Soul Calibur II

I have extremely mixed feelings about the bonus characters specific to each platform. It's not because you have to purchase the game three times to get them all, but because of all the work and attention put into them feels wasteful when most gamers won't ever get to touch two of them. Each version of Soul Calibur II could have had two more full-fledged new characters. It feels like Namco's squandering resources.

Heihachi is the weakest of the platform-specific characters by a long way. He just doesn't fit with the rest of the SC crew; even fellow Tekken alum Yoshimitsu has a sword. Worse, his stale punch-punch-punch combos stink of the inferior series he was dragged out of. He's an effective character, and the graphics team has gone a long way to presenting him as lavishly and seamlessly as can be in the world of SCII. He just isn't up to snuff, however. On the other hand, the Dual Shock is easily the best pad of the three for playing the game, which makes everyone control just a bit smoother.

Of course, aesthetically it's pretty much impeccable. The stage graphics don't wow the same way the DC ones did, but that would be difficult. Even so, you can see more polygons being thrown around than in its predecessor, and it's undoubtedly a gorgeous game. But thanks to Dead or Alive 3 stealing this generation's graphical thunder and the ridiculously-ahead-of-its-time quality of the DC's original SC, there's just nothing overwhelming about it. It's the subtle things that reveal the true qualities of SCII's graphics.

The PlayStation 2 is often decried as being the weakest system of the three this generation. It's, frankly, debatable -- but there's little doubt that it typically loses out in multiplatform games. Soul Calibur II is no exception; it's slightly rougher around the edges, visually, than the other two versions. It does, however, offer 480P for those of you with higher end TV sets, but its sound support -- mere stereo -- falls behind the other two versions.

The two previous games in the Soul series pushed the boundaries of what a single player fighting game could be; Soul Calibur II again offers an entertainingly rich one-player mode, but it's beginning to feel like the series is resting on its laurels in this regard. The game's AI is sometimes difficult to deal with but nothing like as interesting to fight as that of PS2's Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, which bases its computer players on real ones. Fighting the computer endlessly, even with bizarre variations like wind and poisoned characters, isn't nearly as interesting as it could be.

Single-player get old, but the rewards are excellent: hidden characters (my favorite, Lizardman, is attainable in the U.S. version, unlike the import), arenas, new weapons and costumes for all of the characters. It'll take you several hours to polish it off the first time, and you can keep on playing for many more if you're fascinated with unlocking it all. Unfortunately, it doesn't reward the dedicated gamer with any more interesting content after the first couple hours, just that carrot-on-a-stick stuff.

Out of all gamers, PlayStation 2 owners are most used to variety. The PS2 has tons of fighting games, and it is the only system that has the superlative Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution as well. You should be buying both of these games. But if you have to choose one, go with your gut -- neither will disappoint you. Flash and weaponry versus staid and true hand-to-hand depth -- it's a hard choice to make but a rewarding one. Soul Calibur II will give you hours of pleasure; if you missed the Dreamcast prequel entirely, it will very probably shake your world.