Soul Fighter

The Good
This game kicks off with an unintentionally hysterical opening sequence to provide the needed exposition for the game's complicated story. It consists of Valmek, King of Gomar sitting on his throne telling you the story, but his mouth doesn't move so he relies on arm motions. He'll get up, walk around, sit back down, fall to his knees in a have-mercy-on-me sort of way, etc, etc. Seriously, this guy is the most gesticulative character in gaming history.

Anyway, about the gameplay. The game uses a solid fighting engine that allows you to punch, kick, block, use jump attacks, use special moves, and most importantly, swing your weapon.

Each character plays differently, with a strong warrior (Altus), wielding a broadsword, a lithe thief (Sayomi), armed with knives, and a slow mage (Orion), who wields a magic staff that sets people on fire.

There are a variety of enemies and items, and the stages are large. The scenery is detailed, and the music is good. The game also has a deep, interesting storyline.

The Bad
The characters, for some odd reason, look different on the load screens than they do in game (Altus' throat looks caved in) and that looks dumb. Speaking of the characters, with their socketed joints and strange movement, they look like action figures.

The single most annoying thing about this game is the stupid voice synthesis! Whenever you fall down, a voice says "OH NO!". Now that might sound minor, but it drove me crazy in no time at all.

This game also lacks a two player mode, and while that may be for the better, for a game that was going to bring back Beat'em Ups it's disappointing.

The worst flaw in this game is the movement. Whenever you move your character, they slide about 5 feet when you try to stop. This happens to the computers too, and sometimes it looks funny when the characters are all sliding around. It also leads to an overuse of the running attack.

The camera is very unwieldy and swings around like crazy. You can center it, but rather than sliding around behind you it all of a sudden reappears and it is very disorienting at times.

The Bottom Line
This game is fun if you like Hack'n'Slash or Beat'em Up games. If not, you may want to try a rental before purchasing (if you can find a rental place that even has this).