Soul Fighter

by iBot
January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST

It's hard to mess up a classic hack-and-slash fighter, but Soul Fighter shows that pretty Dreamcast graphics and a whole lot of medieval battle do not a good game make.

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It's hard to mess up a classic hack-and-slash fighter, but Soul Fighter shows that pretty Dreamcast graphics and a whole lot of medieval battle do not a good game make.

Breaking Tradition
Like dozens of games before it, the story of Soul Fighter begins with a terrible evil in a kingdom (this time Gomar), that must be stopped or else. You must travel through five worlds and save the kingdom by beating the medieval snot out of everything you find. This story never made much sense before, especially here with half-animal, half-human hybrids kicking your ass all over the place, but usually it's just so much fun that you don't care. The sheer carnage typically makes up for the genre's lack of depth.

Unfortunately, Soul Fighter takes most of the fun out of this formula by creating a cumbersome game that gives little satisfaction in any aspect of its gameplay. It puts all of the pieces in front of you (except a sorely missed multi-player option), but some how they just don't add up.

Good to Bad to Awful
Thanks to the Dreamcast, Soul Fighter has a sharp exterior. Large boards with interesting lighting burst at the seams with detailed (but rather goofy looking) monsters. Your hero (either a warrior, a thief or a wizard) includes dozens of motion-captured moves to bring them to life. It's not the most impressive visuals on the Dreamcast by any means, but it has a nice look. Unfortunately, that's about all it has going for it.

The sound is abominable. The attack theme, which is repeatedly pounded into your head, is only made worse by the annoying voice over that spouts "GO! GO!" every five seconds and "OH NO!" every time you get hit� and you get hit a lot. Sound effects are equally grating, with the excessive clangs of swords hitting swords and a myriad of other unrealistic effects. You should win an extra bonus in this game if you can play all the way through without turning off the sound.

With sound as bad as it is, it isn't the worst part of this game; that distinction unfortunately goes to the control. With a constant barrage of enemies attacking you from all sides, the only way to survive is with quick thinking and even quicker action. Good luck. The agonizingly slow attack combos often go off in the wrong direction because your character is very hard to control, constantly running and then stopping after sliding a few feet. This makes it hard enough to hit the treasure chests that are lying around, let alone the enemies circling around you. You always face the wrong direction, because the camera is slowly creeping around behind you. The left trigger centers the camera behind you (most of the time), but it's a confusingly quick cut that disorients you.

Filet of Soul
Even with all of its faults, Soul Fighter might be worth a weekend rental if you enjoy a straight, no-brains brawling quest - you Dynamite Cop fans should take note. But with better Dreamcast games in its own genre like Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm coming along, it might be better just to let the kingdom of Gomar go all to hell.