Pros: Beautiful, fun and absorbing
Cons: Terrible announcer, should be multilingual

I've always kind of (and I stress kind of) liked fighting games. I really could take or leave most fighting games, not a big deal. I got Soul Calibur thinking that it would be a fun multi-player game. In reality, I've spent more time playing it alone than with my friends.

I was skeptical about Soul Calibur because I had played Soul Blade for Playstation; it was okay, nothing great. I took my sister shopping with me and she liked Soul Calibur the best out of any we looked at, and for 30 bucks minus a couple trade-in games I didn't think it was a bad deal.

I had no idea how much quality gaming was in that little square package. Yeah, I had heard how great it was, but I had to play it myself to believe.

This fighting game, hard as it may be to believe, has a plot and a pretty good one too. It is during the 16th century and each character is after the super-powerful sword Soul Edge, each for his or her own purpose and the story unfolds from there.

This is a 3-D weapons based fighter. Each character has his or her own unique weapon. Swords are the most popular, but staffs, axes and even an Edward-scissorhands type deal is included. Controls are responsive and easy to learn. Combos and special moves take a little practice to pull off, but when you first pick up the game and mash buttons you'll do okay for yourself.

The graphic quality jumps out from the minute you turn on the game. The introduction is beautiful, and to be totally honest, the actual game-play looks the same. All of the stages are super detailed and there are no details spared on the characters either; they blink, their hair blows in the wind etc. The fighting animations are flawless. Nothing looks out of place.

The sound has its moments. No sound accompanies a good battle like the ol' swords a'clangin' and there is plenty of sword clanging here. All of the music has a classical style to go along with the time period. What really kills me about the game is voices. The announcer has, I believe, a total of six things he says through the entire game. Needless to say that gets old fast. Also, all of the characters talk in Japanese with English subtitles, never mind the fact that some characters are from Europe. It would have been really cool to hear each character talk in their real language.

The bulk of the single player game comes in the mission mode. You complete various missions and you gain points, with those points, you buy art cards, the art cards then unlock all kind of new stages, game modes etc. The missions are cleverly designed, you may start with very little life, or only be able to defeat you opponents with throws etc. The mission range from quite benign to really difficult. Getting all the art cards in no short task. The mission mode takes that part of RPGs that really suck you in and makes this the most absorbing fighting game ever.

There is no shortage of characters in Soul Calibur, there are ten characters to choose from to start, with the potential to unlock nine more. Most of the characters are unlocked by beating the arcade mode. After winning you will get and ending with still pictures and text, one of the few disappointing parts of the game. You would think that you could see a neat little movie or something.

Also included in the game is a Vs. mode for wailing on your friends, plenty of fun there. A practice mode to improve you skills, you can play survival and team battle modes as well. Lastly, there is a "museum" where you can look at all the pretty art cards you bought and a lot of other goodies too.

The replayablity of this game is very high. Not only will it take you a while to complete the missions and get all of the characters, after you unlock all of this neat stuff you and all your buddies will want to play with it.

I resisted all those that said Soul Calibur was an essential game for the Dreamcast for too long. This is another great addition to the Dreamcast's incredible library. If you don't own a Dreamcast this is one of the games that should make you want one.