-level attack (mid-body), and low-level attack (lower-body), and how to guard, defend, and roll. Reading these explanations helped me a little, but never really unlocked exactly what was occurring on the screen. The practice mode and the training grounds that I later found explained the controls and taught me how to execute the basic techniques rendering the instruction booklet useless for the most part, which is not entirely a bad thing - don't get me wrong.

What I would have liked to read is the back-story to Soul Calibur. There's not much to read in the instruction booklet, and only after going through the training grounds did I make sense of the explanations in the manual. Other than that, the presentation of Soul Calibur II is fantastic.

Graphics:
This is one area that Namco seems to excel in with Soul Calibur, and they don't fail to improve upon what they did four years ago. The visuals in Soul Calibur II are stunning and polished to the point of immediate appreciation for both level design and character detail. Rich textures and ideal color schemes make almost every stage an enjoyable place to do battle. For instance, the Imperial Capital Ayutthaya stage stands out in my mind as one of my favorite stages to see because of the nicely designed structures and the beautiful waterfront on the other side of the battlers that is a nice shade of blue and reflective of the opposite shore structures. The water is nice eye candy that adds to the full impact that Soul Calibur II makes on gamers, and it also serves as a ring out opportunity for strategists such as myself!

Each stage consists of beautiful backgrounds, unique structures, and the actual battleground or 'ring.' The stages each carry a distinct theme that usually matches one of the characters. There's a windmill stage that takes place up high at the top floor of a windmill. The view of the scenery from up high is spectacular with other windmills in the distance and other structures also residing in the background. This stage also features another effect that is wind. The wind blows the characters' hair, jewelry, and clothing. Stages with wind will usually feature something in the scenery that will also display this either with falling leaves or pedals, snowflakes, or mist. Weather effects are definitely an impressive feature to the game.

The character models are also improved and very detailed. The fighters feature new looks and are very animated. They're very lifelike and mesh well with each and every stage. The animations are the best I've seen in any game yet with mouth movements that are right in line with speech. Their facial expressions and eye movements are the icing on the cake that gives the game the certain amount of class and admiration that the best games always achieve.

The fighting animations serve as part of the main course of the meal (we have meat and potatoes, and this is the potatoes) and are one of the crucial parts that make Soul Calibur so successful. It's fluid combat in the third dimension that's unpredictable and exciting. It's fun to play. It's fun to watch. It's a thrill to pull off different combos and moves because of the neat movements and the impact they make on opponents. Using one of Link's moves for example, it's fun to watch him run up the front of his opponent and come down with a vertical slash on them. The damage and graphical effects of this move make learning combos and executing grab moves a very fun and rewarding experience. This is one of the purest reasons that some gamers are fighter fanatics and button gurus.

Soul Calibur II packages beautifully textured environments, finely crafted and detailed character models, and seamless fluid combat into an amazing graphical masterpiece that is fit to carry the Soul Calibur name. It's polished and clean of cracks, seams, and disjointing that is so typically visible in polygonal environments and animated character models. It also supports progressive scan mode, too. This is nothing short of superb.