Skip to content
Soul Calibur II HD Online: Soul Calibur has been around in many different incarnations since 1998, following hot on the heels of Soul Edge (1996). It started in the arcades and then moved to the Dreamcast towards the end of 1999, with an improvement in the graphics, which actually makes it better than the arcade version overall.
I hadn’t played this game since the days of the Dreamcast, and more recently this year at Revival 2013 in Wolverhampton. It was glorious on both that wonderful, but ill-fated home console, as well as in the arcade, and it’s a hit on the PS3 as well. For my money, it beats any game in the Mortal Kombat and Tekken series.
As you’d expect, Soul Calibur II HD Online has all the usual modes: Arcade (7 rounds with random characters, except for the last one who’s always Inferno), Time Attack (beat the enermy by the time the clock runs out), Survival (keep going for as many rounds as possible – with a possible max of 50, with no chance of replaying when you die, and only one shot at each round), Team Battle (get into the game with a maximum team of 3 characters, so not as many as I was hoping for. I’m sure it used to have 5?) and, of course, the obligatory Practice mode.
There’s also “Extra Arcade”, which is similar to the Arcade mode, but also allowing you to select a new weapon. Or so you’d think, as I could only select my usual. Then there’s Weapons Master, which is like a story mode, as you participate in a series of fights while brushing up your skills and unlocking new features. Museum shows you all the character profiles and a demo theatre which shows all the unlocked character endings you’ve achieved so far.
I’m hopeless when it comes to effective button-mashing to the point where I can pull off a series of slick moves to win the game. The only way I can beat the bad guys late in the game is by sheer fluke.
Go to page 2 for a look at the online side of this title.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.