Soul Calibur

Reviewed by:
Gerasimos Manolatos

The Skinny: From the game: "Transcending history, and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold." Um, OK. Whatever.

The Good: The Dreamcast's (remember that?) Soul Calibur has been given a fresh coat of HD paint and ported to the 360 for download. For those new to the series, you pick from 19 fighters with distinctive weapons and maneuvers and fight in a variety of settings, all of which allow you to hit your opponent out of the ring for a cheap, but effective victory. You can traverse the Story Mode or off-line modes like Survival, Time Attack, and Team Battle. Button-mashers are welcome, but skill still dominates.

The Bad: This would have been a five-star game if a) you didn't have to use the stupid D-Pad to control the characters, b) there was any online play, and c) the Mission Battle mode from the original version was still included.

Flawless Victory: Soul Calibur is one of only eight games to be given a perfect score by respected gaming magazine Famitsu.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel? For $10, it's worth buying…again.