Almost ten years now after the original release of Soulcalibur in America, Namco Bandai and Project Soul have released the long awaited Soulcalibur IV. It has all the extra bells and whistles you would expect from a new-gen console game. Many people consider Soulcalibur as one of the greatest fighting series yet. Many people who have played the previous games will have high expectations of what this game will deliver. Soulcalibur IV sure doesn't disappoint, as the game truly is fantastic.

Right from the opening cutscence, SCIV has an impressive start. This gives you a chance to watch some of the game characters including Yoda who is exclusive to the 360 version. This new version of Soul Caliber is extremely addicting and you certainly wont be able to put your controller down for the first few hours. After you have beaten it it gets a tad boring, but having friends over will remedy this in a instant. Having several different game modes, Soul Caliber allows you to play with many friends which can make time fly.For all the Star Wars fans out there Darth Vader has also been confirmed and will be available via DLC in the near future.

You are then presented with a great looking menu screen where you will notice you start with 20,000 gold. This can be used to unlock charaters, which are 4,000 each. They have made Yoda playable straight from the start with no purchase needed. I think it was a nice touch as other games often make the good characters hard to unlock. You then have the choice of several different play modes including Arcade, Story Mode, Tower of Lost Souls, Training and Museum.

They have also balanced the abilities of Yoda and the new boss The Apprentice with the use of a Force Meter. This allows them to use special moves when they have some force available in their bar. If they perform Force abilities with an empty bar they will then take damage. Yoda's Force moves allow him to create additional height, which allow for some fast lightsaber attacks. The Apprentice can use his powers to slam people around in various directions as well as a Force Pull, which brings opponents closer to him to then slash with his lightsaber. The use of a meter was defiantly a wise move because without it the game would be seriously unbalanced. Other games should try to mimic this as this is one of the most balanced systems I have seen in a game of this calibur(pardon the pun).

With each and every installment Soulcalibur has continued to improve leaps and bounds. Each time the developers have kept increasing just how good this game really is. Things like faster load times and quicker 'retry' options have given people smooth and fast game play. This has helped the game become much better in my opinion as nothing ruins a game more than spending half your time looking at a loading screen.

If you are looking for a fast paced action packed fighting game then check this game out. It sure will impress you in so many ways. This game is hard to put down and offers hours of fun. I hope you have found this Soul calibur IV review helpful and I hope you go out and try this fantastic game.