Soul Calibur and Star Wars fans gather 'round -- while haters grab a six pack of Haterade and their always-ready flamethrowers -- because Namco Bandai has finally released new info on the rumored secret characters set to appear in their highly-anticipated fighter, Soul Calibur IV, and 1UP has 'em first. In case you don't believe your eyes as they scan over these screenshots, you are indeed seeing the legendary purveyor of the Dark Side, Darth Vader, and his Force-wielding nemesis, Yoda.
Yes, we know what you're thinking. You're thinking "What the hell are Darth Vader and Yoda doing in my Soul Calibur sequel?" But how are these two any less logical (or illogical) than Link or Spawn (we'll let Heihachi slide since he's in Tekken)? You're probably also wondering "Where the damn is Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul and Boba Fett?" Well, Boba Fett doesn't really use melee weapons, unless you count that stick on his back that he never uses. But Luke and Darth maul make a lot of sense. While we can't answer all of these questions just now, we suspect that Namco Bandai still has plenty of stuff up their sleeve. Given their recent Ace Combat 6 shenanigans, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that additional Star Wars characters are paid-for downloadable content. It's unlikely that the company would go through all these negotiations with LucasArts to obtain the rights to only two characters, so expect more announcements as we get closer to SCIV's release date.
You might be praying to an assortment of gods above that Han Solo isn't given the carbonite boot in favor of Greedo or some loser from the Cantina scene, or that Anakin Skywalker and Jar-Jar Binks aren't added to the increasingly weird mix. Only time will tell if these characters do or don't make it into the game, but Darth Vader and Yoda have the obvious advantage of being fictional constructs, whereas some of the other possibilities would undoubtedly involve added likeness and licensing costs.
You're also probably wondering about how balanced a fight against Yoda, and his diminutive stature might be. Well, we never said Soul Calibur was perfectly balanced, and he's not that dissimilar to Gon, the tiny, manga dinosaur from Tekken 3 (PS1). All we can say is 'low sweep.' So, peruse these shots and start conjuring up your dream SC vs. SW match in the back of your minds (Taki versus Princess Leia? Light sabers versus Soul Edge? Yes, please!) Who would win? You'll soon be able to find out.
For even more screens of Yoda and Darth Vader in Soul Calibur IV, visit our full Soul Calibur IV screenshot gallery. In the meantime...what do you think?
I guess after the fiascos of both Soul Calibur Legends and SC3, they need to insert fucking inane gimmicks to prevent people from wondering what drugs these dumbass have been smoking.
Sadly, this shit will likely play better then Lucasarts try at a lightsaber fighting game.
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What was that line at the end? Ace Combat Six shenanigans? Did they slip a Star Destroyer int here or something?
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Mr Bean wrote:What was that line at the end? Ace Combat Six shenanigans? Did they slip a Star Destroyer in there or something?
All I can think of is these downloadable paint schemes with some crap anime characters on them.
@ Ghost Rider though, what was so bad about SC3? Just the fact that it was PS2 exclusive? I enjoyed it immensely and the create-a-character / Chronicles of the Sword added a lot of depth and on sheer number of fighting styles rivals just about any fighter since it had over two dozen (I think nearly 3).
It had a horrible memory card glitch that could wipe out all your progress in Chronicles of the Sword though, that was lame.
I think the AC6 bit is supposed to refer to the downloadable paintjobs, which were less than stellar value for money. Some of them have characters from Namco's pop idol raising thing Idolm@ster on, presumably to attract a few of the more rabid Idolm@ster fans in Japan to Ace Combat, which since they managed to shoehorn them into a mecha anime, (Though, of course, there's precedent for the whole pop idol/mecha anime thing), is probably not too forlorn a hope.
Eh I'm a little skeptical about that for some reason the screen shots kind of looked doctored to me.
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SPC Brungardt wrote:@ Ghost Rider though, what was so bad about SC3? Just the fact that it was PS2 exclusive? I enjoyed it immensely and the create-a-character / Chronicles of the Sword added a lot of depth and on sheer number of fighting styles rivals just about any fighter since it had over two dozen (I think nearly 3).
One, I never said shit about it being an exclusive, so shove your red herring.
My problems were with the completely broken mechanics where characters could literally have moves that couldn't be blocked high or low because they hit both at the same time. Or the wonderful ability that Sophitia or Xiangou had hit boxes that could extend practically half an arena. Or maybe how the inane computer AI that could do 100% combos except when you employed the immensely powerful jab sword hit.
It was an unpolished pile of shit that Namco was too embarassed to bring out to their arcades until they MASSIVELY tweaked it. That alone said volumes for a fighting game.
You enjoyed? Fine. I didn't. But next time don't shove words into my mouth.
Last edited by Ghost Rider on 2008-01-09 08:53pm, edited 1 time in total.
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"According to Namco Bandai's press materials for the game, Vader will be in the PS3 version and Yoda will be in the Xbox 360 version. You know, because PlayStation is black and Xbox is green." -1up
I dont like this, I only have a 360...
"I don't believe in man made global warming because God promised to never again destroy the earth with water. He sent the rainbow as a sign."
- Sean Hannity Forums user Avi
"And BTW the concept of carbon based life is only a hypothesis based on the abiogensis theory, and there is no clear evidence for it."
-Mazen707 informing me about the facts on carbon-based life.
Ghost Rider wrote:I guess after the fiascos of both Soul Calibur Legends and SC3, they need to insert fucking inane gimmicks to prevent people from wondering what drugs these dumbass have been smoking.
Sadly, this shit will likely play better then Lucasarts try at a lightsaber fighting game.
Eh, it's better than the Halo Spartan in Dead or Alive.
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Vader looks clunky to me. Yoda looks cool through--if I had to get one or the other, I'd get the XBox one. But I have a Wii. Maybe they'll give me the white-and-blue character. Luke!
Hmm, you know I had a funny thought. What if they also included Eliphas the Inheritor on the PS3 Version and Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos on the X-Box 360 version? Heh, so it would be like the Evil/chaotic guest characters on the PS3 and the Good/Ordered characters on the X-Box 360.
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Nice to know why now though.
Now I want it. I would have totally ignored the game otherwise.
