bit-tech Shopping: Namco Bandai Soulcalibur Legends (Wii)

Rating: 4

Time with product: 2

Strengths: Good idea for a game

Weaknesses: Poorly executed in almost every way

Summary: I really wanted to like Soul Calibur Legends. While I knew it was an offshoot of the main series, the Soul Calibur games have been consistently good since the debut on the Dreamcast almost 10 years ago. This game is an attempt to take the franchise in a very different direction, and while the idea is good, it is poorly executed. You follow the back story of the swords (Soul Calibur and Soul Edge) in a hack and slash style adventure game. While it's fun for a while to swing the Wii Remote and feel a bit more into the action, the problem is this game has nearly none of the characteristics that have made past Soul Calibur games so great. The graphics are fairly mediocre (I had read "Dreamcast quality" -- more like "bad Dreamcast quality"). The story and voice acting is predictable at best and laughably bad at worst. The camera and control system can get very confusing to work with. Overall, it's a great idea for a game and at its current budget/clearance pricing, if you're a die hard fan of the series, it might be fun to play around with a bit. Getting some of the back story flushed out can be fun, even if it is pretty cheesy (Although not quite "good" cheesy) But if you're expecting something to rise to the calibur (sorry) of past games-- you're not going to find it here. I'm giving it 2 stars-- it probably deserves more like 2.5 or 3, but part of me feels like they messed up such a great franchise with this bizarre game that feels out of place... so I'm deducting for that. If they made a sequel and fixed some of the issues (fix the camera!! better graphics, better story, etc) it might turn out ok, but this just is a bit of a mess.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 1

Strengths: Decent graphics, some nice enemy designs, the cast of Soul Blade/Calibur.

Weaknesses: A bit bland graphically, repetitive gameplay and level design.

Summary: While not an awful game, SoulCalibur Legends just comes across as underwhelming. What could have been a cool game in the Castlevania/Devil May Cry-style ends up being a repetitive button-masher. It looks decent for a Wii title, and the cast of Soul Calibur is here, but at some point, the boredom just sets in.